Michael Jordan is remembered for many things: six NBA championships, game-winning shots, the Chicago Bulls dynasty and, of course, a competitive streak that seemed to follow him everywhere. But before all of that, there was a list.
Jordan was a sophomore at Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1978 and hoped to make the varsity basketball team. When the names were posted, he realised his was missing, while that of his classmate Leroy Smith was on the list.
For a teenager who hated losing, it stung deeply, and the story has since become one of the most famous tales in basketball. Jordan was supposedly “cut” from the varsity team, went home, worked harder and eventually became Michael Jordan. Except, the real story is a little more complicated.
He wasn’t exactly cut
Jordan did not make Laney’s varsity team as a sophomore, but he was not removed from the basketball programme altogether. Instead, he was placed on the junior varsity squad, where most younger players competed.
Laney was returning 14 of its 15 varsity players, while Jordan, who was still relatively small for varsity basketball at around 5 feet 9 inches to 5 feet 11 inches according to different accounts, was competing for a severely limited number of spots. The final opening went to Smith, who stood 6 feet 7 inches.
Still, facts and feelings can be two different things. Jordan later spoke about how much it bothered him to see the list without his name. He remembered being angry, particularly because Smith had made the team.
The NBA’s own profile of Jordan states that he did not make the varsity squad as a skinny sophomore. However, he had grown to 6 feet 3 inches by the summer before his junior year and was beginning the climb that would eventually turn him into one of basketball’s biggest stars.
So, did one missed varsity spot magically create the six-time NBA champion? Not really. That would make for a neat motivational poster, but it would also oversimplify what actually happened.
What the moment did give him
Jordan was already fiercely competitive, and people who knew him before the NBA have described that trait as part of his personality long before he became famous. But the varsity disappointment gave that competitiveness something specific to hold on to.
ESPN has reported that Jordan used the memory of the list as motivation while working out, thinking about seeing the roster without his name whenever he felt tired.
The improvement was certainly visible. Jordan returned to varsity basketball, became a high school All-American and went on to the University of North Carolina. As a freshman in 1982, he made the game-winning shot against Georgetown in the NCAA championship game.
Two years later, the Chicago Bulls selected him third overall in the 1984 NBA Draft, and the rest, as they say, is basketball history.
Jordan won his first NBA title with the Bulls in 1991, followed by three consecutive championships. After a brief retirement to pursue baseball and his return to the NBA, he led Chicago to another three straight titles from 1996 to 1998.
He won six championships, six NBA Finals MVP awards and five regular-season MVP awards. That does not necessarily mean the teenager who missed out on varsity in 1978 was destined to win all of them. But the moment clearly became part of the story Jordan told himself.
More than a rejection story
The legend is almost too perfect to be true: a future basketball great does not make varsity, feels humiliated, works harder than everyone else and becomes a six-time champion.
But perhaps the real version is more interesting.
Michael Jordan was not a player who suddenly had basketball taken away from him. He was still playing. He was placed on the junior varsity team, got more opportunities to develop, grew significantly over the following year and continued improving.
The disappointment mattered because he chose to remember it.
Years later, Jordan’s name would become almost impossible to separate from winning, yet one of the stories most closely associated with his career begins with not winning something at all.
Not a championship. Not an NBA game.
Just a spot on a high school varsity team.
That is probably why the story has lasted. It was not the rejection itself that created Michael Jordan. Missing out on varsity did not guarantee greatness, and hard work alone does not explain everything that followed.
Talent, physical development, coaching and years of relentless competition were all part of it too.
But in 1978, a disappointed teenager looked at a list and did not see his name. It was a moment he never quite forgot.
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