🏀 "Knock it in, Michael"

Published 5 months ago • 3 min read

Hey friends! 👋

I'm writing to you today from Phillip Island - living the dream with morning swims and Hawaiian shirts.

I've got a couple of books on the go at the moment - one of them is a biography of Michael Jordan.

I've never really been a basketball buff (though I did get reeled in by The Last Dance a few years ago, like everyone else), but during the week I read something and immediately wanted to write about it.

Hope you enjoy :)

Brock

It's 1982, and we're at the NCAA Division I men's college basketball championship game in the US. This is where the cream of the crop battle it out.

The game is between North Carolina and Georgetown, and in front of a crowd of over 61,000, the tensions are high.

There are chants of "Choke, Dean, choke!" from Georgetown fans, directed at the North Carolina coach, Dean Smith, who has taken his team to the Final Four six times, but never been able to go all the way.

But Coach Smith has a team who are playing not just for their own future NBA ambitions, but to eliminate his reputation as a choker.

Coach Smith's players love him - he is regarded not only as a great coach, but an even better mentor who truly cares for his players as young men. Among his achievements are a 96.6% college graduation rate for his players, as well as the promotion of desegregation, highlighted by him recruiting the university's first African-American scholarship player.

It's a tight game, and the teams are almost inseparable deep into the last quarter. With 30 seconds to go, Coach Smith's North Carolina are down by 1 point, needing a bucket to take the lead and the championship.

Enter a young freshman by the name of Michael Jordan.

At this stage in the story, Jordan is not the household name we know today. In fact, he's described as "a complete role-player" in a strong team.

In the words of Coach Smith, years later:

Many people don't remember that even then Michael was inconsistent and had an up-and-down freshman year.

But with 30 seconds to go, Coach Smith knew that Georgetown would be focused on covering other North Carolina players, so he devised a plan where the final shot would end up with Jordan.

As the team broke from the huddle, Smith gave Jordan a pat and said, "Knock it in, Michael".

You can guess what happens next - Michael sinks it, North Carolina clinch the championship, and Coach Smith is no longer a choker.

It also marks the transition of Jordan from role-player to the man.

In the words of Billy Packer, a commentator who called the game:

That was the beginning of one of the great things in our lifetime. Certain guys get open shots, they can't make them. Certain guys get open shots, they don't want to take them. Michael wanted the shot, and that you saw. There was no hesitation, no extra faking...

He wanted the make-or-break moment. The moment that would take him either to the highest of highs, or the lowest of lows. When he put himself into that moment, he couldn't know which it would be.

Reflecting in 2002, now as a 6-time NBA Champion, Jordan says:

It was predestined. It was destiny. Ever since I made that shot, everything has just fallen into place for me. If that shot hadn't gone in I don't think I would be where I am today.

Jordan believes that single shot changed his trajectory forever, and the pre-requisite for that shot happening was him making himself vulnerable and stepping into the moment.

The moment where, again, he could have felt the highest of highs, or the lowest of lows.

But Jordan takes the chance, puts himself in a vulnerable position, and the rest is history.

The clincher? Jordan actually thought he stuffed up the play:

He said when he hit that last shot he really wasn't sure if that was where Coach Smith wanted him. He was thinking he had screwed up. He told me he was a little confused about where he was supposed to be on that play. He happened to be open and he took the shot and made it.

Imagine the tragedy if Jordan shied away from the ball in that moment.

In a nutshell: