“Michael Jordan didn’t make the varsity as a sophomore at Laney High,” Kevin Sherrington wrote in The Dallas Morning News in 1998. In the fall of 1978, as the paper put it, “Jordan arrived for his sophomore year at a skinny 5 feet, 9 inches,” and the varsity coach “had one opening for a sophomore.” Leroy Smith, Jordan’s friend, “had been a teammate of Jordan’s in the ninth grade. He was 6-feet, 7-inches tall.” As an assistant coach told the paper, “The debate … was what do we do with Leroy Smith?” The spot went to Leroy; in Jordan’s words, years later, the coach “actually picked Leroy over me.”
“They posted the roster and it was there for a long, long time without my name on it,” Jordan said in 1991, as the paper recorded, and: “It was embarrassing, not making that team.” Leroy Smith has told his side on This American Life, which calls Michael “one of his best friends in The Dude Crew,” and Leroy remembers it plainly: “It wasn’t a me and him thing.”
So he played junior varsity. “He went from being a good player to the centerpiece of the junior varsity, scoring more than 40 points in a couple of games.” “Between the start of his sophomore and junior seasons, he grew from 5-9 to 6-3”; NBA.com puts it this way: “The summer before his junior year, he grew to 6-foot-3.” When he made varsity, he was given “a choice of two numbers: Beatty’s 23 or McGhee’s 33. Jordan took Beatty’s,” and “Jordan scored 35 points in his first varsity game.”
As a freshman at North Carolina, in the national championship game against Georgetown, he “made the winning basket on a 16-foot jumper with 18 seconds in the game for the 63-62 victory,” NBA.com says, “a game-winning shot against Georgetown,” in The Dallas Morning News’s words. He went on to be a “Six-time NBA champion,” as NBA.com’s legends profile calls him.
“In 2009, Michael Jordan was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame,” This American Life recounts, and Leroy Smith was there: “He’d been asked to come to the event by Jordan’s marketing team.” “And he’s here tonight,” Jordan said from the stage. Then he had a message “to the coach who actually picked Leroy over me”: “I wanted to make sure you understood, you made a mistake, dude.”
Fact check
The facts and where they come from
- He looked for his name on the team list. It wasn’t there. Jordan (1991), as The Dallas Morning News quotes him: “They posted the roster and it was there for a long, long time without my name on it.” 1
- His name is Michael Jordan. The Dallas Morning News: “Michael Jordan didn’t make the varsity as a sophomore at Laney High.” 1
- Back in 1978, he was a skinny sophomore in North Carolina. The Dallas Morning News: “Going into the fall of 1978”; “Jordan arrived for his sophomore year at a skinny 5 feet, 9 inches.” NBA.com: “He attended Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina, but as a 5-foot-11 skinny sophomore …” 12
- The varsity coach had room for just one sophomore. The Dallas Morning News: the varsity coach “had one opening for a sophomore.” 1
- He picked Jordan’s friend Leroy Smith, who was much taller. The Dallas Morning News, quoting an assistant coach: “The debate … was what do we do with Leroy Smith?”; “Smith had been a teammate of Jordan’s in the ninth grade. He was 6-feet, 7-inches tall.” This American Life, on Leroy and Michael: “one of his best friends in The Dude Crew.” 13
- “It was embarrassing, not making that team,” Jordan said later. The Dallas Morning News: “‘It was embarrassing, not making that team,’ he said in 1991.” 1
- So he played junior varsity, and topped 40 points in a couple of games. The Dallas Morning News: “He went from being a good player to the centerpiece of the junior varsity, scoring more than 40 points in a couple of games.” 1
- Before the next season, he grew to six foot three. The Dallas Morning News: “Between the start of his sophomore and junior seasons, he grew from 5-9 to 6-3.” NBA.com: “The summer before his junior year, he grew to 6-foot-3.” 12
- He made varsity, wore No. 23, and scored 35 in his first game. The Dallas Morning News: he was given “a choice of two numbers: Beatty’s 23 or McGhee’s 33. Jordan took Beatty’s”; “Jordan scored 35 points in his first varsity game.” 1
- As a freshman at North Carolina, he hit the shot that won the national title. NBA.com, on the championship game against Georgetown: he “made the winning basket on a 16-foot jumper with 18 seconds in the game for the 63-62 victory.” The Dallas Morning News: “… Jordan fulfilled his freshman season with a game-winning shot against Georgetown.” 21
- Then came six NBA titles. NBA.com: “Six-time NBA champion.” 2
- At his Hall of Fame speech, Leroy was in the crowd. This American Life: “In 2009, Michael Jordan was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.” Jordan, on stage: “And he’s here tonight.” This American Life: “He’d been asked to come to the event by Jordan’s marketing team.” 3
- Jordan had a message for the coach who picked Leroy over him. Jordan, in his speech, as This American Life plays it: “to the coach who actually picked Leroy over me.” 3
- “I wanted to make sure you understood, you made a mistake, dude.” Jordan, in his speech (This American Life): “I wanted to make sure you understood, you made a mistake, dude.” 3
Sources
- Michael Jordan’s sophomore year at Laney High (Kevin Sherrington, The Dallas Morning News, January 11, 1998) The Seattle Times archive
- Legends profile: Michael Jordan (NBA.com Staff, September 14, 2021) NBA.com
- 832: That Other Guy, transcript (May 31, 2024) This American Life
Notes
Not making the team: in Jordan’s own words, the roster went up without his name. The Short says what both sides of the story accept: the varsity coach had one opening for a sophomore, and Jordan’s friend Leroy Smith got it. The coach isn’t named here.
Heights: in 1978 Jordan was 5-9 (The Dallas Morning News) or 5-11 (NBA.com), so the Short says only “skinny.” Leroy Smith was 6-7 (The Dallas Morning News) or about 6-6 (This American Life), so the Short says “much taller.”
The speech: only the line Jordan aimed at the coach is quoted.
Leroy Smith is alive and has told his side publicly, on This American Life in 2024; in his words they were friends, and “It wasn’t a me and him thing.” No photo of him is used. Michael Jordan is alive. Only his basketball record, published reporting and his own published words are used; nothing here goes into his family or private life.
Pictures: there is no free photo of Jordan as a teenager, of the roster, of his junior varsity games or of the 2009 speech, and no photo of Leroy Smith is used. Michael Jordan is speaking on April 12, 2013 (Bryan Horowitz); at a microphone at a Nike Air Jordan opening on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on October 17, 2006 (Nicolas Richoffer); with President Barack Obama at the Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony at the White House in November 2016 (Pete Souza); beside a National Guard soldier standing on a chair to compare heights in Orlando on October 9, 2008 (Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill, U.S. Army); with James Worthy and his college coach Dean Smith at a North Carolina game honoring the 1957 and 1982 teams in Chapel Hill on February 10, 2007 (two photos by Zeke Smith, one cropped); with the ball for the Chicago Bulls against the New Jersey Nets on January 23, 1991 (The Eloquent Peasant); and laughing at Pocono Raceway on June 28, 2021 (Zach Catanzareti Photo, cropped to remove a watermark). Laney High School’s front entrance and its Michael Jordan Gymnasium in Wilmington are seen on November 11, 2016 (Edward Orde). The No. 23 jersey is his Chicago Bulls jersey on display at the Chicago History Museum on August 30, 2008, not his high-school jersey (Marcin Wichary, cropped). The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, is seen on November 12, 2011, not the night of his speech (John Phelan). The hoops are stand-ins: a basketball dropping through a hoop at Vandenberg Air Force Base in 2009 (Airman 1st Class Kerelin Molina, U.S. Air Force) and an outdoor hoop in Durham, North Carolina, on June 7, 2011 (Ildar Sagdejev). The other people in these photos are not named.
Photo credits
The archive photos in this story
The photographs and illustrations in this story are in the public domain or shared under open licenses; each one is credited below with its license. Tap one to enlarge it, or follow the link to its Wikimedia Commons page for the full record. The narration, captions and graphics in the Short are our own; its music and sound effects are credited below.
Music and sound effects
Music: Schumann, Kinderszenen, Op. 15: No. 1 'Of Foreign Lands and Peoples (Musopen, public domain); Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition: IV. Bydlo (piano) (Musopen, public domain); Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 'From the New World': II. Largo (Musopen, public domain).
Sound effects: Freesound, CC0.
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