One Shot – March Madness with MJ

Sometimes all it takes is one shot. One shot to sum things up. One shot to (kind of) finish a game. One shot to create a myth. One shot to freeze a scenery that, for the previous hours, has been as vibrant as they get. Obviously we’re talking about a basketball shot, right? Close! We’re talking about a basketball shot’s photo shot. This particular picture contains so many subplots, it even foreshadows what we should witness for years to come and therefore is almost as iconic as the players that make it so special.

So there is this guy. Hanging in the air. Tongue out. About to release his shot. All eyes are set on this Freshman wearing number 23. If you wanted to express the culmination of a moment, you couldn’t have chosen a better set up. It feels like time has stopped, waiting for what’s about to come. The – retrospectively – funny side note: no one could picture the outcome.

Today we would have a pretty solid guess. Back then? Playing the “Wait and See“ game. Probably even the guy about to release the shot wasn’t sure what would happen next. Granted, he had pictured this particular moment on his bus ride to the arena. How he would take the deciding shot in the final seconds, winning the 1982 NCAA Tournament. So now there he is, hanging in the air. Right in the center of the shot prior to his own shot.

Freshman, not Go-to-Guy

For the previous almost 40 Minutes Number 23 had been playing his hearts out, doing everything he could, to hold his team’s chances to win the NCAA title high. He had already scored 14 points – and yet, his final shot’s shot was basically the first time the Freshman was in the center of attention. Because, you know, back then he was a Freshman. A pretty decent one, yes, but still a Freshman. In 1982 the North Carolina Tar Heels belonged to a guy who should later be picked by the Los Angeles Lakers. To a guy who would go on and win three NBA Championships.

And although, to this point, never having won on the big stage, the Small Forward proofed to be a Worthy leader. His 28 points helped North Carolina to never lose touch of Georgetown. Heck, the Forward was even the reason, Number 23 was open enough to take the deciding shot. He demanded the Hoyas’ attention which opened up the left corner for his Freshman. Georgetown’s massive 7-foot Center protected the paint, preventing North Carolina’s go-to-guy from scoring close to the basket.

A helpless Sevenfooter

In the shot you might have spotted him underneath the hoop, just waiting on what inevitably was about to come. In that particular moment the Center was helpless. He could not stop the shot. With the game on the line, he would not even try a goal tend, as he had done five times during the first half. By not letting them see the ball go through the hoop, the Center had wanted to intimidate the Tar Heels. In reality he mainly did so by hitting 10 of the 15 shots he took in the game. He was almost unstoppable and, after teammate „Sleepy“ Floyd had hit a jumper, got as close to winning a national championship as you can possibly get.

32 seconds to play. One point up. North Carolina had just used its final timeout. Good Lord, Georgetown was close! Then NC point guard Jimmy Black found his Freshman who, without hesitation, bent his knees. He lifted off. Tongue out. And, hanging in the air, released his shot. SWISH! All of a sudden the Tar Heels were up, so the Hoyas put the pedal to metal. Fast Break. Fred Brown dribbled the ball towards the paint – back then college ball didn’t want to know about such things as three-point lines – and tried to catch the Tar Heels off guard.

Drama!

Well, the only one who got caught off guard was Georgetown’s Guard. Number 23 had sprinted back and blocked the primary passing lane. Brown, a bit hectic and confused, thought he had seen teammate Floyd to his right. But Floyd had already started cutting to the basket. Brown threw the pass anyways and hit… an opponent. And to make things worse, of all guys on the floor suddenly North Carolina’s topscorer had the ball. With two seconds on the clock he got fouled.

Ballgame? Nope! The Forward missed both of his foul shots which gave Floyd the chance to win it all. So he hoisted his Hail Mary from center court and left nothing but fear in the Tar Heel’s eyes. „When he released it, I thought ‚Oh no, it’s going in.‘“, admitted Assistant Coach Bill Guthridge. Guthridge might never have been happier to have been wrong. Floyd missed. Game over!

More than a Game

For the first time in 25 years North Carolina could call itself national champions. But there was so much more to this game than its mere outcome. There was Dean Smith who, despite having coached North Carolina to 6 Final-Four appearances in then 21 years, had never won a championship and therefore had been labelled the worst way possible. People thought Smith to be a loser. A good coach. Yet not a coach who could win it all. He had proven them wrong.

And then there was James Worthy, North Carolina’s go-to-guy, who had not only scored 28 points, but had won his first championship right before he left Chapel Hill for L.A. Or the 61.612 – again: SIXTYONETHOUSANDSIXHUNDREDANDTWELVE – spectators who, for a couple of hours, had turned the New Orleans Superdome into the loudest place in the whole US of A.

Anything else? Oh yes. Remember Georgetowns Center? In this championship game Patrick Ewing had shown the public why everyone in the basketball world was so high on him. Why, in the 1985 draft, the New York Knicks selected him with the first overall pick and hoped he would help raise another banner in the Madison Square Garden. In this championship game though, Ewing had also gotten a first glimpse at what would be happening once he had made it to the NBA.

Michael Jeffrey Jordan

Think back to how Ewing had to helplessly watch the Tar Heels’ Number 23 sink the game winning jump shot. Well, that was basically what would happen to the enormously talented Center as soon as he tried to lift his Knicks past the Chicago Bulls. Ewing would fall short to number 23. To Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Arguably the best basketball player this planet has ever seen.

So this championship game marked the first time, Jordan actually took a game deciding shot on the big stage – and hit it. Although Worthy had carried the team, it’s Jordans heroics that stand out to this day. They’ve helped shaping his legacy. They even helped him – as he himself once admitted – to become the basketball player we all love to remember. Back then, of course, no one knew. No one thought of His Airness or the G.O.A.T. Back then Jordan was simply a very talented Freshman who had just helped his team win the national championship. But that’s the beauty of college ball. Watching young talents taking their first steps, guessing what they might become one day and later looking back, saying: “remember the days.” And sometimes all it takes to sum up all this … is one shot.