Pick-up games, trash talk: NCCU’s Moton recalls summer before Jordan’s return to NBA
Pick-up basketball games at the University of North Carolina are legendary.
Those names on the backs of jerseys hanging in the rafters come to life down below on the court at the Dean Smith Center. For years, some of the greatest players in school history made the trip back to Chapel Hill during the summers to play pick-up games. The peak of these games usually occurred during basketball camps at UNC.
The summer of 1995 was no different. As usual, current and former players would work camps by day and play into the wee hours of the morning on multiple courts. Winners stay on; losers sit and watch.
Even Michael Jordan, considered by many as the best to lace up basketball sneakers, would occasionally show up and get involved in games. But the 1995 summer offered more than a typical pick-up game featuring the most popular player to come through the program.
Jordan had already become the world’s most famous athlete by the mid-90s, winning three straight titles with the Chicago Bulls and a gold medal in 1992 with the Dream Team. He laid claim in the endorsement world as one of the best, his face pushing everything from Wheaties to McDonald’s.
After winning his third title, Jordan abruptly retired from basketball, citing fatigue from those title runs. For the last four weeks, ESPN has aired “The Last Dance,” a 10-part documentary on the Bulls’ final title run during the 1997-98 season. Episodes 7 and 8 aired Sunday, with the first part highlighting Jordan’s absence and eventual return to the game. During his hiatus, Jordan played minor league baseball for the Birmingham Barons, the Double-A minor league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox.
Little did the NBA know that Air Jordan was plotting a return. Having not played competitive basketball in two years — save for some pick-up games while filming “Space Jam” (also featured in “The Last Dance”) — Jordan needed to go underground to get his game back.
What better place to do that than in Chapel Hill?
The summer of 1995, LeVelle Moton was a rising senior at nearby North Carolina Central, a basketball star in his own right in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Moton was cousins with Donald Williams, most outstanding player on the UNC 1993 championship team. Moton was also close friends with Jerry Stackhouse, who had just finished up his sophomore season at Carolina and was headed to the NBA Draft.
With those kinds of connections, and plenty of game to hold his own, Moton was granted access to some of those closed-door pick-up games in 1995.
His first glance at Jordan up close and personal was in December, when he was with Williams at the Dean Dome and Jordan made an appearance, in full UNC gear, at a Carolina practice. When those summer pick-up games started, Moton could tell Jordan was playing with a purpose.
Those pick-up games between area hoopers took place all over the Triangle, according to Moton. One night they would play at N.C. Central, the next at Duke, ending the week at Carolina. The games at the Dean Dome would be a bit more exclusive.
Stackhouse, Williams, Rasheed Wallace, Rick Fox, Vince Carter, Hubert Davis, Kenny Smith and King Rice were regulars. Kevin Garnett, a cousin of UNC guard Shammond Williams, made an occasional appearance.
“It was nothing for Mike to come back during the summers,” Moton, now the head coach at NCCU, said on Monday. “And those runs would get heated in there. We had two or three courts running. Winner stayed on their respective court, losers got off and it was a lot of heated battles, a lot of trash talking.”
And of course the king of trash talk was Jordan. As fans have seen on the “Last Dance” documentary, Jordan didn’t bite his tongue when it came to trash talk on the court. Sunday’s episode highlighted Jordan constantly harassing teammate Scott Burrell, and it even shed some light on the storied fight with Steve Kerr.
Jordan didn’t throw any hands during the pick-up games, according to Moton, but there were plenty of verbal jabs, even when he was still trying to get his basketball legs back.
“You could see it coming back each and every day,” Moton said. “He would miss some shots you know he could make, but then he would show some clips to let you know he’s still MJ.”
There were days he played with Jordan, days he had to check him one-on-one. To Moton every “first” was a memorable one.
“I remember he called me ‘Velle.’ That was crazy. The first two times I was in awe,” Moton said. “Every moment was a first for me. He called my name, he passed me the ball. Like, Michael Jordan passed me the ball. How many people on Earth can say that? Then things started to get real competitive.”
When Jordan was playing, Moton said you always had to keep up with the score or he would start “multiplying on you.”
When the game was on the line, the competitive edge fans have heard about for years, Moton saw it up close. The veteran NCCU coach said a lot of athletes are just as competitive — he names Stackhouse as the most competitive person he knows — the difference was, Jordan could back it up better than anyone else.
And if he lost, Jordan went “bananas,” according to Moton. It was so bad that most nights Moton said he preferred to not play on the same team as the greatest player.
“Can you imagine a game tied and you miss a shot?” Moton asked with a laugh. “I didn’t want those problems. I felt more comfortable against him, believe it or not. I didn’t have the pressure of living up to his expectations ... and I didn’t have to guard him.”
At 6-foot-3, Moton rarely drew the assignment of covering the 6-6 Jordan. But switches do happen on defense, and a young Moton caught himself alone in the post with the legend.
“He would take me straight in the post and shoot over me,” Moton said, “or I would foul him.”
Moton said Jordan treated each pick-up game like it was Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
“Absolutely,” Moton said. “I just think that’s who he is. How you do anything is how you do everything.”
The unfiltered Jordan fans have seen in “The Last Dance” — trash-talking teammates and opponents alike — showing more of his personality is what Moton saw a lot of in the summer of 1995. It wasn’t the businessman Jordan fans see on television today.
“That’s him everyday,” Moton said. “Everybody who knows him knows that’s what he did. He just protected his image so much that the world is now getting to see it.”
