Michael Jordan-UCLA Rumor Back in the News

Michael Jordan always dreamed of playing basketball at UCLA. Of course we know that didn’t happen, he went to the University of North Carolina, and the rest is history. Now all these years later people are still diving deep down the rabbit hole to dissect everything Michael Jordan. The latest MJ story is about how UCLA possibly rejected the GOAT.

Via Yahoo.com:

Michael Jordan wanted to play for UCLA, Walton insisted, but UCLA told him, “Nah.” When pressed by play-by-play man Dave Pasch, Walton reiterated that Jordan preferred the Bruins to home-state North Carolina until former UCLA coach Larry Farmer said, “There’s no reason for you to come here. We don’t have space for you.”

While it’s easy to dismiss Walton’s story as the product of a peyote dream, some quick research reveals there might be some truth to it. Google “Michael Jordan” and “UCLA,” and one of the first links that pops up is the transcript of a 1992 interview the Chicago Bulls legend did with Playboy magazine.

During the interview, biographer Mark Vancil asks if North Carolina was Jordan’s first choice. Responds Jordan, “I always wanted to go to UCLA. That was my dream school.”

“When I was growing up, they were a great team,” Jordan continues. “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, John Wooden. But I never got recruited by UCLA.”

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Did MJ really turn down UCLA? @JeffEisenberg dives into it https://t.co/8FmmV7wuVB

— Kristaan Johnson (@PointForwardPro) March 3, 2021

Everything worked out just fine, you really never know what would have been with MJ’s career if he did play at UCLA.

Maybe he wouldn’t have been on the Bulls.

Thank goodness it all worked out.

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