Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan and former Los Angeles Lakers star James Worthy played alongside each other at the collegiate level for one season. In the 1981-82 campaign, the two were members of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s men’s basketball team.
With Jordan and Worthy spearheading the Tar Heels, the team went on to win an NCAA title that year. The latter of the two averaged a team-high 15.6 points in his final season playing basketball at the collegiate level, while Jordan ranked third on the squad in that regard with 13.5 points per contest.
Worthy recently spoke about his brief, yet memorable, time as a teammate of Jordan’s and admitted that it didn’t take long for the guard to surpass him as the better college basketball player.
“I was with Michael — he was a freshman my junior year,” Worthy said as he reflected on his time playing with Jordan. “We only had four or five months together really. But I — the story tell about Michael, man, I was better than him for about three weeks. And I enjoyed those three weeks, ’cause I saw somethin’ in that boy that he didn’t have it quite yet. He was learnin’ because he didn’t — he ain’t had nobody really. I don’t know what his high school coach but he was a better baseball player. But he would seek out the best in everything: chess, backgammon. And if he lost, he was irately made like he just lost a Game 7. So, we practiced two-and-a-half hours. We runnin’ them sprints, and you tired.
“Now you gotta go to study hall. I’m tryna get off the floor, here he come. Pushin’ me, ‘Where you goin’ young fella? Where you goin’ — you scared?’ So, he always wanted to play a little one-on-one, so we played a little bit. He was just a bad boy.”
Jordan played two more seasons with the Tar Heels after Worthy’s stint with the team came to an end. In 67 games played during that span, he averaged 19.8 points per game while shooting 54.3 percent from the floor and 44.7 percent from 3-point range.
He also led North Carolina to back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament sans Worthy on the roster, but the squad didn’t come close to winning another national title in either of those years.
After Worthy and Jordan helped the Tar Heels to an NCAA championship, the two won plenty of championships at the NBA level, though not as teammates. Worthy won three NBA titles with the Lakers across his 12-year NBA career, and Jordan won six championships and as many Finals MVP awards with the Bulls.
Jordan and Worthy were also two of the top players of their era. Worthy earned an All-Star nod every year for a seven-season stretch during his pro career and was a two-time All-NBA selection as well. As for Jordan, he was a 14-time All-Star and five-time league MVP.
Perhaps if the two were teammates at UNC for a longer period of time, they would have more NCAA titles to their names. Either way, basketball fans are fortunate that they were able to witness Jordan and Worthy play on the same team at one point, even if it was for a finite amount of time.
