Charles Grice “Lefty” Driesell is a legendary name in college basketball. He recently passed away and fans from all over the world showed respect via social media. His success as a coach and the world of the NBA is unfathomable. Lefty was also deservedly inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018.
His video from 2018 has been lately doing rounds where he talks to young prodigies. In that video, he emphasized kids to stay away from drugs. Lefty also spoke about an encounter against Michael Jordon and how his player didn’t let Jordan score a single point in the second half.
How Veal dominated against Jordan
Driesell explained that Herman Veal was never one of his star players. Yet his impact against Michael Jordan on that day is remarkable. He said, “In the summertime, I’m sitting around saying who’s gonna be my starting forward. Who’s gonna be my guard? Who’s gonna be my center? And (Veal’s) name never came up. I said, ‘Hell, he can’t dribble, he can’t shoot. Now, he can play some defense and rebound, but he can’t do anything else.”
Lefty continued how Veal was adamant that he would defend MJ. Driesell hesitated and eventually agreed. Resulting in unheard animal-type defensive performance against one of the best players of all time. “[He became] my starting forward. We beat Jordan right here, [against] North Carolina. You know how many points Jordan had in the second half? Zero. He ain’t never been held to zero. At the half, Jordan had 17 points. Now I came in at the half and I said, ‘Who the heck can guard Michael Jordan? The sucker got 17 points.’ And Herman said let me take him. I said, ‘You can’t guard him Herman, he’s too quick for you.’ (And he said), ‘Let me take him!’ [And Jordan] didn’t score. Check the box score. Y’all remember that, now. Because he was an animal on defense.”
He also spoke about important topics like drug abuse. His advice was very simple: “While you’re in college, get your rest. And this is what I think, too. Get in bed before 12 o’clock. Any pro player or college player that gets in trouble, see what time it was. You know what time it was when Leonard Bias died? Three or four o’clock in the morning. He should’ve been in bed. And you guys get in bed by 12 o’clock every night and you ain’t never going to get in trouble.”
It’s not every day when you hear such stories about greats like MJ being unable to do damage to his opponents.