Michael Jordan had to do the hard yards to find a place in his high school basketball team. At Laney High School, in 1978, coach Pop Herring didn’t select Jordan for the varsity team squad. In an article titled “Michael Jordan On Being Cut From High School Varsity: “I Just Wasn’t Good Enough”, oldsckoolbball.com covered Jordan’s comments about getting cut in high school during his appearance on the Jay Leno Show on September 16, 1997.
As a 5’9” sophomore, Michael Jordan was struggling to make his hometown Wilmington’s Laney High School’s varsity team as he didn’t have the immense size advantage. During the Jay Leno interview, Jordan touched upon how getting cut helped him understand his shortcomings and made him work towards improving his game.
“Everybody goes through disappointments, it’s how you overcome those disappointments. I just wasn’t good enough. In terms of the best thing that could happen to me was to get cut, cause it made me go back and get caught up with my skill level at my height,” Michael Jordan told Jay Leno.
After getting cut, MJ worked on his weaknesses and made it to the varsity team in his junior year. For the next couple of years, after witnessing a growth spurt, he would become a regular 20+ points per game scorer. A teenage Jordan also led the team to the playoffs and became a dynamic two-way sensation.
This late spurt in high school made him a sensation in Wilmington. A teenage Jordan used to fill out gyms and fans witnessed a legendary superstar in the making. But when one enters Wilmington, there are not many symbols commemorating Air Jordan, who soared through the gyms.
Michael Jordan didn’t retire his Laney High School jersey number
Interestingly, Laney High School has yet to retire Michael Jordan’s jersey. In a 2022 Star News Online article, author John Staton argues that Jordan doesn’t look to be acknowledged in his hometown of Wilmington. The author highlights how Jordan’s experiences with racism made him shun the thought of having his jersey retired as the best hooper out of Laney High School. While Jordan has visited the place numerous times, Staton refers to the “conflicting feelings” he has for his childhood neighborhood.
“He has come back to visit many times over the years, and has given money to many different groups, but he’s also talked about having conflicted feelings about Wilmington, in part because of the racism he experienced here growing up,” wrote John Staton.
Jordan’s relationship with his hometown has been fractured for numerous reasons. His neighbor friend once revealed how the Bulls legend was thrown out from his neighbor’s backyard pool because of racial motivation. Such experiences have left a bitter feeling in Jordan who doesn’t seek museums, statutes, or jersey retirements in the city where he spent most of his childhood and teenage years.