The Last Dance: 6 Things we learned from episodes 1 & 2

The Last Dance Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

5. James Worthy was better than Michael Jordan (for two weeks)

Every great player has to get their start somewhere. None just wake up one day with the total package in skill, ability and physical prowess to be among the game’s best. It takes consistent work.

And yet, when it comes to a player with the rules-defying qualities that Michael Jordan possessed, it’s easy to forget that he came from humble beginnings.

In fact, he was actually cut from his high school’s varsity team during his sophomore year.

But persistence pays, and like Mike’s father James said during an old clip shown in the film, “if you want to get the best out of Michael, you tell him he can’t do something.”

So informing him he wasn’t good enough to make the ball-squad that year was the worst (and best) thing coaches could’ve have done for him.

It only created a monster – an all-out dedicated gym-rat who spent hours honing his craft in the family’s driveway. And a four-inch growth spurt that summer didn’t hurt his cause either.

By the time he arrived at UNC in 1981, Jordan was the man in the state of North Carolina, with the world his definitive oyster as the program’s top recruit that year.

Their returning star junior forward James Worthy, though, had some humble pie promptly waiting for him upon his touchdown to campus. Jordan has never lacked confidence even dating back to his college days, but when he decided he felt bold to challenge Worthy to a one-on-one early on in the ’81-82 season, Worthy gave him a good old-fashioned beatdown – thrashing, out-shooting and out-muscling the young phenom in the matchup.

“I was better than he was,” Worthy said during his interview, “for about two weeks.”

And the legend of the young Mike Jordan grows. Now, James Worthy is no slouch, mind you. He’s a 7-time NBA All-Star, 3-time champion, and 2006 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee. Yet it only took Jordan TWO WEEKS to surpass him on the court.

Natural talent is one thing to have at your disposal. But as we’ll come to learn in the next few weeks, it was Jordan’s mindset that ultimately set him apart from some of the game’s most heralded legends.