Very few have come close, if any, to attaining the success of Michael Jordan in the NBA. Many fans consider the 6x NBA champion as the greatest of all time. Likewise, countless players across multiple generations have looked up to the Chicago Bulls legend. However, there was a time in MJ’s life when he wasn’t the best player on the team. Over the years, his high school story of getting cut from the Varsity team has been well documented. However, did you know that ‘His Airness’ maintained a close connection with the person who was picked over him for the Varsity team decades ago?

Despite going down as one of the greatest to ever do it, Jordan still kept score of his traumatic high school journey. Moreover, the 6x Finals MVP resorted to petty antics even years after the incident to satiate his uber-competitive personality.

Michael Jordan got back at his former rival in the most bizarre way

Leroy Smith was a 6’7” forward who made the cut for the Varsity team ahead of Michael Jordan. However, almost two decades, 5x NBA championships, and 4x MVPs weren’t enough to satiate Jordan’s vengeful nature. To quench his thirst for revenge, Jordan got back at Smith in the most bizarre way imaginable. 

In 1997, he appeared on the Rosie O’Donnell show and harped on the same. Incidentally, ‘His Airness’ mockingly used Leroy Smith’s name in his first year in the NBA as his alias. Moreover, he also confessed to using it currently, whenever he was on the road. He revealed, “I still do every now and then, when I am on the road, sometimes you have to get an alias, and Leroy Smith somehow just sticks out in my mind because when I got cut off the varsity, he made the team. So I use him in a sense hide myself… In a sense he inspires me.”

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However, Smith had taken the antics in good conscience. In fact, he also jokingly admitted to Jordan that he feels that he is famous. Therefore, MJ really used his high school rival’s name to get some peace while travelling and seek some respite from his fame.

When Jordan didn’t make it to the Varsity Team

Like his illustrious career and the ‘Last Dance’ with the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan’s infamous high-school journey is well documented. In his sophomore year at the Emsley A. Laney High School in North Carolina, the then 15-year-old Jordan tried out for the Varsity team but didn’t make the cut. Instead, he was relegated to the junior team because of his age and 5’10” height. Apart from not making it to the Varsity team, Jordan was also disappointed by the fact that one of his close friends, 6’7” Leroy Smith, made the cut. 

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Though he didn’t make it that year, he eventually made the Varsity team and had an impressive high school career proving his doubters wrong.