In 1982, Patrick Ewing and Michael Jordan were freshman phenoms, and they ended up playing in the national title game against one another. Ewing for Georgetown, and Jordan for North Carolina. At this point, it’s impossible to imagine either man in a different uniform. Ewing in gray, Jordan in blue.
According to a Thursday interview with Dan Patrick, Ewing seriously considered becoming a Heel. Most recruits who make the trip to hoops-mad Carolina will say the visit sealed the deal. For Ewing, his down-south journey had the opposite effect.
“I was close,” Ewing said. “North Carolina was a very good school, but when I went down there they put me in that Carolina Inn and there was a big Ku Klux Klan rally in North Carolina when I was there. I’m like, ‘You know what, I’m not coming down here.’ At night down in North Carolina it gets pitch black and I hear all the crickets and I’m jumping and I’m like what the heck. So I (decided) I’m going back home.”
Watch the rest of the interview here: