Jordan was named ACC Freshman of the Year
Jordan graduated from Emsley A. Laney High School in Wilmington, where he excelled in basketball, baseball, and football. During his sophomore year, he tried out for the basketball varsity team, but at 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m), he was declared too short to play at that level. Harvest Leroy Smith, his taller friend, was the only sophomore on the team.
Jordan, driven to establish his worth, became the star of Laney's junior varsity team, averaging 40 points each game. He grew four inches (10 cm) and trained hard the next summer. Jordan averaged more than 25 points per game over his final two seasons of high school competition after winning a position on the varsity squad. As a senior, he was chosen to play in the 1981 McDonald's All-American Game, where he scored 30 points after averaging 27 points per game, 12 rebounds per game, and six assists per game during the season. Several collegiate basketball programs recruited Jordan, including Duke, North Carolina, South Carolina, Syracuse, and Virginia. He received a basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1981, where he studied cultural geography.
Jordan was named ACC Freshman of the Year as a freshman in coach Dean Smith's team-oriented system after averaging 13.4 points per game on 53.4 percent shooting (field goal percentage). He hit the game-winning jump jumper against Georgetown in the 1982 NCAA Championship game, which was led by future NBA rival Patrick Ewing. Jordan later hailed this shot as a watershed moment in his career. During his three seasons with the Tar Heels, he averaged 17.7 points per game on 54.0 percent shooting, 5.0 rebounds per game, and 1.8 assists per game.
Jordan was unanimously voted to the NCAA All-American First Team as a sophomore (1983) and junior (1984). Jordan departed North Carolina one year before his anticipated graduation to enter the 1984 NBA draft after earning the Naismith and Wooden College Player of the Year awards 1984. Jordan went to North Carolina to finish his degree, earning a Bachelor of Arts in geography in 1986.
