If you were watching the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship on Monday night you probably noticed the Jumpman logo on the UNC Tarheels uniforms. UNC has a Nike/Jumpman sponsorship thanks to the school’s most famous alumni, the Jumpman himself, Michael Jordan.
If you were watching UNC beat Gonzaga on Monday night you might’ve also noticed that Michael Jordan was nowhere to be seen in the stands. There was chatter that he’d come out and surprise the crowd after a large ad was shown on the jumbotron inside of the stadium. Alas, #23 never showed face and UNC went on to beat Gonzaga in one of the most boring championship games in recent memory.
There was plenty of speculation about why Michael Jordan was nowhere to be seen, but Roy Williams put all of that speculation to rest when he appeared on The Dan Patrick Show yesterday and explained the bizarre reason MJ never showed up:
“People asked me the last day and a half if he was going to come, and I said, ‘He hasn’t called, but guys, knowing him, he’s going to say, I went last year and you lost.’ And so that’s what I was thinking. Our assistant AD Clint Gwaltney, we were walking to the bus last night and I said, ‘I want to bet you a dollar, I’ll give you about any odds you want, but I’ll bet you there’s a text message from Michael or a voicemail from Michael and he’s going to say something about coming last year.’ And sure enough, I got on the bus and got my phone out of my backpack…I had quite a few messages and one of them was from Michael, so I collected some money last night.” Via
He didn’t want to jinx the team. Feeling that his presence was a distraction and potentially led to UNC’s loss the year before, MJ made the decision to stay home and watch UNC win it all. I can’t help but wonder if this means Michael Jordan will never be present for another UNC championship game.
Great athletes are often amongst the most superstitious. I read earlier today that Tom Brady will only move into the 12th floor of the new luxury condo building he’s eyeballing. So it’s no shock that MJ egotistically put this one on him.
[protected-iframe id=”99ce0b1913db588cc2230f58c95d8fa4-97886205-61771510″ info=”//s3.amazonaws.com/downloads.mailchimp.com/js/mc-validate.js” ]