Blast From the Past — MJ at 18

April 11, 1981 — Michael Jordan jumps to the head of the class

Michael Jordan of Laney High School in Wilmington, N.C. rose to the occasion to lead the East team to a victory over the West at the McDonald's High School All-American Game at Wichita State's Henry Levitt Arena. 

As a senior student-basketball junkie at Missouri with a lot of time on my hands in the spring of 1981, I took a Greyhound bus from Columbia, Mo. to Wichita, Kan. to cover the McDonald's High School All-American Game at Wichita State's Henry Levitt Arena. 

There was a disappointment right off the bat — Patrick Ewing, a 7-foot-1 center from Cambridge, Mass., who was the clear No. 1 high school player in the country that year, was not able to play in the McDonald's game because he already had played in two all-star games (the Dapper Dan and Capital Classic) and that was the limit. 

With Ewing out, there really wasn't a marquee player who commanded all the attention. But there would be. 

In arguably the most notable harbinger of his future greatness, Michael Jordan of Laney High School in Wilmington, N.C. responded to the moment and did what he would soon be known for — he made the difference. 

Jordan scored 30 points on 13-of-19 shooting to lead all scorers. He scored on a dunk off a steal to give the East a 90-89 lead with 2:59 to play. He hit a running shot off the glass to give the East a 94-93 lead with 1:14 to play. And after rebounding a missed free throw and getting fouled, Jordan hit two free throws with 11 seconds left to give the East a 96-95 lead. 

Six players from the 1981 McDonald's All-American Game would play for the Bulls (in some fashion): Bill Wennington, Michael Jordan, Ennis Whatley, Sam Vincent, Aubrey Sherrod and Adrian Branch. And Eddie Pinckney, who did not play in the game, was an assistant coach under Tom Thibodeau from 2010-15.

Jordan was highly regarded nationally coming into the game. He was a first-team All-American by well-regarded Basketball Weekly (top five) and Parade Magazine (top 10). He already had committed to North Carolina. But he generally wasn't tagged as a future superstar, often included with Chris Mullin of Brooklyn, N.Y., Adrian Branch of Hyattsville, Md., Milt Wagner of Camden, N.J. and others among the best of the best guards and swingmen. 

Jordan's starring role in the McDonald's game did and did not change that. Though Jordan was a standout from start to finish, Branch and the guard Aubrey Sherrod of Wichita were named co-Most Valuable Players. Sherrod scored 19 points to lead the West team in scoring (with center Bobby Lee Hurt of Huntsville, Ala.). And it probably did not hurt that also was a favorite son who was considering Wichita State. The whole night in front of a crowd of 10,006 was a big recruiting pitch that worked. Sherrod announced shortly after that game he would attend Wichita State. 

Even East coach Mike Jarvis — Patrick Ewing's high school coach — joined in on the disrespect for Jordan's performance. He said his MVP would have been Buzz Peterson of Asheville, N.C., who like Jordan was going to UNC. 

At 18, Jordan took the snub in stride — probably for the last time in his life. "That's all right," he said after the game. "I thought Branch played pretty good. He deserved it." 

Michael Jordan was a first-team high school All-American — by Basketball Weekly and Parade Magazine — as a senior at Laney High School in Wilmington. But future UNC teammate Buzz Peterson of Asheville was named the North Carolina Player of the Year by the Associated Press in 1981.

Jordan, of course, memorably evened the score for seemingly every instance of disrespect — real and imagined — in his career during a bizarre Hall of Fame speech. Somehow, Adrian Branch and Aubrey Sherrod — co-MVPs of a game in which Jordan scored 30, including clutch baskets and the winning free throws — escaped his wrath. 

But he probably had already taken care of that. Branch and Sherrod were Bulls second-round draft picks in 1985. That training camp could not have been pretty for either of them. Neither made the the team.