James Worthy

Well, you know, I have that famous line that I, you know, that I always quote.

I always tell people I was a junior.

Michael's a freshman.

And, you know, I was better than he was, you know, for about two weeks.

I knew that, you know, his freshman year, you could tell something about a person's personality.

And he wasn't exactly like Ant Edwards.

You know how Ant Edwards is.

He's on the Olympic team talking trash.

Michael had that.

And he always wanted to, like, challenge you.

Like, he knew I was the best guy on the team, so he wanted to play one-on-one all the time.

So I knew about the first, really about the first month of practice that this guy had something special.

Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of that had to do with playing for a coach like Dean Smith, who he didn't care if you were the towel boy or Michael Jordan you want to, you know, submit to being the team.

And, you know, I had met Magic on a college field.

visit in Michigan State.

I knew Mitch Kupchak.

I knew Bob McAdoo.

So when I knew they were interested, I knew I wasn't going to start.

So I knew the concept of team.

I knew Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had played four years with John Wooden.