Read on Twitter
Listening to @thepressboxpod about the "Jordan-centric" storytelling of that documentary, something that really struck me when the first episode covered the UNC title in '82. The truly indelible moment of that game was NOT Jordan's shot, but you wouldn't know from this doc.
The way the doc is cut and the way the game is talked about, they make it sound like Jordan's shot was a buzzer-beater, but there were still 15 seconds on the clock when he hit it to take a one-point lead.
The truly unforgettable moment of that game comes AFTER Jordan's shot, when Fred Brown brings the ball up the court for the Hoyas fakes UNC's James Worthy out of position, and then inexplicably throws the ball to Worthy.
THAT was the indelible play of the game. Jordan's shot is a good play, but it looms large mostly because he went on to become MICHAEL FREAKIN' JORDAN. It's not especially impressive on its own-- a wide-open 15-foot wing jumper.
Fred Brown's colossal brain fart ten seconds later, on the other hand, is an immortal college basketball moment. That's the play that really sealed the game, and unlike Jordan hitting a jumper, it's utterly unique to that game.
If Jordan had torn his ACL a year later and had a mediocre NBA career, nobody but hard-core Tar Heels would even remember who hit the shot, the same way nobody remembers how UNC got the lead in '93 before Chris Webber's time-out call.
(Note: I fully expect @mcnees to pop in and tell me exactly who scored Carolina's last bucket in '93.)
Casting that shot as THE defining moment of that game is a bit of retrospective Jordan hagiography that gets up my nose a little (as you can tell from this thread). It's a nice play and a good shot, but not the stuff of legend save for NBA stans projecting backwards.
