On Brink Of Retirement, Tom Konchalski Reflects On Drafting ‘Mike Jordan’ No. 1 In 1980

It was Memorial Day weekend in 1980 and Roy Williams, then a restricted-earnings coach at North Carolina who supported himself by selling basketball calendars throughout the Tar Heel State, was driving legendary New York talent evaluator Tom Konchalski to the Seamco Classic at Kutsher’s Sports Academy in upstate New York.

Two North Carolina players, Matt Doherty and Sam Perkins, were slated to play for the New York/New Jersey squad against the U.S. team at the Classic. North Carolina head coach Dean Smith “probably wanted to go to the Outer Banks for the weekend,” Konchalski recalled, so he sent his assistant up and Williams asked Konchalski if he wanted to join him.

“We were riding up on 17 West going up to Monticello and [Williams] says, ‘You know there’s a kid on the coast of Carolina who could be a great player,’” recalled Konchalski, 73, who has announced he is retiring this year after more than 40 years in the business. “He was at our camp but we don’t have good players at our camp so we’re not sure. “

“How big is he?” Konchalski asked.

“Six-three, six-four,” Williams said.

“What’s his name?”

“Mike Jordan.”

“Do you think he could be a waiter at Five-Star [Basketball] Camp, a worker?”

“Yea, sure,” Konchalski said.

Williams gave Konchalski the number of Clifton ‘Pop’ Herring, Jordan’s coach at Laney High School. Konchalski would later pass the number to Howard Garfinkel, who ran Five-Star, so it could be arranged for Jordan to come to the prestigious camp.

Konchalski suggested to Williams that Jordan come to Five-Star for the weeks of Pittsburgh 1 and Pittsburgh 2. “Pittsburgh was the Cadillac week,” Konchalski said.

“I’m not sure he’s good enough for P-1,” Williams said. Jordan ended up coming for the weeks of P-2 and P-3

When it came time for the Five-Star Camp in July, Konchalski was immediately impressed by the young Jordan.

“In tryouts when people were guarding him they were guarding his belly button,” he said. “He had a great stop/ jump. He’d stop on a dime and really elevate. He was an extraterrestrial athlete.”

Jordan later elaborated that he was nervous during the tryouts.

“I was so nervous my hands were sweating,” Jordan recalled in Roland Lazenby’s “The Life.” “I saw all these All-Americans, and I was just the lowest thing on the totem pole. Here I was, a country boy from Wilmington.”

At the time, Syracuse assistant Brendan Malone was supposed to coach one of the teams at Five-Star in Pittsburgh. But Malone’s wife, Maureen, suffered a motorbike accident near their home in Rockville Centre, N.Y. and had to get seven stitches in her head.

“Brendan wanted to fly back to check up on his wife so he asked me to draft his team,” Konchalski recalled, adding that Maureen ended up being “OK.”

The Five-Star draft at the time involved 12 teams. Centers were drafted first, followed by point guards and then shooting guards.

Malone flew back after the draft and the next morning, he and Konchalski were walking down to the dining hall together.

“Show me the team you drafted for me,” Malone said. “What pick did you get?”

“I was lucky to get No. 1,” Konchalski replied.

“You picked [future NBA center Greg] Dreiling No. 1?”

“Yes.”

“You picked Aubrey Sherrod [at shooting guard]?”

“No,” Konchalski said.

“Who’d you pick?”

“Mike Jordan.”

“Who the f*** is he?”

In Lazenby’s book, Garfinkel gave his version of the story.

“Brendan says, ‘Who the hell is Mike Jordan?’” Garfinkel recalled. “And he goes ballistic. Only he didn’t say hell. He goes berserk. ‘What the hell did you do to me? Who’s Mike Jordan?’”

Eventually, Malone saw Jordan play for himself.

“He found out soon enough,” Konchalski recalled 40 years later.

In Lazenby’s book, Malone’s account went like this.

“I remember the first time I saw Michael,” Malone recalled. “We were at an afternoon game that day. Michael was on an open court, asphalt, and he was moving, and the way he moved was like a thoroughbred, his stride, just the graceful way he ran and cut. He was a standout right away. You could look at him, look at how he moved and ran. It was appparent to even a person who didn’t have a sophisticated eye. It was apparent to you right away that Michael Jordan was superior to the other players at the camp. or were playing high school ball at the time.”

According to legend, Jordan scored 40 points in a 20-minute half at the camp, a feat that would foreshadow a career in which he would hit the game-winning basket for North Carolina in the 1982 NCAA championship game and then go on to lead the Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles, including two three-peats.

Jordan was named co-Most Outstanding Player at Pittsburgh 2 with John Flowers, a 6-9 center who wrote “Chocolate Thunder 2” all over his T-shirts. Jordan also was named MVP of the Orange-White Classic, the Five-Star All-Star Camp.

“The next week he was there but he hurt his ankle and he only played in half the games,” Konchalski said of the Pittsburgh 3 session.

In the weeks that followed, Konchalski gave an interview with Dave Kreider of Basketball News in which he demonstrated the eye for talent that earned him the nickname, “The Last Honest Man in the Gym.”

“Michael Jordan’s going to be the next David Thompson,” Konchalski said, referring to the high-flying former N.C. State star.

Forty years later, Konchalski is set to retire just as The Last Dance is averaging close to 6 million viewers per episode.

Asked if he’s been watching it, Konchalski said, “I haven’t seen a lot of it, no.”

After all, he was there when it all began.