A picture might be worth a 1,000 words...

...but a magazine cover is worth so much more.

As I am surfing around on Ball Hype there is a very good link to a story on TheHoopsDoctors that doesn't have much to say, but has ten great pictures. Actually, they are not pictures, but magazine covers, and they are all about the greatest basketball player ever, Michael Jordan. Like the old saying goes, a picture is worth a 1,000 words, and when you have those ten of those beautiful covers it is worth a lot more of ten thousand words for an old Heel like me, it is worth a lifetime of memories.

To me MJ means a lot more than a basketball player, he means a young man who went into Chapel Hill as one of the many future stars for a legendary coach, he finished his career as the greatest ever, the player that when you think of the "best" you think of him. From hitting the clutch shots, to making the plays when they counted, Jordan was able to develop himself and re-invent himself to being what he needed to be in order to be what we call a "legend". For me, as a Heel, as a fan of the North Carolina program, as a fan of basketball, when I see the clips from the old days where Jordan was playing I still get goose bumps as I remember what he did both for Dean Smith and then at the next level. From the shot (to win the NCAA title) to the six NBA Championships. From the gold medal at the Olympics as a collegiate athlete to the starring role at the Olympics as part of the "Dream Team". What more can you say, enjoy the covers and remember the great memories this one man gave us all.

And while we are on the subject of covers, there is one that I will always, always cherish, even if it is a bitter sweet one.



The cover tells me about the man who did it all for his college and was leaving it all. Of course, he was leaving it all as the best of the best, something that we have become accustomed to when speaking of the UNC basketball program. When he retired Smith left as the winningest coach, with a record of 879-254 (a .776 winning percentage). In the 36 years at the University of North Carolina Dean Smith coached 26 All Americans and led his team to 27 consecutive 20-win seasons and 23 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. I know it is a cliche line, but this is stuff that legends are made of! While I love Roy Williams at UNC, and I think he is doing a great job, for an old Heel, thinking about Dean Smith once in a while brings me back to where it all began between UNC and me.