With his decision to transfer from the University of Illinois, the enigma that is the oldest offspring of one Michael Jeffrey Jordan continues to evolve.
The junior, who is entering his last year of eligibility for college basketball has two choices — ending his collegiate basketball career or transferring to a Division II or III school where he can play immediately (Division I would require Jordan to sit out one season and lose a year of eligibility which would end his career).
First, from a sports standpoint, the effect on the Fighting Illini is really nil. With two heralded incoming freshmen coming in to the program that can handle the ball (Crandall Head and Jereme Richmond), one more guard coming back from a redshirt as a freshman (Joe Bertrand, who many of the Illini on their Twitter feeds this offseason have called the team’s best dunker and most athletic player), the ongoing development of Brandon Paul and D. J. Richardson and the return of Demetri McCamey after pulling himself out of the NBA Draft, it wasn’t like Jordan was going to find a lot of minutes on the court.
From a basketball standpoint, this actually makes a little bit of sense.
Also, though the Illini now have a scholarship open for next season, don’t expect them to fill that slot. All that would do is tie up a scholarship for the all-important 2011 recruiting class — a class that, in the state of Illinois, is one of the deepest in the history of the state — and the Illini and head coach Bruce Weber surely will not want to do that. In ESPN’s rankings of the top 60 prospects for the 2011 season, the state of Illinois has 7 players listed there, or almost 12 percent of the list.
So, no, no one will replace Jordan on the roster, and with so many players there to fill the void, except for the fact that MJeff won’t show up at random Illinois games any more, you won’t even know that young Jeffrey is gone.
So, in that vein, good luck to him. Hopefully he finds what he is looking for on the court at a smaller school.
This is where it gets a little tricky, though — what does the decision say about Jeff Jordan the young man?
We all hold our athletes to a higher caliber, and we all know that. Jeff Jordan isn’t any different. But the strange saga of young Mr. Jordan is…well…strange, to say the least.
Coming out of high school, one of the biggest knocks on Jordan was his desire to actually play the game. There was certainly talent there — not on the line of his father, but who is? — but did he actually want to PLAY big time college hoops? That question seemed to be answered prior to the beginning of last school year when Jordan left the team to pursue his academic interests.
Jordan was always viewed as the more academic of the two Jordan sons (Marcus, at UCF, was always looked at as the better player and athlete), and it always seemed as though he was the one in line to take over the family’s business interests, and nothing in his academic record at Illinois, where he majored in business, did anything to dispense with that theory.
Then, last October, he came to Bruce Weber and said he missed the game and wanted to come back. OK, fine. He still had some passion for the game and wanted to come back. I can accept that.
The transfer that now comes, however, is a little bit confusing to me.
When Jordan came back to the team, he knew how the minutes situation was going to look for the 2010-2011 season. It wasn’t a secret that, whether Demetri McCamey came back or not, it was going to be a VERY crowded backcourt for the Illini. So why not transfer last summer to a smaller Division I school and play his senior season at a bigger program?
Not to mention the problem that he has already quit before. Meaning a school will need to have a scholarship open, and be willing to commit it to a kid that can’t seem to make up his mind.
Even if it is for only one season, I find it hard to believe that many premier schools at the smaller level would take that risk, only to have him decide to bail later on.
Again, the whole saga of young Jeffrey Jordan has been strange. in his personal life, for his degree and for his future, hopefully he finds what he is looking for. He’s giving up an extremely high-quality education at the University of Illinois — and that is what I thought college was always supposed to be about for him.And maybe there won’t be any effects of that felt in his life at all.
For his sake, let’s all hope that’s true.
—Paul Schmidt
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Please he is about to take over his family’s business. It does not matter where he graduates from.
Well, for what it’s worth, you’d be surprised how much that little paper is worth in the business world if it has a good name on it. It’s a forgone conclusion what he’s going to do — it certainly won’t affect the job he gets — but will it make a difference when other CEO’s are negotiating with him? It really might.
Re: Paul S. “What it’s worth”…
My experience of negotiating deals for three different companies I own and operate (one international) is not once has anyone ever said ” Hold on…before we go any further, what school did you graduate from”. It’s all about the deal and can you deliver – period.
The degree thing is going to come into play with getting an entry level job. Not Michael Jordon’s son walking into a board room. Who he is will open a lot more doors than where he got his degree. You can go to the bank with that.
“Meaning a school will need to have a scholarship open, and be willing to commit it to a kid that can’t seem to make up his mind.”
Does this guy REALLY need a scholarship open to play?? I’m thinking Dad can probably spot him a few bucks for school.
Great write!
E
Dan — the point is that he goes in with, say, a Harvard business degree, and grad work at the Wharton School or something like that, then people would look at him (and not say it out loud to him, come on), and they wouldn’t treat him as if he just got the job for being MJ’s son. It will ALWAYS be one of the reasons…but with the right background it wouldn’t at least look like the only one.
Erik: No, they don’t, but it is one of those things that looks suspicious that he’s coming in as a hired gun. It’s why so many of your more well-to-do kids that could afford college still get scholarships. If it became a regular practice to just make those kids pay their own way to open up a scholarship for the team, that’s not idea for the NCAA, and it’s definitely something they would start policing.
Dan, taking it a step further — people who worked or put in the work to get where they are get more respect in the boardroom than anyone who appears to have ridden on someone’s coattails, right? I know in my previous life there was someone in particular we always looked at with derision because of that very fact.
That’s the only point that I was making…just because it’s guaranteed where he will be going in life — and he’s a smart kid, who deserves that opportunity — having that big name degree would have muted the coattails effect a little.
yeah, but I’ve still found that often these labels of schools don’t live up to the hype. I’ll start with a certain Kellogg grad I know who often acted like she was 7 years old. and there are so many people at all those Kellogg events that were just drunken idiots.
But in terms of the two comma kids or trust fund babies, her Gillette friend and the Coors heir seemed rather normal, down-to-Earth people. both of them were in the program. and I applaud them for working towards that degree instead of just degenerating into Paris Hilton.
You can make fun of these students for working when they don’t have to, but that’s a MILLION times MORE noble than just resting on the laurels of your parents, and add ntohing to society.
Even the rich kids who just do philanthropy as their vocation- hey those foundations are contributing to society