The people that played or worked under former Merced College men's and women's basketball coach and legend Don Reid can talk for days at a time about the coach's many accomplishments. It made sifting through all the information for Reid's upcoming court dedication story difficult at times. Still, the stories are nothing short of amazing. One story in particular really stood out in my mind, however.
Current MC women's coach Allen Huddleston told me that while Reid was on a trip back East, he stopped by Chapel Hill to watch some of the players participating in the University of North Carolina open-gym session.
Coach Reid had quite the pipeline set up in North Carolina, with several of his star players coming to MC from the state over the years. That pipeline put him on a first-name basis with several of the big players in NC, including Tar Heels head coach and legend Dean Smith.
While Reid was watching the pickup game that day, Smith pointed out to him a skinny freshman shooting in the corner. "Watch that kid," Smith told Reid. "He's going to be good."
Smith didn't win 879 career games for nothing. Turns out the player Reid was watching that day was Michael Jordan.
As cool as it is to think Merced had a six degrees of separation kind of thing with the greatest basketball player of all time, it turns out Jordan very easily could have sported Blue Devil Blue instead of Tar Heel Blue.
MC men's head coach Bill Russell said Jordan coming to Merced might have happened, but excellent grades and a tremendous senior year made him too good for UNC to pass up.
