How Michael Jordan won his first gold medal ... with help from some K-State coaches
Here’s a story you may not have heard about Michael Jordan.
It begins in 1983, before he was a superstar. Back then, he was a young basketball player at North Carolina who had been chosen to play for Team USA at the Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela.
Former Kansas State coach Jack Hartman was the head coach of that group. Current Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger and retired Washburn coach Bob Chipman were assistants. Notable players like Chris Mullin, Sam Perkins and Wayman Tisdale joined Jordan on the roster.
They were heavy favorites to win gold, but they encountered a potential problem when they arrived in Caracas and saw their lodging accommodations.
“They weren’t finished yet,” Kruger said in a phone interview this week. “We walk into the village for the student athletes and there was no air conditioning. There weren’t windows in yet and a lot of the rooms didn’t have doors. It was hot. We were in Venezuela in the middle of the summer. You could tell everyone was worried about it.”
So Kruger set about trying to solve the problem. Could the team find other housing? If so, how difficult would it be to change plans for that many people at the last minute in a foreign country?
Turns out, there was no need to stress. Jordan made sure of that.
Before Kruger could explore any of those options, Jordan rendered the dilemma moot.
As Kruger remembers it, Jordan stepped up and said: This is fine. We are here to play basketball. Don’t worry about it, Coach Hartman.
“It would have been easy for the players to say, ‘What is this about? We can’t stay here,’” Kruger said. “But Michael took care of that by saying, ‘Let’s go, we’re good. We will take care of business on the floor.’ He kept it from being a headache.”
Jordan went on to lead Team USA to a gold medal over the next two weeks by averaging a team-high 17.3 points. The Americans won all eight of their games, including six by double digits.
That tournament championship turned out to be Jordan’s first gold medal with Team USA. He won another the following year at the Olympics as a college player and then another in 1992 as a pro when the Dream Team was formed. He also went on to win six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls.
Jordan nostalgia has reached a new peak thanks to “The Last Dance,” a documentary series currently airing on ESPN. Few remember his time with the 1983 Pan American team, but it should have heightened importance for K-State basketball fans, as it featured many connections with the Wildcats and Manhattan.
For example: The team trained at Ahearn Fieldhouse in Manhattan for two weeks before leaving for Venezuela.
“We had a lot of great battles,” Kruger said. “You had all these great players in a small college town in the middle of the summer without normal campus activity. All of our focus was on basketball. It was fun to watch.”
Hartman, who won a school-record 295 games in 16 seasons with the Wildcats, was installed as the national team’s head coach. Only other college head coaches were allowed to serve as assistants, so he filled his staff with Kruger, who was then coaching at Texas-Pan American, and Bob Chipman, then coaching at Washburn. Both were players for him at K-State. Chipman didn’t respond to messages asking him to speak for this story; Hartman died in 1998 at 73.
Kruger said Hartman “was very gracious” to “bring me along for the ride.” It was a heck of an opportunity for him as a young coach, before he went on to coach at K-State, Florida, UNLV, Oklahoma and the NBA.
As you might expect, most of Kruger’s memories revolve around Jordan.
“Jordan was unbelievably gifted and talented even then as a young college player,” he said. “He has gone on to greatness, but it was apparent early on that he had such great balance and competitiveness and pride. He established himself as a leader from the moment he stepped on the floor. There was no doubt about that. His teammates responded to him immediately.”
Kruger also remembers some of the other players on that team having big games. It was actually a balanced-scoring group, with Tisdale and Perkins also averaging double figures. Unfortunately, Mullin suffered an injury in an exhibition game and was unable to play in the tournament.
Jordan helped Team USA overcome Mullins’ absence, even if it meant sleeping without air conditioning for a few weeks.
“We had some very good players, but Michael was the guy who was extra special,” Kruger said. “I can’t say we knew he was going to be the greatest player, ever. There is no way I could have projected that. But he was great. In defensive drills, you had no chance against him. As good as he was offensively, he was equally good defensively. Throw in the athleticism and the competitiveness and the pride that he had and it was pretty special.”
This story was originally published May 7, 2020 at 11:35 AM with the headline "How Michael Jordan won his first gold medal ... with help from some K-State coaches."