Gatorade Commercial - "Defeat"
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Michael Jordan still pushing the myth that he was "cut" from his high school team.
The truth is Jordan, as a 5-9 high school sophomore, wasn't named to the varsity, while one of friends (who happened to be 6-7) did. Instead Jordan had to play on the JV team. The horror!
Link to Article with Background on Jordan being "cut"
Of course during the time when the media was busy building up the greatness of Michael Jordan this was a often repeated claim, resulting in harassment and public embarrassment for his old coach.
Now Markelle Fultz is spinning the same yarn about himself being "cut" and gullible sports writers are lapping it up.
While your analysis carries some merit, in this particular commercial, Jordan simply says that he "fail(ed) to make the varsity team."
Nothing sinister there.
I'm sure it did serve as motivation for him.
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The perfect season was blown but it can't be lain at the feet of KAT.
But that's the type of guy KAT is, that he apparently doesn't mind standing before a national audience and shouldering the blame for it regardless. (OTOH it helps that he was no doubt compensated well for appearing in this spot.)
Meh. Except for kat, all of them got second chances. He will never get one unfortunately. That night was the most pain I've felt since "the shot." The only therapy was joining my blue brethren here to bitch and moan just like me.
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Jordan definitely toned it down in this ad but he was more direct in the past. I believe including during his HOF speech which was extremely classless IMO.
Edit: Keep in mind that Jordan's coach was dealing with mental illness and becoming indigent later in life (among other issues). Jordan continuing to beat the drum about him being cut seems insensitive at best and incredibly petty.
Link to article about Pop Herring's troubles & Jordan
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Unfortunately the blame that doesn't go to Cal shifts to Higgins and Cal not playing Ulis in the last 5 minutes. Team sure was special though
I coached high school baseball until I gave up teaching a while back. It might be different for Jordan at that time, but if you didn't make the vasity team, you were essentially cut. We had what we called a "second team" where players who didnt make the varsity cut to play, but it wasnt on our team and had totally different schedules and coaches.
Not making varsity for an athlete was essentially being cut where I'm from, but as I said, might have been totally different for Mj.
Not making varsity for an athlete was essentially being cut where I'm from, but as I said, might have been totally different for Mj.
I have PSVue. They show this commercial every time a show breaks. At first I thought oh that's kind of cool. After seeing it 100 times, I hate Wisconsin again.
Same thing I was gonna say. If you don't make the varsity team then you're cut. Playing Jv is just a consolation prize. I see nothing wrong with MJ pushing that "myth" when it's the truth. Now holding on to it 40 years later is something different.
Dang bro when did Jordan steal your fish?
I don't think the criticism is unwarranted or unfair. If you want to argue otherwise, be my guest.
Haven't watched the game since 2014 but don't remember seeing ulis in those final 5 minutes
Over Andrew? Over Aaron?
I love this revisionist history argument of "Cal should have had Ulis in the game at the end!"
What if Cal plays Ulis and UK still loses? Everyone would be saying "how could he play a freshmen Ulis over one of the twins when they are the ones that carried us last season, and this season" etc etc
Had Cal played Ulis over one of the twins and UK still loses, this board, along with every sports media outlet, would have crucified him. It's easy to go back with hindsight being 20/20 and say "he should have played this guy or that".
The "Cal should have played Ulis in 2015" is the most tired argument/complaint on this board.
Why don't you walk a mile in his shoes before playing Monday morning QB. GTFO
I'm a far bigger loser than any of those guys. They should have called me to do the commercial. It is a good one though, you're right. I think Jordan should have appeared in his space jam uniform with the water bottle full of super sauce.
lol , don't make this personal . It's a valid discussion and many people agree. Still love cal and I can see why he made the decisions he did .
Hindsight is 20/20
Your personal disagreements with me and feeling of inferiority shouldn't cloud your judgment or postings . You're only this verbal to my simple observation bc you don't like that I've "called you out " for not being a UK fan. The mods (at your request) told me to cool off so I did . I respect both the mods and their wishes.
I'd expect the same of you
I do , however , enjoy so much having open discussion with fellow "UK fans" like yourself.
What's funny is that Andrew, for whatever reason, became the whipping boy for the fans during his first year, and continued throughout his career. There were a lot of mistakes in the last 4 minutes of that game, and not even the majority of them were Andrew's fault. Lyles charged, Aaron missed multiple shots, KAT lucks into a phantom foul and then proceeds to only make 1 of 2 freethrows leaving the deficit at 2 with roughly 30 seconds to play. Despite the other errors, the last one is ultimately the one that sealed the game, as Wisc. Made 2 freethrows making it a 2 possession game and UK started scrambling. And that doesn't even include the errors on the officials part, missed shot clock violation being the big one. They were a team that made all the right decisions down the stretch the entire year with the exception of this game.
The thing about playing Ulis is this, the outcome wouldn't have been worse, it could only be the same or better. The problem is there is no guarantee it would have been better. Maybe Ulis could have gotten us better looks at the basket, but the players would still have to make those shots. If not, the result is the same. And it's not like Aaron and Andrew weren't having good games, they kept us afloat in the first half. As Cal said, he didn't need all of them to be great, but he did need some of them to be great. In the final 4 minutes, none of them were.
3 damn shot clock violations in the last 4 minutes of a tight game is gonna get a lotta shade thrown at the point guard AND the coach if there's another capable pg available
"But Ulis was a freshman"
That's the excuse given for him not being in there. He wouldn't have let that happen.
How about a more realistic reason: both Harrison's played well that game. And both had history of coming up big in big moments. All you had to do was go back to the ND game where Harrison #2 hit yet another clutch 3, and Harrison #5 hit the game winning free throws. It's unfortunate how the Wisconsin game turned out, but who were you gonna pull out to get Ulis on the floor?
Ulis was clearly not the answer for Wisonsin, better play making and better coaching would have been the answer. We were totally disadvantaged from the start. Beginning with lack of preperation for the players. Cal might be the only coach in history that thought "less is more" during prep for a game of that magnitude. I 100% disagree and always have. Our players should have gone through video and walk through prep on each player imo. I believe I heard (at the time) about this new tactic by Cal just before the game and became nervous.
Our team had holes, some people are just going to have to accept that. We were extremely dominant but there were 2 or 3 teams who could beat us on any given night, and it just so happened we hadn't met one until that point.
The Harrisons, especially Andrew, were hot button players because they were slightly overrated. They were bigger guards who could play good D, lacked consistant shooting(AH) and were a bit slow. I always thought it was natural for fans to moan a little. They had tons of heart and were great for the program, and as time has passed I've not heard a backword toward either of them. I figured that's how it would go.
I think 2015 Kentucky is the 3rd best team at UK under cal. 2012 clearly being better, and 2010 having more star power. I never had faith in going undefeated. We seemed to be worse in units of 5 than a few others, and I felt we were too simple to plan for and waay to vanilla. Pound it inside to Kat until you finally win is not a strategy.
Again it's my opinion and unpopular, but I've felt the same since that team was 25-0 until now. Even with the weak SEC of '15, I'm still suprised that team went 38-0.
Ulis and Booker were both getting eaten on defense. Pretty obvious, debated a million times and proven over and over again.
You guys want to blame a player?
Trey Lyles one rebound in 29 minutes.
But the real winner is WCS - a major no show, 2 points, 5 rebounds.. all american....
You guys want to blame a player?
Trey Lyles one rebound in 29 minutes.
But the real winner is WCS - a major no show, 2 points, 5 rebounds.. all american....
And while those were certainly problems, there were other problems as well, to which I mentioned. It is amazing that fans can't look and see that for what it truly is, a complete botch by a team that had been very clutch up until that last 4 minutes. Not only that, but fans fail to see how good that team truly was, as was evident by how much had to go wrong in those last 4 minutes for a historically great offensive team to actually beat them. I've always said that you really find out how good a team is when they lose. It's at that time that you can begin to analyze what it takes to beat that team. In this case it took gifts from officials, turnovers by a pretty clutch nonfreshman PG, multiple missed from previously clutch players, a charging call against a future lottery pick, and a missed free throw by a pretty good free throw shooter. How does that add up?? It adds up to a team that was so good, the only team that could beat them was themselves.
I do remember being off-put by the fact that Cal said he wasn't going to watch film. Never understood that. What's the advantage of NOT watching film?
" The agony of defeat"- whatever happened to that poor ski jumper on Wide world of sports? He should be on that spot, too.
Terrible matchup for Lyles. I had a bad feeling our lack of a hybrid forward would bite us against Wisconsin. I thought that all year, after Poy went down. He was the ultimate glue guy for that team. Damn shame. I thought there were two teams with a great shot to beat us: Zona and Wisconsin. Sure, Duke could have beat us. I just think we were an awful matchup for them. The loss compounded by Duke winning the title two nights later, in which the second half was called one sided, was a bitter pill to swallow. Anybody but them. I believe Cal took that whole not watching game film thing from Geno Auriemma, IIRC.
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So Cal and the team NEVER watched film? The whole season? Are you kidding me? I did not know that. I wonder what the strategy is there? "We're so good we don't have to watch film"?
I don't care enough to worry about it. Are you assuming that they watched film for 38 games and then abruptly stopped doing so for Wisconsin?
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