Clifton (Pop) Herring and MJ's Cutting Myth

[Durbansandshark]

I hope you had the chance to read the Sports Illustrated article about Michael Jordan's old Laney High basketball coach Clifton Pop Herring that I originally linked on these boards back in January. Unfortunately, the previous thread is no exists around here for some reason so I could offer my thoughts on months afterward. Furthermore, I also hope this piece would demystify a great deal of the mythology surrounding this supposed cutting of MJ in high school that took on a life of its own (more on that later)--regarding about people in people who fail to see what they had in front of them. This Dallas Morning News story from 1998 via the Seattle Times did it first actually, but it got little circulation. Not to say it wasn't real, but we need to probe deeper to look why.

First of all, Jordan, as Herring says, wasn't cut at all. Just demoted to the junior varsity. Up until now, we didn't know fully why. I recall reading a Michael Jordan book book in 1999 having one of his assistants at Laney High at the time saying "Well, for one thing, he wasn't 6-6 [back then]" at the time he was trying out. Michael's height as a sophomore back then, 5-10, was the one hint why he wasn't on the roster. The varsity team needed size after losing senior frontcourt players to graduation. And that was a significant reason why Michael's good HS buddy 6-7 Leroy Smith was selected ahead of him for the last spot. Size was, and still is, with many basketball coaches at any competitive level is at a premium; they need to matchup with what their opponents will throw at them, among other things. If that was it, he'd probrably would not have made the team because the Bucs had only one returning player 6-3 or taller.

But there were other factors working against MJ and beyond his control in his high school tryout as a sophomore, I've always felt that. In all honesty, he didn't have much of a chance to crack the roster. Herring was the type of coach who was a young protege of Leon Brogdan at New Hannover High who imported some of the philosophies from his coaching mentors and played on Brogdan's final state championship team. Brogdan never carried sophomores on his varsity squads, and that idea was good enough when the 26-year old Herring became Laney's head coach. From an outsider's perspective, as far as his game was concerned back then if you were to witness it, he was just another eager prospective--and mediocre or ordinary--sophomore fighting for one of the 15 varsity and 15 JV spots: good ballhandling skills but just good enough shooting, coming from a different system and need time to adjust, and mediocre defense. Raw and thus unrefined in other words. When you're a kid that age trying out in anything, no matter how bright you are, unless you're fully aware of the landscape and knowing it that you're in and your limits, you don't think really consider these things and more as I write when competing for a spot. But he had big hands for his age, as several former players witnessed.

Yes, there is a pecking order and familiarity that makes people in charge comfortable. Back in the fall of 1978, Laney featured 11 seniors and three juniors--eight of them guards. They had the varsity spots on lock with returnees Dave McGhee and James "Sputnik" Beatty better than ever. One assistant coach, Ron Coley, never saw Jordan try out and later recalled seeing MJ as "shy" and barely overcoming difficulty defeating older brother Larry. But Herring and his staff endured a debate over what to do with Leroy Smith with his size, despite Mike working oh so hard with his runs and condition drills and demanding more. Supreme effort ruled Mike. But the coaches made precedent by putting Leroy Smith at the final spot ahead of Mike to address the team's height deficiencies.

When I read basketball whisperer Idan Ravin's Q&A column in SLAM magazine, he would occassionally get questions from basketball players who are undersized and he would respond about hate hearing excuses why they're height is getting in the way of their basketball dreams. All due respect to him, but the reality is size does play, if not entirely, a factor why undersized players aren't as plentiful. It's as if everything's fully meritocratic even with varying levels of talent. There have been exceptions of course--Muggsy Bouges, Michael Adams, Monty Towe, Larry Brown, Shawta Rodgers, Charlie Criss, Spud Webb, Earl Boykins, Tim Hardaway, Calvin Murphy, Damon Stoudemire. Assumptions matter in the eyes of coaches too due to familiarity/previous experiences/coaching philosophies/matchups. Again, size is at a premium. Don't forget pecking orders. Then again, I never played orgainzed basketball. Nowdays in the NBA for example, coaches really aren't interested in undersized players for matchups. Undersized players have to be incredibly good and hard workers in several of aspects and qualities so that coaches can't ignore them. They're in win now mode. Looking at it now, if Mike was taller at least 6 feet, I'd think he'd at least be riding pine for most games as a mark of respect by the coaches to the juniors and seniors. At 6-4, he'd be a shoo-in and get some games.

Another thing that was a mistake lies in that Fred Lynch diplomaticaly took the rap for MJ's high school not making varsity on the incredibly popular video Michael Jordan: Come Fly With Me when Pop Herring wasn't available for the film crew. Not true. Lynch was actually the freshman team coach at the time. Him thinking it best for both parties. Really more for the team wanting to maintain its winning ways and likely having any time for projects. One of his assistants said to the late David Halberstam is his Michael Jordan book (I think), they "wanted Michael to play more" organized basketball.