WEMBANYHAMA’S LINKS TO MICHAEL JORDAN
Shared Coaching Roots
Michael Jordan’s Early Career
Wemby Chases His Dreams & His Own Basketball Legacy … … …
In this website’s previous section: ‘Basketball & France’, we established a link between France and Victor Wembanya to the origin of the game. Detailing a path from Melvin Rideout, Martin Feinberg, Henry ‘The Gentlemen’ Fields, to Victor’s grandfather, Michael de Fautereau, and his playing basketball days in Paris at club PUC. Then ultimately we presented Victor Wembanyama’s mother, Elodie de Fautereau, and her playing and coaching basketball in France. Elodie was Victor’s oncourt ‘basketball mom’ and his first experiences on a basketball court were with his mother nearby.
Basketball & France
This website section: ‘Michael & Wemby’ is not a presentation about how Michael Jordan and Victor Wembanyama are similar, nor about how they share a common path. Further, we have no knowledge that they have any personal relationship whatsoever. In so very many ways, manners and physical structure, they are different. They have taken very different routes in their respective careers and to the NBA.
This is a presentation of how the early roots of Michael Jordan’s college and youth development stemmed from the very same basketball tree that is now sprouting the branches of Victor Wembanyama’s professional career in San Antonio Texas.
They are two separate branches stemming from the same basketball tree trunk, with a shared lineage and multiple links covering a century of basketball coaches.
The Michael Jordan and Victor Wembanyama Coaches Connection:
We will demonstrate this timeline connection throughout the following presentations:
Phog Allen was a direct disciple of James Naismith. He played for Naismith at the University of Kansas. Years later, in 1952, Coach Allen’s Kansas team won a NCAA Championship and Dean Smith played on that team, and played for four years at the University of Kansas.
Dean Smith coached Michael Jordan and Larry Brown at the University of North Carolina. Larry Brown coached for the San Antonio Spurs.
It was Coach Brown that hired Gregg Popovich, the five time Spurs NBA championship winning coach, as an NBA assistant.
The ties reach even deeper into the roots of this tree of basketball as you find out the background of other people within the San Antonio Spurs organization: R.C. Buford, Doug Moe, Tony Parker, and many more individuals connected to this basketball history, many people who were in the past a part of, or, those who are now members of the San Antonio Spurs organization.
In understanding this history, you will see there is a deep connection between Michael Jordan and Victor Wembanyama.
We address the early basketball path of Michael Jordan and separate some of the myth from facts about his early career.
All of this is about the ‘real’ path, of a young Michael Jordan, which will actually demonstrate his tremendous perseverance, endurance and determination to be a six time NBA champion.
The journey Michael Jordan took in order to win his first trophy was not a path of roses and instant greatness, as often portrayed. Only after years of struggle, and improvement did subsequently six NBA championship trophies come under his many accomplishments.
Michael’s actual path was not a journey of instant success, and what most people think and believe it was, when today they discuss his greatness, or argue if Michael Jordan is The Greatest of All Time (G.O.A.T.), ‘they’ flower Michael Jordan’s basketball career with myth. We dispel some of the myth and present a young player who earned his place in basketball history with, blood, sweat and tears.
We intend to draw an analogy to Victor Wembanyama by presenting his years of hard work to reach his current level of accomplishment. We dispel the notion that he is some ‘alien’ of unusual size and thus is successful. He has a history of hard work.
We address what all this actually means now to a 22 year old Victor Wembanyama in pursuit of his own basketball legacy in 2026 with the San Antonio Spurs. … … and what he most likely must endure to accomplish these objectives.
Obviously the largest current difference is Michael Jordan has six (6), yes six, NBA Championship trophies. Victor has zero. (Only a handful of players have won more titles than Michael Jordan).
A difference in basketball size, youth development, manner by which the game is currently played, current money paid to players, all the motivations which surround a current player, and much more should all be discussed as significant differences in this section.
In any case, it is the same basketball ‘TREE’ that set Michael Jordan into his career path that is now in complete control of assisting Victor Wembanyama’s career outcome. In July of 2026, Victor Wembanyama signed a five year contract extension that will keep him within the organization of the San Antonio Spurs. Victor intends to grow his basketball roots under the same tree trunk which Michael Jordan stemmed.
It’s a very old healthy and fruitful tree.
The Michael Jeffery Jordan Path Was Not Easy
A Ten Year Championship Draught
There were no team trophies, championships, and rings between Michael Jordan’s Freshman basketball season at the University of North Carolina and his seventh year as a professional NBA player. That is a ten year period …
Coach Popovich Video speaking about Victor Wembanyama in his first months as a San Antonio spurs
READ MORE : Dean Smith & Gregg Popovich
THE MYTH OF THE MJ WINNING SHOT
Michael Jordan was NOT the best player on that 1982 UNC team, Sam Perkins and James Worthy were the team stars. Michael was the third option on the famous play which resulted in ‘THE SHOT’.
The play was designed to get the ball into the hands of James Worthy in the post, or to Sam Perkins for one of his great left-handed baby hook shots across the middle in the lane.
Matt caught the pass twice on the elbow from the on the point guard Jimmy. He did not execute the play, not pivoting and turning to face the basket, or even looking into the post, he quickly tossed the ball immediately back to Jimmy. He had just bricked a free-throw and was extremely nervous. Matt was a very good free throw shooter. However the passes between Jimmy and Matt were moving the defense over to the right side of the court, away from Michael’s weak side.
Careful not to turn it over at the wrong time, they did not toss it into the post. The team kept composure but seemed afraid to make a play. Time was running out.
Patrick Ewing was the determining factor in Michael’s famous shot. He had blocked everything near the rim the entire game. (Watch the first minutes of the game). Coach Smith and everyone watching the game knew Ewing was ready to take away any inside shot. Coach Smith knew Michael would most likely be open on the opposite side wing, if the ball was passed into the post. This was a well known universally taught zone offensive rule. ‘Opposite Wing Zone ‘O’ Outlet’, is always option one, from the post. Standard procedure. Dean knew the ‘Golden Zone Offensive Rules’ since childhood. He wasn’t designing a play on the bench to break the rule and get the ball into the hands of a Freshman to take a final shot for an NCAA Championship, as myth would later portray. The myth was later created to elaborate heights in the Bulls Championship years.
Nevertheless, Coach Smith knew Michael had a good chance of ending up with the ball in his hands, and Coach Smith had absolute faith that his ‘cocky’ and often over confident Michael Jordan would make a 15 footer from the wing 70% of the time. As usual, Coach Smith had covered his bases long before the moment required.
With Ewing in the middle of the Georgetown zone defense the plan was set to go directly at him with Sam or James and challenge him. Take it at him and into his body. Perhaps draw a foul, if the shot misses. This was the huddle plan and instructions.
After the huddle timeout broke, while players returned to the floor, Dean tapped Michael on the butt and said,”‘if your open, make the shot’. Eddy Fogler was the only person to hear Coach Smith’s last instructions.
The myth of exaggerated greatness began to grow as the ball swished through the net.
The famous mythical MJ ‘shot’ did not determine the outcome of the game. Time remained on the clock after Jordan made ‘the shot’.
Georgetown still had a chance to win the game. Timeout was called to set up the Hoyas winning play, UNC went into a man-to-man defense. And then, in a complete unexplainable, unpredictable, and chaotic play of basketball, there was a game determining panic turn of events.
Hoyas guard, Fred Brown, turned without looking and passed the ball to James Worthy, who had made a big, terrible, stupid mistake in a gamble to over defend the passing lane in order to steal the ball. James was standing in the dead zone, 45 feet from the basket with time running out on the clock. Not the location you want your 6’10 All-American standing with Patrick Ewing under the basket during the final determining play of the game. The game was over as James Worthy dribbled out the clock in open court, getting fouled and ending the game with free throws. James, who was always very bright and clever as a basketball player, must have thought to himself, I never made a bigger basketball mistake that turned out to be such a great play.
Although Michael played his part and made ‘the shot’, he was trained to take that shot in the Dean Smith system. It wasn’t the mythical greatness of MJ that determined the 1982 championship.
Contrary to the later created myth, it wasn’t a last second shot, and it wasn’t a play designed to have the ‘G.O.A.T’ score a buzzer ending shot.
Michael mentioned the shot in his Hall of Fame speech. (See video below). It did provide a spark to Michael’s career and confidence … … it motivated him to get better. He always worked hard to improve, he worked even harder after ‘the shot’, and Michael’s faith in Dean’s system became unshakable.
However, Michael Jordan never returned two an NCAA Final Four. He became an All-American college player in the next two seasons before turning pro. But, at that time, he had not the ability to propel a team to a college championship. That took a special mixture to accomplish.
It was a standing joke around the organization at basketball camp the summer of 1982, that it was God’s predetermined destination that resulted in the outcome of that bizarre chaotic final minutes of the 1982 Championship game. A manifestation sent from the ‘Carilina Blue Sky’ straight from the Almighty himself right onto that basketball court.
But, as they say, “A Win Is A Win, Is A Win”! Take ’em All! Dean Smith and the University of North Caroline won their first Championship. 1982 wasn’t Coach Smith’s last NCAA Championship. Michael Jordan did not win another Championship until 1992!
Michael Jordan Greatest Early Career Achievement
Despite some early low points, Smith was supported by the University administration and EVENTUALLY, after decades of success, Smith became beloved by most of the fan base, even some of the same fan base who hung him in effigy eventually embraced Coach Smith.
Despite prestigious team achievements over a period of many years, the University of North Carolina fan base was never completely satisfied with Coach Smith until the NCAA Championship in 1982.
The insatiable self righteous Tarheel fan base tagged Coach Smith with the label: ‘He Can’t Win The Big One’!
Despite always being in the mix for an NCAA Championship, it just wasn’t enough for the Tarheel illumni and fans. The Charlie Scott ordeal also left a bad taste in a community which was slow to encrust segregation justice.
Coach Smith ran a ‘clean program’ and he was always able to maintain the University’s administration support, and there were plenty of supporting wealthy booster who understood how lucky the school was in having Smith run the program in the manner in which he did and compete with the best teams in college. Most top college programs were breaking lots of NCAA rules to maintain success, Dean wasn’t a cheater.
Smith’s first major successes came in the late 1960s, when his teams won consecutive regular-season and ACC tournament championships, and went to three straight Final Fours, going all the way to the national championship game in 1968. But ACC championships and Final Four appearances were not enough for the Carolina Blue fan base. They wanted a sky blue heaven and a championship banner in the arena. This relentless demand created a cloud over his head, which Coach Smith mostly ignored. He knew he was running a basketball program built for the benefit of everyone.
Out of all the great accomplishments of Michael Jordan, the greatest unspoken accomplishment was indeed his ‘SHOT’ and the 1982 U.N.C. basketball TEAM winning an NCAA Championship. This was Coach Smith’s first championship, which put an end to the reluctant constant criticism of Coach Dean Smith.
The Spurs Legacy of Larry Brown:
The San Antonio Spurs rize to the top & His Assistant Coach Greg Popovich
Coach Larry Brown and the San Antonio Spurs
Larry Brown played for Coach Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina for three years in 1961-63. He played one year for Frank McGuire, Dean’s predecessor.
Larry was a lifetime coach who started his coaching career in the ABA, after a short ABA playing career. He had his best friend Doug Mo by his side for years as a college player at U.N.C. and then a professional player in the ABA. Doug Mo was Larry Brown’s assistant coach as he started his coaching career.
Doug Mo played for Dean Smith and coached the San Antonio Spurs for four years from 1976-80.
Larry Brown served as the San Antonio Spurs head coach from 1988 to 1992, compiling a 153-131 record over four seasons. He revitalized the franchise, leading them to back-to-back 50-win seasons and two division titles. Despite early success and nurturing David Robinson’s rookie season, Brown was fired in January 1992 following a 21-17 start to his fourth season.
Brown hired Gregg Popovich as his assistant coach in his first year. Popovich was a Spurs assistant for four years
Brown was a basketball program turnaround expert. If you wanted to get thing corrected on the basketball win – loss record, you hired Larry Brown. This was his reputation.
After a 21-61 debut season (1988-89), Brown turned the San Antonio Spurs team around to 56-26 (1989-90) and 55-27 (1990-91) records.
Playoff Performance: Led the Spurs to two consecutive division titles and playoff appearances in 1990 and 1991, although they never advanced past the second round.
Development of The Admiral:
Brown was fired in January 1992 amidst front-office friction, something Brown was also well known for as a coach. Brown often did not agree that office workers and owners knew more about coaching than he knew and would often would not relent his coaching methods to fit their demands. The San Antonio team ‘organization’ cited the need for a different direction despite his previous successes.
Legacy: Brown’s tenure was noted for stabilizing a struggling franchise and setting the stage for future success, as well as being part of the history that led to the eventual hiring of Gregg Popovich.
Larry Started The Spurs Championship Journey
After Gregg Popovich’s sabbatical his heart led him back to Pomona-Pitzer:
“I’ve been spoiled at North Carolina and Kansas,” he said to the Los Angeles Times in 1987. “When I get back to Pomona, I’m going to have to be careful not to be someone else other than me. I know I’ll be more efficient and I’ll have a computer bank of knowledge that should help my teaching techniques. I’d be a fool to say it isn’t a thrill to watch and help players of Division I caliber develop into great players. But I think at this point, the small-college level is the place to be if you want to coach and not have droves of people who want a piece of you. That’s more consistent with my personality.”
In his brief time away, though, circumstances had changed. Shortly after Popovich got back to Pomona-Pitzer, Voelkel died and school leadership that succeeded him wasn’t as invested in his program’s success. By the end of the 1987-88 season, he began thinking of life away from the community he loved.
While at a cabin in the summer of 1988, news broke that Brown, months after leading Kansas to the national title, had been named the Spurs’ head coach. One of his assistants, Lee Wimberly, suggested Popovich call him to see if he’d bring him along to San Antonio. Popovich had his doubts.
What followed, as they say, is history, with Popovich spending four seasons with Brown in San Antonio, leaving to work as an assistant under Don Nelson for two years with the Golden State Warriors and returning to the Spurs to become their president of basketball operations and general manager in 1994.
His Name Is Michael Jeffery Jordan
THE MYTH OF THE GOAT (G.O.A.T.):
… BEST BORN CHAMPION TO HAVE LIVED / OR / MOST NBA CHAMPIONSHIP TITLES
Michael Jordan and Bill Russel are the two BEST “WINNERS” to ever play the game of basketball. This is a personal opinion, not a fact.
G.O.A.T. WINNERS.
Even Michael Jordan has said, ‘calling him the greatest of all time (G.O.A.T.), is not possible. One can not accurately compare players of different eras.
Here Is a List of NBA players with 6 or more Titles:
- Bill Russell (11): 1957, 1959–1966, 1968–1969
- Sam Jones (10): 1959–1966, 1968–1969
- K.C. Jones (8): 1959–1966
- Satch Sanders (8): 1961–1966, 1968–1969
- John Havlicek (8): 1963–1966, 1968–1969, 1974, 1976
- Jim Loscutoff (7): 1957, 1959–1964
- Frank Ramsey (7): 1957, 1959–1964
- Robert Horry (7): 1994, 1995 (Rockets), 2000–2002 (Lakers), 2005, 2007 (Spurs)
- Michael Jordan (6): 1991–1993, 1996–1998 (Bulls)
- Scottie Pippen (6): 1991–1993, 1996–1998 (Bulls)
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (6): 1971 (Bucks), 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988 (Lakers)
- Bob Cousy (6): 1957, 1959–1963
Are the above players the Greatest of All Time (G.O.A.T.) ?
It took Michael Jordan many years to learn how to combine his great individual skills with a team championship formula. Michael Jordan was 28 years old when he won his first NBA title. He did not win an NBA Championship title until his seventh NBA season.
It was the coaching of Phil Jacson that altered how Michael approached playing the game to win championships.
The first thing Michael Jordan states in his Hall of Fame speech is: ” I didn’t do this alone. Scotty Pippen was there with me for all six titles”.
In my opinion, for a period of about two years, in the after retirement championship run, Scotty Pippen was better than Michael Jordan, as an overall player. Scotty Pipen was a great NBA basketball player.
THE MYTH OF BEING CUT FROM HIS HIGH SCHOOL TEAM.
Below is a video of the coach, Fred Lynch, who is associated with this myth that “CUT”” Michael Jordan in High School..
Hear it from the man himself … He calls it: “Hollywood Fiction”
The Day Michael Jeffery Jordan Changed Basketball In France
THE CROWNING MOMENT IN FRANCE’S BASKETBALL HISTORY
The 1997 McDonald’s Championship took place at Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, France. The Chicago Bulls won the tournament and Michael Jordan was named the tournament MVP.
The teams that took part in the 8th edition of the tournament were the Chicago Bulls (USA), Paris Basket Racing (France), Olympiacos Piraeus (Greece), Atenas de Cordoba (Argentina), Benetton Treviso (Italy) and FC Barcelona (Spain).[2]
Surprisingly, both the Italian and Spanish champions, traditional European powerhouses Benetton and FC Barcelona, lost their preliminary stage games and were forced to battle for 5th place. The Chicago Bulls instead led by Michael Jordan, and without Scottie Pippen managed to win their semifinal game against the hosts PSG Racing coached by Božidar Maljković, by 89–82. In the final game Chicago Bulls faced European champions Olympiacos Piraeus. The Greek side coached by legendary Serbian coach Dušan Ivković proved stronger than PSG Racing, but the Bulls pulled the best of their abilities and cruised to an easy 104–78 win.[3]
The tournament was noted for having more than 1,000 journalists from 54 countries covering it, more than the previous NBA finals.[4] It was mentioned in an early episode of the documentary miniseries, The Last Dance.
THE CONCLUSION:
What will be the result of the Victor Wembanyama legacy. In 2026 his team the San antonio Spurs made it to the NBA Finals, falling short of winning the Championship losing to the New York Knicks.
We will leave you with this thought. The Michael Jordan Legacy demonstrates that you cannot achieve an NBA Championship by yourself, no matter how good you are as an individual player. He was good.
We believe this applies to every basketball player. The fact of how tall you are, and how skilled of a tall player you might be does not provide team shampionships in and of itself.
Victor Wembanyama is tall and skilled. He may be the tallest most skilled player to have ever played the game. However, he can’t win an NBA Championship by himself. It’s never been accomplished by a single player, none that we know of.
It takes a team to win an NBA Championship. Through the decades, we have witnessed dozens of great individuals who were of tremendous basketball skill that did not have a single championship trophy.
Winning NBA Championships is like a rope made up of many individual inter-twinded strands of ropes, all twisted together and making a single rope stronger, thicker, and more durable, a rope that doesn’t break under the pressure.
This is the secret magic of the game of basketball that only the masters of the game have created, a team that does not break on the road to a championship.
One must not be blinded by myths and endure much in order to win multiple championships. It took Michael Jordan many years, until the age of 28, after spending a decade of being taught by masters of the game, to win an NBA title. Victor Wembanyama is 22 years of age, at this time. His outcome shall now unfold in front of us.
Our advice to Victor Wembanyama is: “DO NOT BELIEVE THE MYTH(S)”!
Improve everyday … mind, body and soul.
Pursue Your dream of an NBA Championship.
TAKE A DIGITAL TRIP INTO BASKETBALL HISTORY
… learn about the bygone who set the foundation for the sport
… … leading a generation of players that are storming the gates
Wembanyama Online.com
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Wemby's Connections To Michael
SHARING THE SAME BASKETBALL TREE
