Roy Williams, MJ, & the Time Kansas (Almost) Joined Jordan Brand

The story of how a historic team and a coach connected to it were so close to stamping Jayhawks basketball with the Jumpman logo with Jordan Brand

On Tuesday night, players from the Kansas Jayhawks completed the most dramatic comeback in the time of NCAA, the men’s (with Jordan Brand) basketball national title game.

In the 15th minute, down by 15 points in the second half against the hot North Carolina Tar Heels, Bill Self’s team went on a winning streak for the record books. As the clock read zeros, Kansas claimed their first win since 2008 and the fourth in school history.

The bravery of Remy Martin and David McCormack came in Adidas clothes and coincided with the university’s enormous endorsement agreement, which is worth $14 million annually.

As the sprinkles fell, UNC’s roster was blue, literally and metaphorically.

Tears were streaming down the faces of Caleb Love and Armando Bacot, two Tar Heel hoopers that became two of the most prominent star performers of the spring. Both players brought their elusive Air Jordan temperatures to The Big Dance, making the most of the long-running Jordan Brand endorsement.

Although both schools are on opposite sides of the track in terms of endorsement agreements are, concerned. It wasn’t always that way.

In the early 2000s, the newly founded Jordan Brand was trying to establish its place within the world of basketball in the NCAA tournament. Although it was confirmed that the Tar Heels and Cincinnati Bearcats were already on their rosters, another powerful program attracted the attention of MJ and Co.

This team?

The same team shot Mike’s former school on Monday night.

A Legacy in Lawrence

In 1898, the University of Kansas brought on its first significant basketball player.

This talent? It’s Dr James Naismith, the man who invented the game.

Following his appointment as an instructor, Dr. Phog Allen developed the basketball program at the school. He became the first president of Jayhawk Nation. He was able to take over the program in 1907 when he gave the reigns to an ex-Jayhawk player named Dr. Phog Allen, who established a coaching tree that produced substantial fruit.

With Allen in charge, Kansas won its first national championship in 1952. In a time when basketball shorts were worn with buckles on the belt, this most elite team in the country benefited from the leadership of its locker rooms with the help of an incoming sophomore guard named Dean Smith.

Smith is a math major who moved to Lawrence with an academic scholarship and played three sports at Kansas but quickly discovered an eye for hoops. After completing his studies, Smith took on an assistant coach role alongside Allen and eventually took the reigns of Chapel Hill in 1961.

In 1982, Smith took home his first National title as head coach due to a clutch shot from the freshman guard, who was playing Mike Jordan at the time.

A decade later, in 1997, the man we know as Michael was to return to play in the exact arena where Coach Smith learned about the game. In 1997, he brought his Chicago Bulls to Kansas’ campus for an exhibition match with Seattle’s Seattle Supersonics; MJ had achieved heights not even Naismith or Smith could have imagined. He’d been awarded five NBA championships and was just weeks away from announcing the most significant business venture ever: Jordan Brand. This company bears his name, which falls under Nike. Nike brand.

When Paul Pierce and Raef LaFrentz could keep Kansas shining as the number. Two teams in the country as they entered 1998 had surprises in store despite being highly scouted. After making it to the 1997 Sweet 16 in Champion uniforms and Head Coach, Roy Williams’ roster would begin the season with new uniforms sourced from Swoosh.

As Dean Smith, Coach Williams had strong ties to North Carolina and Michael Jordan. As a graduate assistant, Roy was able to watch Mike grow at local Laney High School before personally making the leaper he had missed into Five Star Camp.

At the time, Williams saw two things in Mike that made him think of his charisma and work ethic. This was enough for him to arrange an additional spot for Jordan at the prestigious pre hoops camp. In exchange for the favour, the player entrusted Mike to be an employee of the camp’s waitstaff without playing to allow him to attend at a discounted cost.

Notably, Roy. was living his own life. He’d spent his first season as an assistant at North Carolina moonlighting similarly. Because of his modest salary, He was a salesperson on the road during the off-hours travelling across the state to sell calendars for the Tar Heel team calendars.

Friends for life, Mike and Roy reunited in Lawrence in October of 1997 to go to the pre-season NBA outing. After the game, MJ took pictures with Roy’s squad and even gifted the junior Carolina large man TJ Pugh his worn-out sneakers.

The act of random kindness could have foreshadowed when children in Kansas might receive more than one pair of shoes from Mike.

There’s more likely to be enough heat for the entire team.

Deal or No Deal?

In the early part of the 21st century, Nike began paying Kansas around $650,000 annually to wear their apparel on the basketball court and the football field. The early 1990s were an exciting time for Jayhawk hoops, and they were in two Final Fours in 2002 and 2003.

At the time, it was the time that the reasonably brand new Jordan Brand was spreading its wings throughout the sports world of college.

In 1997 The Jumpman began their first season by supplying Cincinnati, St. John’s, Cal, and North Carolina A&T. At the end of the 1999-2000 year, Mike saw it fit to bring his old school into the group. Roy Williams’ program over in Lawrence is not far away from his horizon.

Each summer, many Jayhawk stars helped coach at Mike’s offseason camp. They also developed connections between the GOAT and receiving shoes in exchange for their help. This included players like point guard Aaron Miles and swingman Keith Langford.

“I worked the Michael Jordan Camp in Santa Barbara,” Langford told me in 2017. “You’d purchase gear in the summer and create contacts. They’d send their shoes with feedback, and it went well.”

In the early 90s, Miles and Langford rocked retro designs of Jordan Brand, as well as brand new designs from Mike’s most popular collection. When they were able to give the highest number of aids in Big-12 and school in history, Miles often wore a brand-named headband from Jumpman, a fashion choice typically reserved for official JB schools such as Cincy and Cal.

Some sources suggest Kansas may have wasn’t officially a Jordan Brand school despite Swoosh logos being featured in their shorts.

For the issue that appeared in the winter 2003 edition of the famous brand Jordan Magazine — printed through the company, the KU logo is featured under the heading “Jordan University” in a short article that discusses the advantages of being a part-time student with the GOAT.

“Because Roy Williams had the relationship with Michael Jordan as an assistant coach at North Carolina to Dean Smith, we were able to get exclusive gear,” Langford said.

Exclusive equipment meant Rock Chalk shades from Jumpman Team Bizness, Jumpman Team Bizness, Jumpman Team FBI, and the Jumpman Team 10/16 shoes. It also signified an extremely rare retro that is popular in the present: The Air Jordan 13 Kansas PE.

“I still have those on ice,” Langford told me. “They might resurface one day for an alumni game at Kansas.”

Although Kansas was just on the verge of becoming a fully-branded Jumpman-themed school during the 2000s, it never came to fruition. Even with free equipment from working camps and PE teams that were meant to make the school more appealing, even the most outstanding students like Langford still needed to visit the mall to get any new releases by Jordan Brand.

In most ways, the nail in the coffin fell with the announcement that Roy Williams accepted the head coach position at his old school, the hill in Chapel Hill.

Although he changed schools in spring 2003, the Jayhawks were still receiving Jordan exclusives, with dates for production being released at the end of October. The sneakers were used in Miles and Langford’s hands at the beginning of March 2005; they switched to Adidas when they announced it in April of 2005 -only one month from their peak temperatures.

In the days of three Stripes, Kansas would make $3.3 million per year, which is a figure that was not believed to be equal to Jordan. With the new Coach Bill Self on the sideline, the school’s revamp of clothing didn’t deter the team’s winning streak, and the team slashed the nets of the championship after the year 2008.

Presently, Kansas remains locked in with the Stripes at the beginning of the contract extension, which runs until 2031. Exclusives of the team to the Rock Chalk roster bare no Jumpman branding, but they do make use of the iconic styles that are tied to Dame Lillard and the other players from the Adi family. Adi family.

Today they’re cutting nets down and are still bringing home check after check. However, as the Jayhawks are basking in the glory of the championship once more, it’s hard not to think what the outcome would have been, being Roy stuck around in Lawrence and made a deal with his old friend MJ finally.

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