MICHAEL JORDAN’S KID WAS BETTER THAN BRONNY JAMES — HE DIDN’T DRAFT HIM

The Nepo Baby has historical company, Marcus Jordan, a standout at Central Florida when his father was majority owner of the NBA’s Charlotte franchise — and Michael showed no interest as boss

     Let me deliver eyeballs to a stat line from December 2010. Marcus Jordan, a 6-3 shooting guard, scored 18 points for Central Florida in an upset of 16th-ranked Florida. He led the Knights to an 8-0 start, playing for bigger student crowds inside a new arena while wearing goggles and “M. JORDAN” on his back. He was shooting three-pointers at 48 percent. He was turning 20 years old.

     The coach, Donnie Jones, heard regularly from Jordan’s father. He pointed out that Michael Jordan never extended himself beyond family blood. “He’s just concerned about his boys, like any other dad, except that, obviously, he is maybe the best player who ever played the game,” Jones told a school publication.

     Unlike LeBron James, who made sure the Los Angeles Lakers drafted nepotism-baby Bronny at No. 55 in the NBA draft, Jordan did not tell colleagues that his son also had scored 28 points in the season opener. Oh, he could have. He’d just become the majority owner of the league’s Charlotte team, approved unanimously. What better way to take command than think about drafting Marcus in, say, the second round? Hadn’t he already achieved much more than Bronny James had at USC?

     It never happened. Jordan drafted Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Cody Zeller and never said anything publicly about Marcus or brother Jeffrey, who had transferred to UCF after a walk-on career at Illinois and averaged 1.6 points in his collegiate career. Both players left the Knights, including Marcus before his senior season, after averaging 13.7 points as a junior. The team was hit with a one-year postseason ban by NCAA infractions, while Marcus was charged with resisting arrest while attending the Olympic swimming trials in Omaha, Neb. Couldn’t his father have led him to glory?

     No.

     Michael Jordan is not LeBron James. He is not a phony baloney who demands our constant media attention. He’s a father who knew his kid wasn’t good enough for the NBA, even if he was the Hornets owner and could have slammed home the concept.

     Since then, depending on the day, Marcus may or may not be involved with Scottie Pippen’s ex-wife. They had a dinner by candlelight in May, with Marcus posting a photo captioned “Double Trouble.” Better that than being cut by his father? Michael sold his majority stake of the Charlotte franchise, remaining a minority owner who plays golf at his Florida course and is concerned, as a 23XI Racing owner, that NASCAR is “going to die.” He is 61 years old. He cares for his kids as much as LeBron cares for his; my ears are still burning from his warning before I covered Jeffrey in an AAU game in Memphis. They did not have to keep playing basketball, which is assuming Bronny really does in the end.

     And it should be clear to everyone that Jordan never needed to pull public maneuvers, that he’s the greatest player ever — with six championships in 13 Chicago seasons — and will remain that way. LeBron remains stuck on four as he continues toward a 22nd season. He forced the Lakers to draft his kid, whose skill set never will be ready for the real NBA, in some sort of power move. This not only is nepotism, it’s an extreme turbo-maniac version.

     Michael Jordan won all his acclaim on the court. He doesn’t have to be a weasel away from it.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.