Whether it's his hand-switching layup against the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals, his dunk over Patrick Ewing, his final shot over Bryon Russell to win his sixth championship, or something more personal, everybody has a memory of Michael Jordan.

The News Tribune asked several members of the Seattle SuperSonics what their most compelling memory of the game's greatest player is before they have to face him today for the first time in his comeback.

Nate McMillan, who grew up in Raleigh, N.C., a few hours from Jordan's hometown of Wilmington, N.C.: "I remember the first time I ever met him. I met Michael in high school. I read about him in all the local papers, and I remember wanting to play against him.

"My brother (Randy) taught at the University of (North Carolina at) Wilmington, and Michael would come over in the summers and play with all those guys. My brother was teaching summer school, and I went down knowing Michael would be there playing, and I wanted to play against him. I ended up playing with him. He was about to become a freshman at North Carolina and he dominated college boys even then. To see him then, and see what he has become ... I knew him when he was Mike, not Michael.

"My brother always told me that the guy just loved to play. Always came out and played hard. And he played everybody. Talent, no talent, girls, little kids, he always wanted to play. We played together that day, and we never lost. ... It wasn't like I was scoring a bunch or anything. But he was doing then what he does now. Dominating, jumping over guys, dunking on them."

Via

Washington Wizards, Oklahoma City

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