THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 30, 1995 TAG: 9503300454
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 154 lines
It reads like a script for one of those mini-drama shoe commercials.
The established pro star gets word of this new kid on campus at his old school, doing things that he used to do and maybe even doing them better.
So he goes back to see for himself, finds the kid in the gymnasium, and asks, ``Hey, think you can play with me?''
But this was no commercial.
It was a day in early January when Michael Jordan came home to Chapel Hill and invited Jerry Stackhouse to a game of one-on-one.
There were no cameras and no sellout audience.
Just Michael and Stack, and a few other North Carolina players who were fortunate to be present.
``Michael really was there to practice with the team for a few days,'' Stackhouse recalled last week in Birmingham, Ala., where North Carolina won the Southeast Region championship to advance to the Final Four.
``I guess it was inevitable that we would wind up going against each other. So many comparisons had been made about us. It had been talked about so much.
``Quotes he had said. Quotes I had said. Someone asked if I would like to play him one-on-one. I said, `Yeah.' That is the only way you can judge where you stand, playing the best. I definitely feel he is the best.''
Stackhouse says he held his own in the rim-jarring confrontation.
``Michael wasn't in top shape then,'' Stackhouse said, ``but I felt with him being rusty that he still was better than a lot of guys at their best.''
No one kept score.
``We were just playing,'' Stackhouse said.
``He probably won, something like 18-10. You just can't guard him. He can hit the `J' all day if you lay off him.''
As for himself, Stackhouse said, ``After that game, I don't think he feels too shabby about me.''
The 6-foot-6 Stackhouse has been drawing comparisons with Jordan since entering North Carolina two years ago.
Both were All-Americans and national player-of-the-year selections by their sophomore years.
Jordan is from Wilmington, N.C., about 100 miles southeast of Kinston, where Stackhouse grew up.
They have the same quiet confidence about their abilities and the same showmanship in their game.
``Stackhouse is a little Jordanesque in the things he can do,'' Maryland coach Gary Williams said during the season.
``You don't want to burden anyone by comparing them to Jordan, but he might be as close as anyone coming up.''
Kentucky coach Rick Pitino drew a similar comparison last week before Stackhouse led North Carolina over the Wildcats in the regional championship game.
``The thing I love about Stackhouse is he comes to play every second,'' Pitino said. ``I like his passion for the game.
``He has that Michael Jordan-type ability. I don't mean to put him in the class with Michael just yet, but the bigger the game, the bigger he plays.''
Stackhouse seems to enjoy such comparisons.
``I try to do things to the best of my abilities,'' he said. ``If someone sees them as some of the things Michael does, that is great.''
Just like Jordan, when games are close and winding down to the final seconds, Stackhouse wants the ball in his hands.
After leading North Carolina into overtime against Wake Forest in the ACC tournament championship game, Stackhouse took the last shot for a victory and missed.
The next afternoon, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, he headed straight to the practice court after classes.
From the same place on the court that he had missed the day before, he hit three straight times.
``I always want to take the last shot,'' he said, ``but I know someone has to win, someone has to lose.
``If I hit the winning shot or not, I would never consider myself a failure. I have too many more games to play to fear failure.''
Stackhouse believes he was born with a natural thirst to be the one who controls the outcome of a close game.
He compares that aggressiveness to a small child grabbing a favorite toy and refusing to share it. If someone tries to take it, the child holds it tighter.
``It is not being selfish, but holding on to what you have. That is something I never outgrew,'' Stackhouse said.
``My teammates will tell you I am not a selfish player. Still, I want to feel in control of a game. I want to take that last shot.
``There is a thin line between being mediocre and being great.
``A lot of people have the physical ability to do great things but don't have the mindset to say `I want to be the best, I am going to be the best.'
``That is the way I feel. I'm not saying I am the best, but I feel I am improving and that is the thing . . . as long as you improve you have the chance to be the best.''
Stackhouse recalled a saying that his mom, Minnie, often tells him.
``She's like, `Don't ever rest until you are better than better and your best is the best.' ''
Stackhouse is the youngest of 11 children. His father was a truck driver and his mother a minister.
Stackhouse grew up knowing he was going to be a big-time basketball player.
He often expressed that belief, too, as he did in junior high school when he informed his coach that one day he was going to play at Georgetown.
``He kinda of laughed like he didn't believe I could go to Georgetown,'' Stackhouse recalled.
``He was doubting me, and I guess that was natural with me coming from a small town and not a lot of people making it from there.
``Like now if a sixth-grader tells me he is going to play at North Carolina, I am like, `Oh, OK, sure. Good luck.' ''
When others doubted the little boy Stackhouse, though, that only made him more determined. He watched the pro superstars do their thing on television and he did his thing on the playground.
``I felt I was going to be another Dr. J or Magic Johnson,'' he said. ``I was going to play at a major college and in the pros and be very good at it, and didn't think I would have to to work that hard at it. That was just the way I felt.''
Where did he get such bold confidence?
``I always could do things a little better than other kids my age,'' he said.
Playing basketball never seemed like hard work. Not even in the hot summers of eastern North Carolina.
``I played all day,'' Stackhouse said. ``No matter how hot it was I would still be out there. At that age you didn't try to work on anything, you just played.''
When it came time for college, Stackhouse could have gone to Georgetown or any other major school.
He selected North Carolina because he believed that was where he could best improve as a player and prepare himself for the professional level.
``I have learned to play any style of basketball there is,'' he said.
``If you want to get up and down the court, I can do that. If you want to play halfcourt, I can do that.''
The only question he hasn't answered is if he will play another season at North Carolina or make himself available for the draft.
Pitino, a former NBA coach, believes if Stackhouse comes out he will be one of the top three or four players selected.
Stackhouse says he is not obsessed with the thought of proving himself on the pro level.
``I definitely think about that opportunity, but it is not that I feel anxious about wanting to prove myself on the next level,'' he said.
``I have something to prove every time I go onto the court. Even at the pro level if you are playing well, you still have to prove yourself because there is somebody who can come in and knock you off the next night.''
Stackhouse's mother has said there are things her son wants to accomplish before he leaves Carolina. He hopes one day his jersey will be retired and hang from the top of the Dean Dome, along with Jordan's.
Stackhouse already has accomplished most of the goals he set for himself in college, and he can add another big one in the next few days if the Tar Heels win the national championship.
Nothing would please him more, too, if he did it by leaving behind another comparison to Jordan, who won the 1982 championship for North Carolina with the last shot. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Stackhouse: ``I try to do things to the best of my abilities. If
someone sees them as some of the things Michael does, that is
great.''
by CNB