Dawn of the Dawg
Fansided

Georgia basketball: Reliving the Bulldog’s run through the 1983 Elite Eight

By Peter Stoddard

ATHENS, GA - CIRCA 1981: Head coach Hugh Durham of the Georgia Bulldogs (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
ATHENS, GA - CIRCA 1981: Head coach Hugh Durham of the Georgia Bulldogs (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images) /
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Going to Chicago with Jordan

Yet on March 27, 1983, our Georgia basketball squad handed those Tar Heels an 82-77 spanking at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. The Georgia basketball world turned upside down and inside out. If Georgia could beat that powerhouse and the then winningest coach in NCAA history, what could they not do?

They would soon find out in Albuquerque, a town to which my hero Lewis Grizzard famously once asked to take a bus as an alternative to heart surgery.

But, time for a little diversion. North Carolina’s Michael Jordan and I were drafted to Chicago in the same year, 1984. His contract was slightly richer than mine, as I could only afford Bulls tickets before he turned them into winners.

I would see Jordan with his entourage (never bodyguards) at favorite Chicago restaurants such as Angelina Ristorante and Mia Francesca near Wrigley Field. I never approached his table, but he recognized me to the point of offering a nod and a grin for having the courtesy and good sense to never approach his table.

Plus, I am pretty sure MJ considered me a brother, having been drafted to Chicago in the same year, and I never gave him grief about getting his carolina blue arse kicked and eliminated by my beloved Georgia Bulldogs. So yeah, Michael and I are tight.

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