2003 Top 50 List: Yes
Dan Collins List: Yes
Phil Ford was the quintessential Carolina basketball player. It’s hard to put into words what I mean by that, but perhaps those of you who watched him will understand. He was Dean Smith Carolina basketball personified. He knew instinctively what Dean wanted and, because a) he was so good and b) he always had the ball in his hands, he just made it happen. It is difficult to do justice to the skill and even artistry with which he orchestrated the action on the floor. His mastery of the Four Corners and the sense of dread and futility it created among opposing teams is one of the enduring narratives of ACC basketball history, as is his tour de force performance in the 1975 ACC Tournament, in which the Tar Heels finally stopped the irresistible force that was David Thompson. I’ve often thought that if time of possession by a player were a statistic in basketball, then Ford would be the all-time leader. Phil Ford, the point guard par excellence.
But while he is the quintessential Carolina player, is he the best player? I have no data to support this, but it seems like the prevailing opinion is that he is. Influencing that opinion is a reaction against the thoughtless invocation of Michael Jordan as the greatest by casual fans who haven’t considered the question carefully and are conflating Jordan’s NBA career with his college career. The question is further complicated by Tyler Hansbrough and Lennie Rosenbluth who have cases of their own. But I’ve already staked out my position with regard to Hansbrough and Rosenbluth, and I’m sticking to it.
But as great as Ford was, I think Michael Jordan was better. It almost seems impossible, but Jordan is now actually underrated as a college player. The pendulum has swung too far and we have lost sight of how great he actually was in college.
In many ways, this debate comes down to career value vs. peak value. Had Jordan played a fourth year, it would be easy; Jordan would be regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of college basketball and the debate would be about whether he is #1 on this list or #2. But he didn’t. Ford played four years, and Jordan played three. Ford is on all kinds of all-time leaderboards, and Jordan isn’t. Ford made All-America three times, Jordan “only” twice.
But there are two things for me that put Jordan over the top. One, he had two years that in my opinion were better than Ford’s best year. Jordan in 1984 was National Player of the Year, and it wasn’t close. He dominated the voting over some great players – Wayman Tisdale, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, and teammate Sam Perkins. Ford’s best year was his senior year of 1978. He won the Wooden Award in a very close vote over Marquette’s Butch Lee, but Lee won the AP and UPI Awards by a healthy margin. Ford in fact finished third in the UPI balloting behind Lee and Larry Bird. The data suggest that Ford and Lee were regarded as the two best players in the country in a very close competition, with a slight edge perhaps going to Lee. So when we compare Jordan 1984 to Ford 1978, advantage Jordan.
But what about Jordan’s 1983? If you look at the voting totals, it’s clear that Jordan was regarded as the second-best player in the country to Ralph Sampson. In every award for which we have voting totals – AP Player of the Year, UPI Player of the Year, Wooden Award, UPI All-America – Jordan finished second to Sampson. Jordan (61 votes) darn near won the ACC Player of the Year over Sampson (75 votes). Folks, we’re talking Ralph Sampson here. The senior year of one of the greatest players in the history of college basketball. In context, I think Jordan’s 1983 year was just as impressive, if not better, than Ford’s best year of 1978. Finishing second to Ralph Sampson is more impressive than finishing in a tie with Butch Lee.
The second factor in Jordan’s favor is this. Ford did better nationally than he did with ACC voters, and I can’t shake the sense that there is a little bit of the Bobby Hurley/Kenny Smith effect going on here. In other words, highly publicized point guards of blue blood programs who are fawned over by national writers, but whom ACC voters see for who they are. Ford was ACC Player of the Year as a senior, and by a wide margin. But as a junior, he finished a distant second to Rod Griffin. So if we match them up, both Jordan and Ford had a year where they ran away with ACC POY. But in their second-best years, Jordan finished a close second to one of the all-time greats in college basketball; Ford finished a distant second to Rod Griffin.
Now I do have to point out that Ford was a much better ACC Tournament performer than Jordan. Jordan was first team All-Tournament only once; Ford made it three times and was Most Outstanding Player as a freshman, when he led the Tar Heels to an electrifying win in the final over David Thompson and NC State.
NCAA Tournament performance? I’d call it a wash. I think you’d have to say that both players, on the whole, were a little bit disappointing in that regard, in spite of Jordan’s iconic moment in 1982. Ford’s 1977 team made a run to the national final. He had a mix of good and bad games. The other teams he played on did nothing in the tournament. Jordan’s last two teams both disappointed in the tournament. The 1984 loss to Indiana in the Sweet 16 ranks as one of the all-time disappointing endings for any team, anywhere. Jordan famously fouled out of that game and finished his college career sitting on the bench.
It really comes down to the fact that I think Jordan’s best was better than Ford’s best, and I don’t think Ford’s extra year and ACC Tournament performance is enough to make up for that. I can’t quite get past Ford’s performance in ACC POY voting. If you’re one of the five best players in ACC history, you should not be losing 89-31 to Rod Griffin, with all due respect to Griffin, whom I recognize as a historically underrated player.
Few players have fallen as far, as fast, as Ford. He was NBA Rookie of the Year and second-team All-NBA in 1979. Ford and Otis Birdsong appeared to give the Kansas City Kings a young backcourt they could build around. Ford continued to play at a very high level in his second and third years. In his last 24 games in 1981, Ford averaged 24 points and 9 assists on 53% from the field and 85% from the line. He was at the height of his powers. Then, on February 22, 1981, he was inadvertently poked in the eye by World B. Free. Expected to return quickly, Ford was unable to shake the double vision that he was experiencing, and he missed the rest of the season – a season that saw the Kings, without Ford, make an unexpected run to the Western Conference finals.
And, in short, Ford was never a good player again. He returned to the Kings the next season, but he wasn’t the same player. Alcoholism certainly played a role, and maybe that was the sole cause; I haven’t been able to find a detailed account of what happened. In any case, within a few years, he was out of the league.
Somebody is going to have to do some work to convince me that Michael Jordan has ever been UNDERrated by anyone….with the probable exception of myself. 🙂
I am curious where your idea that Ford is considered the best player ever at UNC comes from? In your post on Grant Hill, you mention that ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia that has a ranking of players. They had Jordan #4 in the ACC, ahead of Ford, right? And I remember Dick Vitale always had a list of 5 names he considered “the best in ACC history–since 1970.” Pretty sure Jordan was on that list, not Ford. I’m not 100% sure, but I think it was David Thompson, Jordan, Laettner….somebody (Sampson? Duncan? IDK)….and “MR. GRANT HILL, BABY!!” Which was one reason I usually ignored whatever Vitale said.
Now, I have argued that Phil Ford is the best player ever at UNC. But I’ve always had to argue that, because no one else believes it, or they’ve never heard anyone say it. At least, no one with any basketball authority, like Dick Vitale.
I also wonder about your idea of Jordan playing for Bobby Cremins. If Jordan had played somewhere else, yes, he still would’ve been the best player in the country in 1984. But would he have won national Player of the Year awards playing for a team that finished 20-14 or whatever? Jordan deserved every award he ever won. But sometimes, deserving players don’t win. No one will ever convince me that Len Bias wasn’t the best player in the country in 1986, when he was a senior at Maryland. But he didn’t win any awards, because Maryland wasn’t that good. Johnny Dawkins at Duke and Walter Berry at St. John’s won the national POY awards; Duke and St. John’s were both top-5 teams. In my (possibly biased) mind, 1986 Len Bias was every bit as good as 1984 Michael Jordan. But when it comes to doing a ranking like this, I guess that doesn’t matter and shouldn’t really. But it doesn’t change what I believe.
What this all boils down to is that when I was 10 years old, Michael Jordan made the shot to win the championship for the hated Tar Holes, and I’ll never give him credit for anything, ever. I will say this: I wish he was as good as an owner as he was as a player.
Like I said, I have no data to support it. But I feel like I’ve been part of many conversations over the years with Carolina fans who dismiss the idea that Jordan is the best as a product of the ignorant masses and/or the fawning media, and they assert that “real Carolina fans” know that Phil Ford was really the best. Maybe a better description would have been that it’s a trendy contrarian opinion among Carolina Fans Of A Certain Age.