UNC Basketball: Roy Williams tells incredible recruiting story about Michael Jordan

UNC Basketball head coach Roy Williams tells an awesome recruiting story about Michael Jordan that was left out of “The Last Dance”.

If you’ve watched the first six episodes of ESPN’s 10-part documentary “The Last Dance” then you’ve seen some good interviews. Among them was North Carolina head coach Roy Williams who was a member of Dean Smith’s staff when Jordan was at Carolina.

Williams told some good stories about Jordan while at North Carolina and offered some good insight for the documentary.

Even with 10 episodes set, director Jason Hehir revealed that he had to cut out some interviews for space. Among them was a good story that Williams told about Jordan’s recruitment and his father, James, gifting him something special.

Hehir appeared on “The Will Cain Show” to discuss the documentary and the interviews he recorded for this piece. Cain asked Hehir if there was a good story that he had to leave out of the documentary, something that he really wish he didn’t but just had to do.

That’s when Hehir responded by telling him about the interview where Williams reveals that Jordan’s father built him a woodburning stove during his recruitment.

Awful Announcing breaks down the audio:

"“You know who was gold was Roy Williams. When you asked who was the most fun to interview, he’s right up there. Because he’s right out of central casting with that southern accent and this kind of avuncular old college coach. He was the guy who recruited Michael to UNC, so he knew the Jordan family really well, he knew the parents really well. And in the course of Michael’s recruitment to UNC, Michael’s dad built him a woodburning stove with his bare hands.”“Roy told the story of how Mr. Jordan shows up with this wood stove on a truck. Out of nowhere, rings his doorbell. And this is in the process of Michael being recruited. It’s one thing for a coach to be giving you something, but for the recruit to be giving a coach something, that’s just how generous a guy James was, and how much he appreciated how kind Roy Williams was. And Roy was a part-time coach at that point, I think he was earning like $8,000 a year to be a coach at UNC.”"

Hehir goes on to say that the woodburning stove comes up another time years later down the road when Williams is selling his house. Potential buyers are looking at the stove and asked if it was a Fishers. Williams simply added: “No, that’s a Jordan.”

That’s awesome.

It’s been years since that happened and I truly need to know if this stove still exists or if anyone even knew when they bought the house what they had on their hands. Either way, that’s a fantastic story and I’m sure Roy has plenty more.

Episodes 7 and 8 of “The Last Dance” will air this Sunday night on ESPN beginning at 9 p.m. EDT.

For more on UNC Basketball, Roy Williams and Michael Jordan, please check back with Keeping It Heel.