A sharp mind, rubbing people the wrong way. That’s what JJ Redick did when he claimed on ‘The Big Podcast With Shaq’ that Michael Jordan played in a “watered-down league.” His Airness has been an emotion for basketball fanatics on and off the court, along with his pioneering deal with Nike, and the way he carries himself publicly boosts his stature on an elite pedestal. As always, the MJ faithful charged toward Redick, with the Suns’ announcer Eddie Johnson leading the way. But Redick shrugged that off quickly, calling his claims “funny”, not revealing any detail as to why the Lakers head coach was condemning it.

However, NFL legend, Cris Carter seems to have figured out the root cause of the debate was where JJ was coming from. While discussing why Redick even went down that road of calling Michael Jordan out, the former ESPN analyst addressed an issue, on Fully Loaded, which was much bigger than the Redick-Jordan debate when he said, “You have to go back to a little history.”

“There happens to be a rivalry down there in North Carolina Tobacco Road between a school named Duke and a school named Carolina Blue. It’s bigger than him in Jordan, it’s Duke-Carolina. He (Redick) is a smart guy. He didn’t make an idiotic argument. He made a very educated, calculated argument.” Now, it must be obvious for you to be assuming how these two big NBA names are connected with the JJ Redick argument. Interestingly, JJ is the all-time leading scorer for the Duke Blue Devils men’s basketball team (2,769 points), a rival to the prominent university in the same region, the University of North Carolina.

As we delve deep into it, it dates back to when Michael Jordan was the most sought-after basketball athlete after high school. He grew up in North Carolina, so naturally, two prestigious universities from that state, Duke and UNC, were competing to acquire MJ. However, he chose the North Carolina Tar Heels ultimately in 1980 and won them the 1982 NCAA National Championship title against Georgetown. In MJ’s words, “That was the birth of Michael Jordan. Before that, I was Mike Jordan.”

Though JJ Redick and Michael Jordan played in different eras, North Carolina almost defeated Duke when MJ was on board. Even during the 1984 ACC Tournament, when Tar Heels and Duke played the semifinal against each other. It was His Airness’ final year with the varsity team, and his offensive rebound with five seconds left almost secured him a victory. However, the Tar Heels missed by a mere 2 points; David Henderson missed his free throw, followed by a bad pass, three seconds before the end, and Duke tipped over the finish line.

JJ Redick once lost to Michael Jordan’s college team!

The UNC-Duke rivalry, which is often referred to as the Tobacco Road Nemeses, stretches for almost over 100 years. With such a vast history and campuses about eight miles apart, the No.3 [UNC] and No.4 [Duke] all-time winners have displayed some of the best basketball games with their adrenaline-rushing moments over the years. Michael Jordan was part of that legacy when he was at UNC, keeping his team at the status of almost undefeated with his unfathomable talent. JJ Redick was also a relevant part of this rivalry during his stint with the Blue Devils from 2002 to 2006.

On March 6, 2005, when UNC and Duke met in the ACC regular season finals, Shelden Williams, along with JJ Redick, were there to stop their arch-nemesis. And they had a 73-64 lead with three minutes left. Shelden and Redick added 39 points combined. However, as the game approached its end, Tar Heels swiftly recovered their margin, bringing it down to 73-71. With half a minute left in the game, Marvin Williams got a free throw for a foul and gave UNC their crucial 75-73 lead in the end. And Redick and Co. went to miss two of their shots on the other end, leading UNC to a victory.

So Cris Carter might have pulled the right string when he addressed JJ Redick’s criticism, that it might not be something based on only the league accolades of Michael Jordan or his personal achievements. It was something bigger than just two individuals and more about the history that they are part of, which has been going strong for about a century.

Seemingly, that’s why he could’ve commented on the lack of competency in the MJ era, ignoring greats of the game like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Reggie Miller, and many others. Though the new Lakers head coach made a statement knowing about the potential repercussions, he ignored the quality of the competitors and focused on the number of competitors in the present-day basketball era.

If we take into account what JJ Redick might’ve intentionally missed in his argument, what would be your conclusion on this controversy? Let us know your views on this in the comments.