Michael Jordan's first game in Chicago was played in high school gym

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What if I told you that Michael Jordan’s very first Bulls game in the Chicago area was played in a high school gymnasium.

Would you believe it?

And that this gym at Washington High School in East Chicago, Ind. was just like Mike, 23 miles away from downtown Chicago.

If you’ve been fascinated by how Jordan’s Bulls career came to an end in "The Last Dance” documentary, how it began here in Chicago truly boggles the mind 36 years later.

RELATED: ESPN to air "The Last Dance" post-series special with Magic Johnson, Stephen A. Smith

On Oct. 9, 1984, when Jordan was a rookie, he and the Bulls played their third preseason game and first in the Chicago area, taking on Terry Cummings, Sidney Moncrief and the Milwaukee Bucks. The game was not at their home court at Chicago Stadium, but instead just across the Illinois-Indiana border in this industrial steel town that was given an incredible gift from the NBA gods.

“We were very excited. I mean, to have Michael Jordan playing at your high school gym? He was coming off the Olympics," said Michael Puente, who was a sophomore at Washington High School and now is a news reporter for WBEZ-Radio. "Everybody was crazy about it.  It’s near the top as one of the biggest events that ever occurred in the city of East Chicago."

Four months after Jordan was drafted third overall by the Bulls, this was the first chance Bulls fans could watch their prized rookie in a game, live and in the flesh. And no, the game wasn’t televised.

“Looking back, it’s hard to believe that that’s how it all transpired,” said Tim Hallam, the Bulls senior director of oublic and media relations. “Back then, we did play preseason games in high school gyms, as did a lot of other teams.  It was a way to get your team out in the community and let other people see the game that may not have ever seen a Bulls game.”

Jordan might have been ready for the NBA, but the NBA wasn’t quite ready for Jordan.

“His first day of practice was remarkable,” former Bull Sidney Green said of Jordan. “He was just jumping over everyone, dunking over everyone, out-quicking everyone, not only physically but mentally.”

Fans packed the high school gymnasium to see Jordan, but another local draw was the Bucks' Junior Bridgeman, an East Chicago native who led Washington High School to a state title in 1971. However, a week before the game, there was a little snafu — Bridgeman got traded to the Los Angeles Clippers.

“A lot of people thought the game was just going to be cancelled,” Puente said. “But I think there was some maneuvering to say we still have Michael Jordan coming, so let’s still have the game. And honestly, having Jordan there probably would have overshadowed Junior Bridgeman, as proud as we are of Junior Bridgeman. I mean, come on. It was still Michael Jordan.”

But as Moncrief remembers it, the main attraction wasn’t Jordan, it was Cummings, who grew up in Chicago, starred at DePaul and was the key player the Bucks received in the trade involving Bridgeman.

“They cheered Terry like crazy because he’s a Chicago guy,” Moncrief said. “They cheered Michael, but not quite like Terry. They just didn’t understand what was going to happen in the future, in Michael Jordan’s future.”

During layup drills before the game, Moncrief, Cummings and Paul Pressey went up to Green and his Bulls teammates asking about M.J.

“They all came to me and several other players and said, ‘Is this guy really that good? Is he really what they say he is?’” Green recalled. “Then we all looked at (Jordan) and said, ‘You’ll see.’ And he put on a dynamic performance in front of those kids down there.”

Wearing his sparkling white Bulls home uniform, Jordan dazzled the crowd from the opening tip. Despite being 21 years old and playing against one of the best teams in the NBA, Jordan was already the best player on the court.

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Just ask Moncrief, then a two-time All-Star, who had the job of trying to guard him.

“I was just out there trying to survive, not trying to get embarrassed too much, because his level of play was so high,” Moncrief said. “I was like, ‘Am I this bad or is he this good?’”

His Airness was just taking flight.

“I just remember watching him play, the way the kids were oohing and ahhing from his uncanny moves that he was exhibiting that night. It was incredible,” Green said.

Puente says the students were so amazed by what they saw from Jordan, they couldn’t sit down.

“You couldn’t relax. It wasn’t one of those games. You had to take it all in,” he said. “I know Jordan slammed at least once or twice, I mean easily. For high school players it can be a struggle, but for him, he just glided up there and did it.”

The Bulls beat the Bucks 100-87. Jordan led all scorers with 22.

Stopping the Bulls rookie on the court was a challenge, but getting him out of the building safely afterwards was an even greater one.

“Back then, we didn’t have the security that we do now, and playing in a high school gym presented a lot of problems,” Hallam said. “After the game, the security was not even close to what it would be today.”

What was the security?

“There was none.”

Hallam vividly remembers running down the hallway with Jordan trying to get to the locker room before a sea of fans nearly crushed them.

“There was nobody to stop them and they were so excited. They would have done anything to get up and touch him,” Hallam said. “That was the beginning for me to see that he was indeed like the Pied Piper. It signified, ‘Wow, this guy is really going to be something.’”

But while Jordan’s career was just beginning, Washington High School’s days were about to be over. Two years later, the school closed its doors and was bulldozed to the ground.

“The city of East Chicago decided to combine schools. There was another high school called East Chicago Roosevelt. At the time, they decided to just have one high school," Puente said. "I guess it was more economically feasible. So, they tore down that historic gymnasium. A lot of people were at odds doing that. “Fortunately for me, I was part of the last graduating class of East Chicago Washington. A special distinction for me as the Class of ’86.”

As for Jordan, he would soon be in a class by himself.

“There was a quote that I said about Jordan that season,” Sidney Green said about his teammate. “I said, ‘He’s the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help us God.’”

Amen.

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