Gravley: LeBron passing Michael stirs up two career memories for me

By Jeff Gravley

Watching LeBron James pass Michael Jordan in NBA career scoring brought back a few memories. Two of my all-time favorite career moments involved LeBron and Michael. I loved watching both play basketball in person but my Jordan story is about baseball.

After his first NBA retirement in 1993, MJ decided to play professional baseball in the spring and summer of 1994. It was something that brought back memories of his late father, who was killed in the summer of 1993. He ended up in the Chicago White Sox organization and assigned to Double-A Birmingham. They were in the Southern League with the Carolina Mudcats.

Jordan had purchased an upgraded $350,000 bus for the Birmingham team to travel in. So one Saturday, my assignment was to cover Jordan’s trip to Five County Stadium to play the Mudcats. I wanted to get there early enough to get a shot of the bus rolling in carrying Michael Jordan. The game was at 7pm but I got there around 2. I lugged my TV camera to the visitor’s clubhouse to wait for the bus, when a member of the grounds crew asked why I was there so early. “To get a shot of Jordan getting off the bus he bought,” I said. “He’s already here in the clubhouse,” replied the groundskeeper.

Knowing that the clubhouse is open to the media before a game I figured, why not? So I made my way to the door and peered through the small window and sure enough, there sat Michael Jordan with an ice-pack on his wrist. (He hurt it sliding head first on a steal)

I went in and introduced myself and told Jordan I worked for WRAL. He perked up, remembering that WRAL had covered him at North Carolina. He even joked, “Did Tom Suiter ever get married?” I gladly said yes. We talked about how things were with North Carolina basketball at the time and the next thing I knew, 20 minutes had passed. During parts of the conversation I would tell myself, “Hey, this is just a guy who was born the same year as me.” But that quickly was washed away with “Yeah, but that’s Michael Jordan you’re chatting with!!”

Before leaving I asked if we could do an on-camera. Jordan chuckled, “Why? I’m batting .200.” My instant reply was “Sure, but it’s Michael Jordan hitting .200!” He politely declined a pregame interview but vowed to meet up after the game. Which he did. Jordan finished his minor league career with a .202 batting average, 3 home runs, 51 RBI and 30 stolen bases.

My LeBron story occurred after I left WRAL in the spring of 2000 to work at WEWS in Cleveland, Ohio. My stint there lasted 3 years and it happened to coincide with the high school career of LeBron James. In the fall of his sophomore year at St. Vincent-St Mary in Akron, we started working on a documentary covering LeBron. Our goal was to follow him through the football and basketball season and do a 30-minute special during the state basketball playoffs.

My first interview with him was after a football practice. The all-state wide receiver sat on the ground in a t-shirt with the cut off sleeves and yellow football pants. He enjoyed playing football as a way to connect with a group of his friends and man could he catch passes.

But it was basketball that would be his ticket to college. Yes, LeBron was considering colleges, including Duke and North Carolina.

After the initial interview with LeBron, I met his mother Gloria who agreed to an interview. She talked about the challenges of being a single parent. She had to give up her son to another family while looking for work and a home for them to live in. It hurt her to the core to have to do that but living with Frank Walker and his family was where LeBron found basketball when he was nine years old.

After months of correspondence and interviews, we earned enough trust with Gloria and LeBron that they invited me and a TV photographer to their small, two bedroom, Akron apartment. LeBron had the more moderately sized bedroom but it was still small. Every single inch of every single wall was covered with pictures of his favorite athletes. Most were basketball players and Michael Jordan was front and center. Under a table in his room there were four mail crates of recruiting letters from colleges. Too many for to put in the mailbox, so the postman had to bring the crates up to the 6th floor apartment.

Ohio State wanted him to play basketball and football. I jokingly asked LeBron if these schools were wasting their time and postage. He politely said no but I think we both knew they were.

We sent a camera to all of his games and it was no big deal if the Lakers were playing the Cavs in Cleveland, Shaq and Kobe would show up at LeBron’s high school game. The Cavs were so bad that there were more empty seats at Gund Arena than occupied ones. That is until LeBron played a high school game there and the place was absolutely packed. It was a preview of what was to come.

As the high school postseason was winding down we aired our special called “The Coming Attraction.” I hosted along with my sidekick, Chris Miller. We put a lot of hours into that special and both of us have memories for a lifetime.

Last night I wanted to see LeBron’s postgame media gathering after he passed his idol, Michael Jordan and moved into fourth all-time in NBA scoring. This quote hit home with me and brought me to the edge of my seat as each word was spoken.

"For a kid from Akron, Ohio, that needed inspiration and needed some type of positive influence, MJ was that guy for me,” LeBron said. “I watched him from afar, wanted to be like MJ, wanted to shoot fadeaways like MJ, wanted to stick my tongue out on dunks like MJ, wanted to wear my sneakers like MJ. I wanted kids to look up to me at some point like MJ and it's just crazy, to be honest. It's beyond crazy."

It's beyond crazy that I had the opportunity to spend some time with Michael and LeBron. No matter how brief or lengthy, it has left a lasting impression on me and shed a different light on how I see both men.