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Michael Norwood on the Carmichael pickup games, with Jordan, Worthy, Perkins, Duke/State battling.
Jul 2, 2026
Listen to the entire "Tar Heel Tribune Podcast" episode here: https://youtu.be/HuHnSNR8WdI
#UNC
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0:00
how that plays out.
0:02
>> Uh, well,
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in summer of 1980,
0:06
I went to the Carolina Basketball
0:09
School,
0:10
host I think it was Carolina Basketball
0:13
School. I don't even think Coach Smith
0:14
put his name on any of it. Carolina and
0:16
>> Wow.
0:17
>> one summer, I was a rising 10th grader,
0:20
and Curtis Hunter and I were teammates
0:23
that summer. And Curtis and I ended up
0:25
playing at Carolina together. So, crazy
0:27
small world. I started going back
0:30
years ago just to help with camp. So,
0:34
it's 1 week of Carolina Basketball's
0:36
camp, and then in between it, it's the
0:38
Eric Montross It used to be the Father's
0:40
Day camp, but the NCAA's changed their
0:42
rules. Can't have anything on Father's
0:44
Day, so they have to adjust it a little
0:46
bit, and then camp again. And it goes
0:49
straight through, and it's great cuz
0:51
working camp this this week, Curtis
0:53
Hunter was there, Pete Chilcutt, Kevin
0:56
Madden. We were all on the 1986 and '87
1:00
teams together. Warren Martin stopped
1:02
by.
1:03
Vic England, the manager. Still, you get
1:06
Once a year, you get to see
1:08
uh,
1:09
these friends that you knew 30, 40 years
1:12
ago, and you're tight with them. You're
1:15
tight with them without ever seeing each
1:16
other, which is is But, that's part of
1:19
being a teammate in Carolina
1:21
um,
1:22
Carolina family. The one thing when I
1:25
was at school, you you put We played
1:28
pickup, and it was 3:30 will uh,
1:30
Carmichael every day.
1:33
And so, the current team you'd play, and
1:35
guys would come play pickup. And there
1:37
were times when it was Jordan, Worthy,
1:41
Perkins. Phil Ford was still playing.
1:44
Uh, Dudley Bradley would come back.
1:47
>> Jeez.
1:48
>> Crompton, Jeff Crompton, Walter Davis.
1:51
So, our pickup games And then, it was
1:53
funny, the Duke and State guys would
1:55
come over, like Dawkins and and Tommy
1:58
Amaker were were
2:00
the most from Duke and then state guys,
2:02
some of them come over, but the rule was
2:05
if you're on the team, you got next. So,
2:09
the funny thing would be
2:11
I may have next to play and Johnny
2:14
Dawkins had to sit
2:16
because I got to play in front of him.
2:19
Um
2:19
>> Nice.
2:20
>> It was super awesome and we we played
2:21
every single day, Monday through
2:23
Thursday and and Mike was just out of
2:26
school, James was still coming back and
2:28
you always had to separate those two cuz
2:31
nobody could guard either one of them.
2:33
So, Johnny and Worthy would be on
2:35
opposite teams and there was so much
2:37
trash talking, it was unbelievable. And
2:40
they would
2:41
>> Well, that's the thing. The
2:42
The
2:43
Those situations got really competitive
2:45
sometimes, right?
2:46
>> Um there were fights. I mean, I saw
2:48
fights.
2:50
But I mean, [laughter] I saw you know, I
2:52
saw fights where it's over fouls and
2:54
hard fouls and score and everything. I
2:58
mean, it was You If you weren't ready to
3:00
play, you would get embarrassed and hear
3:02
about it at the same time.
3:04
>> Wow.
3:06
Yeah, when I was in
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