- Michael Jordan once ran a 40-yard dash in an astonishing 4.38 seconds, says Roy Williams, who coached Jordan while an assistant at North Carolina in the 1980s.
- “I’ll never forget this,” Williams said Monday, speaking on Fox Sports Radio. “His sophomore year he ran the 40-yard. He crossed the line and I looked and I said, ‘Wow.'”
- Williams added that he asked Jordan to repeat the run, to which Jordan replied “Too fast for you, huh?” before recording a similar time again.
- Only four athletes recorded a time faster than 4.38 seconds in the dash at this year’s NFL combine.
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Michael Jordan once ran a 40-yard dash in an astonishing 4.38 seconds, says one of his former college coaches.
Roy Williams, the longtime head coach at North Carolina, was an assistant coach there during Jordan’s sophomore year in 1982. While speaking on Fox Sports Radio on Monday, he recalled the moment he witnessed Jordan’s blazing run.
“I’ll never forget this,” Williams said. “His sophomore year he ran the 40-yard. He crossed the line and I looked and I said, ‘Wow.'”
Williams said he looked down at his stopwatch and saw 4.38. He then asked Jordan to repeat the run, this time with multiple people tracking the time.
"Too fast for you, huh?" he recalled Jordan saying in response to being asked to run again.
"He goes back to the line and runs it again, and all of us got below 4.40," Williams said.
To put that in context, only four athletes recorded a time faster than 4.38 in the dash at the 2020 NFL combine - and none was 6-foot-6 and 215 pounds. Jordan would have tied with two others.
In the 1982 season, Williams and Jordan helped the North Carolina Tar Heels to their third national title. Williams went on to become the head coach at Kansas in 1988, where he remained until returning to North Carolina as head coach in 2003.
Jordan spent two more years with the Tar Heels before being drafted to the Chicago Bulls in 1984 as the third overall pick.
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