Chicago Herald-American

Many years ago, when I would write stories about Chris Collins, a basketball player at Glenbrook North who would become the Sun-Times Player of the Year in 1992, I almost always made a point to avoid referring to Chris as "the son of former Bulls coach Doug Collins." I just thought that after the first time he was in the paper, it was pretty obvious he was the son of Doug Collins. And I'm pretty sure Chris, though proud of his father, would prefer to be in the paper for what he did, not for being the son of a former Bulls coach.

Still, on more than one occasion, when I would refer to him as "Glenbrook North's Chris Collins", invariably it would come out in the paper as "Glenbrook North's Chris Collins, son of former Bulls coach Doug Collins." Obviously I didn't have the last word on the issue. Oh well. 

But there was no avoiding the famous-father factor in this feature on Marcus Jordan in Sunday's Sun-Times. Marcus, who led Whitney Young to the Class 4A state championship last March, is a freshman at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. He's starting, but not exactly tearing up Conference USA. The only reason I went down there to do a feature on him was because he's Michael Jordan's son. 

Luckily for me, the Jordan kids have always been pretty cool about being the son's of Michael Jordan. So if it disturbed Marcus to have that be the focus of many of my questions, he didn't show it. Though he doesn't have the extraordinary skills his father (nor his size, as Marcus pointed out), he's pretty comfortable being the son of the most celebrated basketball player in history. Though Michael told his kids "I wouldn't want to be you guys," at his Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Marcus has no problem with it. "I wouldn't want it any other way," he told me. 

 Here are a few parts of the story that ended up on the cutting-room floor: 

Though he is comfortable with strangers coming up to him and asking for pictures and autographs, he appreciated the anonymity he had when he first came to Central Florida. "I went under the radar for most of the summer and at the beginning of the year until basketball season started," he said. "That was pretty cool having people not know who I was and having people talk about me, not knowing that I was right next to them. It was great going to class or to the union and not be bombarded with questions or anything and just go back to my room and relax. It was definitely relaxing."

On not being a star like his father: 

"I think a lot of people don't undertand I'm 6-1 and my dad is 6-6," he said. "There are a lot of things he could do with five more inches. But I've been a person who never really careds what other people say about me, so I just play my game. I don't listen to criticism."

His mission is to be just another player on the team. "It's very important to me," he said. "My parents raised me not to have any special treatment. When I'm playing basketball I'm just another guy on the court [and] another player on the team. I don't want any special treatment. I want to earn my stuff the way anybody else has to earn it."

Asked what best expresses his experience so far in college he said, "Confidence. I'm confident with everything I'm doing, on and off the court. I'm confident I'm going to get the grades to get my degree and make the right steps to take my basketball game to the next level." 

Though his father has been an influence on his life, Marcus' mother Juanita doesn't get the credit she deserves. Asked the biggest influence his father has had on him, Marcus said, "Him and my mom, the both instilled in me when I was younger to just be me and never let anybody change me, and to earn everything I get. Nothing's going to be given to me just because of who I am and I still ahve to put in the effort to get what I want." 

Marcus was not that highly recruited during his senior year, but interest was picking up after he was the MVP of the state tournament in March. But he chose Central Florida, which had been recruiting him hard all season, through former teammate A.J. Rompza, Marcus' best friend who was a freshman at UCF last year. 

"When I sat down with my mom and my dad and looked at everything, I thought that UCF wanted Marcus Jordan the basketball player and not Marcus Jordan, Michael Jordan's son. That definitely played a big part in it."