3-time NBA champion Scott Williams might not have ever made it to the NBA without the help of former Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan.

A UNC product, the 6-foot-10 big man managed to get in a gym with Jordan using his influence and college history, as he tells Legends Lounge host Trill Withers:

ā€œā€¦I was projected to be a low lottery pickā€¦ low first rounder,ā€ Williams says. ā€œAnd I think that shoulder scared a lot of general managers awayā€¦ā€

ā€œAnd so has happened sometimes the world works in mysterious ways. Guy named Fred Whitfield, who was Michael Jordan's buddy, was putting out a camp in Greensboroā€¦ and he brings some of his guys from the NBA, and a lot of the Charlotte Hornets would play before the draftā€¦ā€

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Which is where it got really interesting for him.

ā€œAnd I finagled myself an invitation along with a couple of other local college players,ā€ Williams explains. ā€œAnd Jordan put me on his squad, being a Carolina guy. So I got a good, hard, physical gameā€¦ā€

ā€œAnd I think that caught MJ's eye,ā€ he muses, ā€œbecause he'd been getting bullied by the Pistons in the playoffs the three previous years. So I got a ball late that game, down one, and I found 23 over in the right corner with his tongue half out of his mouth, and I fired a strike to him, and he knocked down what was the game winner.

And as he's leaving the arenaā€¦ I remember this red corvette with Fred. I'll never forget that. And Fred tells the story that he called Jerry Krause immediately, who was the general manager of the Chicago Bulls, and said, I think you should give Williams a tryout.ā€