Prep Players to Miss Role Model

Casey Jacobsen watched intently as Michael Jordan faked out Bryon Russell and made the legendary shot that beat the Utah Jazz in last season’s NBA championship series.

And as Jordan extended his arm for that extra, defining moment, Jacobsen, the Southern Section Division I player of the year from Glendora High, stared at the TV and reflected on the career of a player he had watched since he was 4.

“When he hit that shot, I cried,” said Jacobsen, now a senior. “I didn’t start bawling, but a tear rolled down my cheek. I started thinking about how great he was and I realized that was probably the last time I was going to see him play.”

Jacobsen isn’t the only Southland high school player who is sad to see Jordan go. For although Jordan played high school basketball in North Carolina, he was a role model for local high school players and a teaching model for their coaches throughout his stellar 13-year NBA career.

Jordan, who retired Wednesday after winning six NBA championships and five most-valuable-player awards with the Chicago Bulls, was the player a generation of boys and girls has tried to pattern their games after.

“You looked up to him because of his skills and his work ethic,” Fairfax senior Joe Shipp said. “Watching him, on and off the court, made me want to be the best player I can be.”

Players on the boys’ team at Santa Ana Mater Dei watched en masse the news conference that made Jordan’s retirement official.

“The kids were gathered around the TV in the team room,” Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight said. “I haven’t seen anything like this [among the basketball players] since the [space shuttle] Challenger explosion, and of course, that was tragedy and I don’t want to compare the two. But it got that kind of attention among my basketball players and coaches.”

Signs of Jordan’s influence abound throughout Southland high school basketball, from the signature model shoes players wear on their feet to the Jordan-inspired tattoos some wear on their skin.

Mike Bartee, boys’ varsity coach at Riverside North, has been reminded of Jordan’s impact every year at freshman tryouts.

“I’d say that 90% of the kids come in wearing something with the Bulls on it or a jersey with No. 23 on it,” Bartee said.

Jordan’s impact on the girls’ game might be even greater than it has been on the boys’, said James Anderson, girls’ coach at Harbor City Narbonne.

“He was a universal role model,” Anderson said. “The girls can’t dunk and they might not watch a lot of pro basketball, but they all watched Jordan.

“As a result, the girls’ game has become much more athletic than it was even five years ago.”

Diana Taurasi, a Chino Don Lugo junior who is regarded as perhaps the top player nationally in the Class of 2000, has her bedroom plastered with Jordan posters. It also includes a life-size cardboard cutout.

“The guy is just God, on and off the court,” Taurasi said. “The way he carries himself and the way he plays, you just want to be like Mike.”

That’s what Narbonne’s Ebony Hoffman has tried to do ever since exchanging high-fives with Jordan at halftime of a game at the Forum. Hoffman was 6 when she made her way to one of the basket stanchions and greeted the players as they returned to the court.

“I remember that day like the back of my hand,” said Hoffman, who is regarded as one of the top juniors in the nation. “As I got older, I tried to play the way he played. I don’t think there is ever going to be anybody that is going to be like Mike.”

In Jordan, coaches had an example to point to when discussing almost every facet of the game.

“We refer to him in practice at least half a dozen times a week,” said Mel Sims, girls’ coach at Chino Hills Ayala. “A lot of kids don’t know how to play without the ball, they all want to dribble. We point out that Jordan is a guy who gives up the ball and works as hard to get open and play defense as he does when he’s making one of those spectacular drives and dunks.”

Many coaches singled out Jordan’s mental approach as his best quality.

“A lot of kids try to emulate some of the God-given things he can do, and that’s impossible,” Loyola Coach Alex Acosta said. “But I would refer to him as far as his love for the game and his desire to win. That, to me, was his greatest asset and the thing that every kid could use.”

Jacobsen, who is likely to become the state’s all-time leading scorer by season’s end, said Jordan’s retirement creates a void in the role-model department.

“I have an 11-year-old brother, and if I were to pick a role model for the new generation, I would probably choose Grant Hill in terms of talent and off-the-court demeanor,” Jacobsen said. “He comes closest to Michael Jordan.

“But I don’t think we’ll ever see anyone like him again. He was the man.”

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Times staff writer Martin Henderson contributed to this story.