Jordan was the first person to speak to the dejected team, and according to GoHeels.com, he had a simple, sincere message: “I’m proud of you.”
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“Honestly I didn’t even know who was talking until about 30 seconds until after he had started,” senior Marcus Paige said (via the News & Observer). “I didn’t have a chance to look up. I was so hurt from what had just happened.
“But I look up and see the greatest player that ever played basketball assuring us and saying it’s OK, that he’s proud of us, that we made him proud to be a Tar Heel and be a Tar Heel alum, that you can’t be a great winner without having to experience struggles and losses and how to use this as fuel.”
Paige, who scored 21 points in the 77-74 loss, passed Jordan for 12th on the program’s all-time scoring list earlier in the tournament. Unfortunately, Paige’s final three points, which came on a wild shot to tie the game with 4.7 second left, didn’t prevent the crushing end to his storied career in Chapel Hill.
