Chicago Erased Him A Year Before The Dynasty. The Real Reason | Orlando Woolridge

Aluminum water pipe worth two thousand dollars went missing from a Louisiana drilling site in February 2012, and bail for the man arrested came to exactly the same figure. He was fifty-two, a sixth overall pick with thirteen NBA seasons behind him. Ninety-seven days later he was gone. This film covers a single phone call from Willis Reed that took a boy out of a Mansfield school gym, a rookie who refused to sign and became the highest-paid man in Chicago at twenty-three, and the season Michael Jordan broke his foot and the entire team was left on him. You will hear why Chicago let him go for draft picks exactly one year before the dynasty began, and what Pat Riley said about him behind a closed locker room door. Subscribe to Broken Hardwood for more untold stories from the NBA's golden age. TIMECODES 00:00 — Two Thousand Dollars of Pipe, and Bail Set at the Same Amount 01:30 — Bernice, Louisiana, a Sawmill, and Nine Children 04:30 — Willis Reed Makes One Call to Notre Dame About Orlando Woolridge 07:30 — February 1981: The Shot That Ended Ralph Sampson's Virginia Run 10:30 — Sixth Overall to the Chicago Bulls, and He Refuses to Sign 13:30 — Michael Jordan Breaks His Foot, and the Team Lands on Woolridge 16:30 — Chicago Trades Him One Year before the Dynasty Starts 19:30 — New Jersey, the Lakers, and What Pat Riley Said in Private 22:30 — Denver: A Hundred Nineteen Scored and a Hundred Thirty-One Allowed 25:30 — Three Trophies in One European Season, at Thirty-Five 28:30 — Thirteen Years in the NBA, and Not One Job Offer after It #OrlandoWoolridge #ChicagoBulls #WoolridgeStory #NBAGoldenAge #NBATragedy