September 3, 1998

ASU basketball coach squashes controversy over job offer from Chicago

Mike Daniels
Editor-in-Chief

Anyone who has followed basketball over the last year  is aware of the on-going saga surrounding the Chicago Bulls, as to whether superstar Michael Jordan will retire or come back, and if he does come back, whether he will be able to put aside his differences with the Bulls management.

What many people may not realize is how Appalachian State men’s basketball Coach Buzz Peterson has been involved in this affair.

Near the end of July, Peterson began talks with the Bulls’ new Director of Basketball Operations Tim Floyd that led to the informal job offer of an assistant coaching position with the team.

Peterson ended the courtship by deciding not to show up for a visit with Floyd in Chicago on August 8.

“I sat down with my wife while we were on vacation in Hilton Head. We talked about it, and with the situation with our family and how we love it here, we just ended it right then... I called Tim (Floyd) and said, ‘I’m intrigued by it, but in all reality, I’m happy where I am,’” said Peterson.

Peterson said along with discussions about an assistant coaching position, Floyd and Jordan were doing a lot of talking to each other through him.

“He (Floyd) is labeled as (Bulls General Manager Jerry) Krause’s boy, and I’m basically labeled as Jordan’s boy,” Peterson said.

Peterson, who has known Floyd since his days as associate head coach at Vanderbilt, has been friends with Jordan since they roomed together as freshmen at North Carolina in 1982, the year both were a part of the Tar Heels’ national championship team.

“Neither one of them were talking to each other directly, but they were talking through me, and it was a situation I didn’t feel really comfortable with,” said Peterson.

“I spoke with Michael about it, and he said ‘Go for it,’” Peterson added.

So why didn’t Appalachian’s highly successful third-year coach take his former roommate’s advice?

Besides his family and their ties to the area, Peterson said that pressure on him in Chicago would have been tremendous.  While Peterson was being courted by the Bulls, dozens of reporters from Chicago called his office to scope him out and find out whether he knew what Jordan would do.

“As soon as I’d have taken that job, if I’d gone up there and he’d play well, I’d probably have been a hero... If he didn’t, they would have run me out of town,” said Peterson of the pressure the media in Chicago would have put on him.

Another one of Peterson’s reasons for staying is to accomplish all of the goals he set for himself when he was named coach in the spring of 1996.

“We’re reaching some of our goals, but there are more goals we want to get to.  We want to get to the NCAA’s.  We were one game short (last season) and we want to get there,” said Peterson.

Peterson also said that he has never really had a desire to coach in the NBA.  “I have no plans of moving on or going anywhere else.  My goal was to be a Division I head coach.  That’s what I wanted.”

Peterson is enjoying himself too much in Boone to want to leave.

“It’s fun to see that the interest in the student body and the community is really picking up... I’m having a good time.  My family is happy.  We love this community.  What else could I ask for?”