An unexpected college basketball program suddenly has two of the best recruits in the country, and they happen to have learned life lessons from two generational NBA greats
Cooper Flagg stood out during a Team USA scrimmage, and Danny Parkins and Ric Bucher ask if he can become the next face of USA basketball.
When Michael Jordan came to the Chicago Bulls in 1984, he joined a franchise that only knew defeat, having never reached an NBA Finals.
When Steph Curry came to the Golden State Warriors in 2009, he joined a franchise that was among the worst in the league for the better part of the last 15 years.
However, each of them redefined those franchises as winners. Now, both players have lent their guidance to a pair of top college recruits looking to pull off a similar story at the NCAA level.
“On the phone and stuff like that, at the Jordan Brand classic when I was younger, I’ve met him a couple times,” five-star recruit Dylan Harper said at Rutgers men’s basketball media day on Tuesday.
When asked what Jordan told young Harper, the incoming freshman said, “Just stay in the gym and work hard, because he said he wasn’t great to have vitality, but he stayed in the gym and worked hard, and you know, that’s where he’s at now, look where he’s at.”
Michael Jordan, #23, and Ron Harper, #9 of the Chicago Bulls, look on during game six of the 1998 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz on June 14, 1998 in Salt Lake City. (Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
Harper, the No. 2 ranked recruit in the nation this year, only took in the positive examples from Jordan, however.
When asked if the NBA legend ever offered advice on ways Harper should try to avoid being like Jordan, the freshman said, “I didn’t get that deep with him, but he just told me the basic stuff everyday to be who I want to be.”
With that wisdom in hand, Harper, the son of Jordan’s former Chicago Bulls teammate Ron Harper Sr., made one of the boldest recruitment decisions in recent college basketball history this year. He declined offers from historic powerhouses Duke, Indiana and Kansas to play at Rutgers, a program with an all-time winning percentage of just .509 and just two NCAA Tournament appearances since 1991.
His older brother, Ron Harper Jr., was the X factor in this year’s recruiting campaign. Ron Harper Jr. showed Dylan what was possible at Rutgers during his stint with the Scarlet Knights under head coach Steve Pikiell from 2018-22. Harper was part of a group that ended the decadeslong droughts of a spot in the national AP rankings and an NCAA tournament appearance.
Former Rutgers Scarlet Knights player Ron Harper Jr. sits with his brother Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey. Both are five-star recruits and are committed to Rutgers as they watch the Scarlet Knights play the Stonehill Skyhawks at Jersey Mike’s Arena on Dec. 30, 2023 in Piscataway, New Jersey. (Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
Dylan had an up-close seat to see the seeds of a program turnaround. He saw his brother contribute to breaking program records, records that simply would not be in reach at other major powerhouse schools like Duke or Indiana.
On top of all that, he knew he would already have a co-star on the same level, talent-wise.
Ace Bailey, the No. 3 ranked recruit in the nation this year, had already committed to Rutgers last November.
With the duo together, the program had its two highest-ranked recruits in history and a shot, talent-wise, to compete in the Big 10 and NCAA tournament. They have the ambition to take the team as far as they can this year.
Additionally, not only did they have Jordan’s wisdom, but they also got to learn from Curry. Harper and Bailey participated at Curry’s eighth annual Curry Camp in the Bay Area back in August.
Seeing Curry shoot up close left Bailey in awe.
“Him, his work ethic is crazy, you see he don’t miss shots in a game, he don’t miss shots when he workout either. So seeing that, he got the same job, his mentality is like a game, so it was a great way to show me that you got to work as hard as you can to win games,” Bailey said.
It was a full-circle moment for Bailey on his basketball journey. Bailey admitted that he never paid much attention to college basketball as a fan.
However, the NBA really captured his attention and stoked his interest in the game in 2016, a year that saw Curry lead the Warriors to the best record in NBA history and a second-straight NBA finals appearance.
The Warriors famously lost that series, becoming the first team to blow a 3-1 series lead in the finals. Then, Golden State stocked up that offseason by bringing Kevin Durant on board in free agency, as both teams were expected to meet in the Finals for a third straight year and eventually did. The 2016 NBA calendar year culminated in a famous Christmas Day game between the Cavaliers and Warriors, when Kyrie Irving drained a game-winning 3-pointer to deny Curry and co. immediate revenge for the Finals.
Bailey explained, “2016, the whole year, Kyrie with the Cavs, and the Warriors, back-to-back-to-back, those two teams went at it!”
Bailey added that, even today, 2016 was his favorite year as a basketball fan. He turned 11 years old that year.
NBA legends Stephen Curry, left, and Michael Jordan talk during the 71st NBA All-Star Game as part of the 2022 NBA All Star Weekend on Feb. 19, 2022 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. (David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images)
Both Bailey and Harper may be among the top recruits in this year’s class to waste no time trying to join Curry and Irving in the NBA after this year. Both are regarded as legitimate prospects in the 2025 NBA Draft class, along with this year’s No. 1 ranked recruit in the nation, Duke’s Cooper Flagg.
The NBA’s one-and-done rule, allowing players to enter the draft after just one year of college, has drained the sport of long college careers from star pro prospects like Harper, Bailey and Flagg.
However, both Rutgers freshmen say they are fully focused on their first college season for the time being and building on the program transformation that Ron Harper Jr. got started years ago.
Rutgers basketball still has a lot of major milestones it hopes to cross off this year while Harper and Bailey are enrolled. The team is looking for its first conference title, or even first-place finish, since it joined the Big 10 in 2014. Rutgers has not gone beyond the Big Ten tournament quarterfinal since joining the conference.
As far as the NCAA Tournament goes, Rutgers has not advanced past the second round since 1978 and has not reached the Elite Eight since 1979 and the Final Four since 1976. The program has never reached the national championship game.
For Harper and Bailey, this barren history could prove to be a blank canvas to etch a long-term legacy at the collegiate level for decades to come.
Curry famously led his school, Davidson, to the Elite Eight in 2008. Jordan famously led his college team, the University of North Carolina, to a national championship in 1982.
