Toni L. Sandys/WASHINGTON POST - Eddie Jordan — the former Wizards coach now directing the freshman team at Carroll — shows Scottie Law where to be on a play during a practice.
The coach stood near midcourt, whistle and stopwatch hanging around his neck, hoping to squeeze in another drill.
But as Eddie Jordan tried to teach his newest charges one last thing, their hour on a rented recreation center court was up. A man had come in twice, pointing to his watch each time, signaling it was time to get out. A dozen youngsters were waiting to get in a game of dodge ball before the Jazzercisers came in.
Jordan never had this problem in the NBA.
Two years after his last stop in basketball’s big leagues, the most successful coach in the Washington Wizards’ recent history is back on the floor, coaching the freshman boys’ team at Carroll High, his alma mater. He is not getting paid — though he still has $3 million remaining on his contract with the Philadelphia 76ers — and the team looks much different from the professionals to whom he is accustomed to leading.
There are no 6-footers, let alone a 7-footer. At 6 feet 1, Jordan towers above his players. The assistant coach — his former high school coach and Carroll Athletic Director George Leftwich — drives the bus so that the players can get to practice.
It’s a far cry from the chartered jets of the NBA, where Jordan coached from 1992 to 2010, including five seasons with the Wizards from 2003 to ’08. His 197 victories rank third on the franchise’s all-time list and he guided the team to four straight playoff berths before getting fired after a poor start to the 2008 season. The Sixers hired him a year later and fired him in April 2010 with a year left on his contract.
Now 56, Jordan is his own equipment manager. And yet, he is enjoying each day on the court — even if it is a luxury to get two hours in his team’s own school gymnasium on a weekend morning. With only one gym, the boys’ and girls’ varsity and junior varsity teams get practice time while the freshman team hits the road.
“I just felt, to be in a gym and helping kids, I wanted to see what kind of group I will get,” Jordan said. “It’s my high school. It’s Carroll. . . . I wanted to give back.”
Leftwich starred at Carroll 50 years ago and had his own successful coaching career before returning to his Northeast Washington alma mater three years ago as an administrator. Since Jordan was fired by the 76ers following the 2009-10 season, Leftwich had joked with Lions Coach Reggie Williams that Jordan was available to help out.
“He came to me and said Eddie was interested, but I didn’t believe it,” said Williams, the former Georgetown star who played 10 seasons in the NBA and is entering his second season at Carroll. “A couple months passed and he said he was serious about Eddie wanting to get involved. So I got in contact with Eddie and he wanted to do it. I couldn’t tell him no.”
Jordan’s presence on the sidelines during tryouts created a small stir among the players, but they were unaware that Jordan, who was a standout at Rutgers and averaged 8.1 points per game in seven seasons in the NBA, was going to be their coach until a team meeting.
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