Jordan's happy camper: Chet Cox lives a dream at pricey local basketball camp

His house was taken away, and with it, many cherished memories. So Chet Cox decided to get back in the game by going a little one-on-one with Mother Nature and put up a few points on the nostalgia scoreboard.

How's this for a 3-pointer? Four days hooping it up with Michael Jordan at his "Senior Flight School" at Bally's last weekend. Yes, the Michael Jordan.

Not that it didn't come without a price. Cox and 79 others had to pay to play with His Airness at his fantasy camp to the tune of $15,000. Each.

But oh, the memories. Getting to shoot jumpers with the greatest basketball player of all time. Swapping stories with legendary coaches Dean Smith, Jack Ramsay, Hubie Brown and Al McGuire. Learning from the likes of Mike Krzyzewski, Lute Olson, Rick Majerus, Tubby Smith and Gene Keady.

"I did it for a couple of reasons, said Cox, 44, a local general contractor and developer. "First, it was in Las Vegas (at Bally's). Second, how many chances are you going to get to be with the greatest player of all time?

"This was such a unique opportunity. Anyone can go on a cruise or go to Australia or Europe. But how often can you play ball with Michael Jordan?"

If nothing else, it helped take Cox's mind off the events of July 9. Southern Nevada was being ravaged by an enormous lightning storm and Cox's Green Valley home happened to be in the way of one of the bolts that cascaded from the heavens.

The roof caught fire. In a matter of minutes, the entire 10,200 square-foot house, which Cox had designed and built nine years ago, was a raging inferno.

Fortunately, no one was inside. Cox wasn't even in town that day. He was in Oklahoma City on business when he got the bad news from his son.

"In a couple of respects, I was lucky," he said. "One, that no one was hurt. That was the main thing. Two, that I wasn't there to see it. That would've been tough to watch."

And while no one was hurt, virtually everything was lost, save some photos that survived the blaze. It meant starting over and even for someone of Cox's considerable means, that wasn't easy.

But he was determined to get things back to where they were. He is rebuilding the identical home on the same site. His family, friends and fellow church members from his LDS ward have pitched in to help. And when UNLV coach Bill Bayno, a good friend of Cox's and a counselor at Jordan's camp, told some of the other coaches about Cox's plight, they were sympathetic and supportive.

"Mike Krzyzewski really seemed to care," Cox said of the longtime Duke coach. "All of these coaches were great. They're normal guys, not snooty. I used to call Lute Olson 'Lute the Snoot.' Then I sat down with him and he was a real personable guy."

And Jordan?

"The best," Cox said. "I saw him as the greatest player ever. But that was before meeting him. He was just a great guy, really a down-to-earth kind of person. He made you feel like you're his friend. You feel like he's someone you've known before but hadn't seen in a while."

Despite losing his home, Cox said he wasn't going to back out of attending Jordan's camp. Not only was he looking forward to it, so was his family.

"I had made a commitment and I wasn't going to break it," he said. "Besides, what could I do? Something happened. Let's go on down the road.

"I didn't want it to change my life. In three hours, I'd lost 25 years' worth of possessions. You just step over the hurdle and keep on running."

So Cox grabbed his basketball shoes and made his way to Bally's. He played two years at Las Vegas High in the early '70s and still plays regularly. But what he and his fellow campers shared was a love for the game and a respect for Michael Jordan.

"There were lots of doctors, lawyers and businessmen," Cox said of the camp roster. "One guy came all the way from Osaka, Japan. A doctor came from Hawaii. There were lots of guys from Chicago.

"But what I didn't expect was how competitive it was. I play five times a week and a playoff game in our league is pretty competitive. This was a lot more competitive than any playoff game. It was very, very intense."

The 80 campers were divided into teams. Cox was on a team coached by Ramsay and Minnesota's Clem Haskins.

"I had to give him a little grief about Shawn," Cox said about UNLV forward Shawn Marion, the last player cut from the Haskins-coached USA Basketball team that won the gold medal at the Goodwill Games in July. "Haskins told me he felt bad about cutting him, but said that Shawn's going to be a great player."

As for the daily camp routine, there were plenty of games with drills and contests sprinkled in. At one station, Cox got a lesson in boxing out for rebounds by Smith, the former North Carolina coach, and Georgetown's John Thompson.

"To learn from these guys, some of the greatest coaches around, was amazing," Cox said. "During the season, I'll watch three games a night and I'll see these guys on TV being so intense.

"What they are are great teachers who are motivated by success and are winners. They all have the same qualities -- they're as big a student of the game as they are a teacher of the game."

Cox had only one goal in mind during his four-day run -- stay healthy.

"I didn't want to get hurt," he said. "I'd been hurt a lot and I tore up my ankle really bad a few months ago, so the last thing I wanted to happen was getting injured and missing the camp."

He made it through unscathed. He also picked up some souvenirs that include an autographed ball from the 16 coaches who were "counselors" at the camp as well as shirts, shorts and shoes, courtesy of camp sponsor Nike. He has a couple of signed No. 23 Bulls jerseys. And he has a picture of himself and His Airness which will find a place of honor when the new house is completed.

But most of all, he has some wonderful personal memories. Something Mother Nature won't be able to take away.

archive