WNBA Icon Shares Hilarious Michael Jordan Starstruck Encounter At Luxury Store originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

Ty Young may be known for her WNBA career, her grit on the court, and her entrepreneurial flair off it. But her roots? They run deep through Wilmington, North Carolina. The same hometown as His Airness himself, Michael Jordan.

And just like MJ, Young suited up for the Emsley A. Laney High School Buccaneers. The connection? Unmistakable. But as Young tells it, her introduction to MJ wasn’t exactly on the Laney hardwood.

“When I first met Michael, it was in Chicago in the Barney’s store and I didn’t see him at first,” Ty Young shared with me during a recent episode of the Scoop B Radio Podcast. 

Her best friend spotted greatness before she did:

“He was like, ‘There goes MJ…’ just so casually and I was like, ‘MJ who?’ and he said, ‘Michael Jordan fool!’ and I looked and when I tell you my heart and stomach dropped like… I’ve never seen myself not able to say a word.”

Frozen in awe, she was face-to-face with the icon whose legacy loomed over her high school gym.

“I’m looking at him like, ‘Oh s***. This is MJ!’ And so my best friend is telling him, ‘Yo! My best friend is Ty Young. She went to Laney as well…’ and he’s like, ‘Really?’ and just standing there silly and smiling with nothing to say.”

They didn’t say much in that first encounter, but the image and the moment stuck.

“We really didn’t have a conversation but I did take a picture with him and that was it,” shared Young.

“But I can say he remembered me because when I went later to NBA All-Star Weekend, he had his party that he always has and he gave me a hug and showed me some love and I was like, ‘A’ight…’ I mean, I really didn’t have much to say when I first met him but he knows who I am!”

Check Out Ty Young’s Appearance on the Scoop B Radio Podcast

MJ’s legacy at Laney is immortal. But Ty carved out her own piece of history.

“So I’m not the all-time leading scorer,” she clarified. “But I DID score more points than MJ, but I’m not the all-time leading scorer. I don’t know who the all-time leading scorer is but I know this young lady passed my scoring record as well, so I can’t keep up with records honestly.”

Still, her name holds weight in Laney’s gym, as does her legacy in women’s basketball.

With LeBron James now the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and records constantly being re-written, Young has her own thoughts on what might never be broken, like John Stockton’s all-time assists mark. “It’s now in time that you don’t get a lot of people who want to just pass the ball that much,” she said. 

“And he’s up there with the assists, you know? But now it’s hard to come by players like that because now you have point guards that want to score too.”

For Ty Young, the Laney connection isn’t just about shared geography. It’s about legacy. From a stunned fan in Barney’s to a warm embrace at NBA All-Star Weekend, she’s proof that greatness isn’t always defined by conversation. Sometimes, it’s simply knowing that greatness recognizes greatness.

And yes, she scored more than MJ at Laney.

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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 21, 2025, where it first appeared.

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