【1986 Archives】

A verbal misstep by His Airness had the sports world guffawing this weekend when Michael Jordan declared "the ceiling986 Archivesthe roof" in an address to fans at a University of North Carolina basketball game.

Thankfully, Tar Heels coach Roy Williams was here to cut through the noise on Monday.

Jordan played for UNC before going on to his legendary NBA career. Appearing during a break in play in Saturday night's basketball game against arch-rival Duke, Jordan talked up the Tar Heels football team, which was being feted before the home crowd.

Near the end of his pep-talk, Jordan dropped this knowledge bomb.

"The ceiling is the roof. Let's make it happen."

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The deep turn of phrase predictably sent Twitter into a tizzy of smirks and snark. Here are some highlights.

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And of course crying MJ made an appearance.

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It seems clear Jordan garbled his words and meant to say some rah-rah thing about how the future is bright and the ceiling is high for North Carolina football -- but no matter. The mistake was clearly too good to be forgotten so easily.

But Tar Heels hoops coach Roy Williams seems to have the right perspective on things. Williams recounted his reaction to the foible thusly in an ESPN radio appearance Monday morning:

"I said, 'He's Michael Jordan, anything he dadgum wants to say is OK with me,'"

Sounds about right, really.

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