An Original Documentary by @thenbastoryteller
Leroy Smith’s life was forever altered when Michael Jordan co-opted his identity to craft a legendary sports narrative. This documentary, directed by Emio Tomeoni, also known by The NBA Storyteller, follows his six-year journey to uncover the real Leroy and understand his struggle to reclaim his story. In 1977, Smith beat out Jordan for a high school varsity spot, a moment Jordan later used to fuel his competitive drive for 30 years. Unknown to Leroy, who was overseas, Jordan’s tale of being cut became famous. When Leroy returned to the U.S., he discovered his name had become a part of Jordan’s legend. The film delves into Leroy’s quest to reclaim his identity and sanity in the shadow of one of basketball’s greatest icons.
“I spent a lot of years trying to move past being ‘the guy who beat out Michael Jordan,’ but it was always there, a part of my story whether I liked it or not.” – Leroy Smith
“Six years after starting my YouTube series, Leroy contacted me, and we set up an interview. And I was able to get every single answer to every single question I had. Beyond that, I met a real person who had been navigating this strange position, living between trying to live a normal life and being part of Michael Jordan’s legendary story.” – Emio Tomeoni
Leroys Podcast : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lessons-from-leroy/id1716457619
https://lessonsfromleroy.buzzsprout.com/
Fun Links
Mjs Playground Documentary: https://youtu.be/h7BjAMjwS1c
Mjs Playground Music video: https://youtu.be/VQ2980ItO7M
Leroys Podcast : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lessons-from-leroy/id1716457619
https://lessonsfromleroy.buzzsprout.com/
Stock Footage From Storyblocks.com
Stock Music from Soundstripe.com
Special Thanks to
#LeroySmith
#MichaelJordan
#fredBrown
#Thisamericanlife
Advertisers and beyond email: etomeoni@gmail.com
Voice overs by Ethan Herschenfeld : https://www.ethanherschenfeld.com/
#nba #sports #michaeljordan #documentary #thisamericanlife #lessonsFromLeroy
Link to Articles in films
https://www.espn.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4477759
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/jordans-night-remember-turns-petty-075600787–nba.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHC7Ghwb1nbzKWRPzEYSnJApnNgEd7o0Upvr0VJEELDNUIOO2cahv3EXI_FJ1IwtBnCqHAkkLzffqLuklTiWiWvEEJtT7pA0l5Wfv0VcJs-XumrVVOaIYM848ilu1EiTcXiLYAlvQ2BcZm45Eka4TXgI6Ho0krzQIYgBfc9P9Lde
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:04 Hall of Fame
00:09:01 My Obsession
00:12:27 Come Fly with me
00:15:21 Michael Jordans Playground
00:18:55 Was MJ even cut?
00:30:34 Loyalty
00:34:01 Pop Herring
00:39:28 David Vs Jordan
00:47:28 Trapped
00:48:22 Remember the contract/Charlie Murphy
00:56:16 WAIT THERE’S MORE
01:02:33 My Conclusion
50 Comments
Years in the making!!!
Ok I've watched it and this is INCREDIBLE
all your vids are great. But this was amazing.
Leroy just became a motivational person to me.
Best story ever, thanks for making this video bro!
OMG! You finally found him! And you really did his story justice. Great video!
The return of my favourite orator🤙
Mike, like most of us are clumsy with out feelings at times. Personally i saw him giving flowers to those alongbhis path to greatness…yeah it was awkward at times perhaps but heartfelt and true to himself 100% of the time🤙
But about that portion of Leroy's life where he went out east and became a Wing Chun master?
Beautiful beyond words. Thanks, my man.
Mike may be the GOAT basketball player
But you're the GOAT basketball youtuber
we have to have an entirely separate conversation on isaiah's subtle, yet upon further review, obviously fake and forced applause at mj's hall of fame induction. that is a whole thing right there. if you're going to put forth the energy to fake clap, you might as well do something with your hands so they don't look like mannequin appendages or prosthetics.
overall this project has come to mean more to me than i would have first imagined. earlier on i didn't recognize your heartfelt sincerity and sticktoitiveness, but in viewing this resolution piece, i cannot help but applaud your efforts and commend the masterful strokes you used to paint this picture. Leroy ended up being exactly who the little kid version of me who still is in awe of what i saw michael jordan do, needed him to be in order for me to be able to let michael off the hook in good faith. after his hall of fame speech, i was sold on mj just being a sociopathic a-hole, but thanks to Leroy i can now rest easy knowing that my childhood hero is actually just a sociopathic a-hole whose childhood friends understand him for who he is.
and more importantly, it was just cool as shit to see what Leroy Smith is really like. thanks for pursuing him and introducing him to us. 99% of the disparaging things i've ever thought about Leroy Smith, dating back to my early childhood years when i would religiously watch Come Fly With Me, were laid to rest simply by hearing the man speak for himself. and he seems like a grounded and pleasant person, demonstrating humility and a healthy perspective on life. what a treat it must've been for you to find that the real Leroy was not any of the things we feared him to be at the outset of this documentary series, or even at the inception of the "Leroy" narrative over 30 years ago. props to you for maintaining the integrity of your quest, and not succumbing to the cunning grip of mj's gravitational pull. this really feels like we've leveled up. i'm proud of you.
something that’s lost in this is that jordan also created a character of himself in his mind, the character of leroy is one that usurps jordan unjustly and steals approval and notoriety and rank, but jordan sees himself as the martyr who is constantly misjudged and forced to prove himself correct. the speech’s content completely reflects this character of jordan, he thinks to himself “what do i owe to others?” and the only thing he can imagine to thank them for is motivating him with their denial of his greatness.
the biggest takeaway for me is that jordan refuses to move on from these characters in his head, he is completely consumed and even haunted by these perceived wrongings. meanwhile, harvest views his life as a continual flow and finds it inappropriate for himself to hold on to his past with such a tight grip. i don’t think these two guys could have more opposite approaches and they both ended up doing very well for themselves.
Goated as always. Leroy looks fucking great man, dude is pushing 60 and looks damn near 40
This was fascinating and well done. Way to make something so engaging!
Michael doesn’t forget…so Leroy, Isiah, Barkley and others still live rent free , in a condo complex,built by Air Jordan’s mind 🤔
I just saw that Stockton video plus the jordan one, and i got to say, i despise you but i like you at the same time.
Marvelous channel.
Welcome back. It's always a jolt of joy when you upload.
This is a movie not just a random video on youtube
Subscribe you really should 😊
I keep reverting to Kilroy Jordan when Mike was supposed to be returning to the game back in 94. I wonder if there was a connection to Leroy?
#Nice
Leroy handled the situation with so much grace and kept his sense of self, this was awesome.
THE WEB OF LIES HAS BEEN UNTANGLED!
New storyteller!
Leroy Smith is featured on Radiolab this week 👀
Holy shit you just uploaded this recently and here thought I was about to rewatch the Leroy smith video from before. You are dope
Enjoyed this THENBASTORYTELLER, the perspective of you and Leroy on this project has been most helpful 😁.
He's back!!!! Man the memories of watching you when I was in the military! Thank you for your efforts and quality of videos!
HOW DID I MISS THE GOAT OF BASKETBALL VIDEOS DROPPING
MJ and Leroy really one of the most fascinating stories. Its been awesome seeing you develop this for nearly 5 years (or more) and the conclusion coming out this great. MJs strange hyper fixation on Leroy but also level of fondness, you really depicted alot of human experiences with this. Im happy the world finally got Leroys story because it is one of true character and strangely enough he is kind of the "Master Motivator" that Jordan depicted him as. Its weird , sorta creepy, sorta heartfelt, its actually alot of things. Thanks for following this thread until this point Storyteller, always a gift to see your vids
I know this didn’t just premiere
Absolutely great video boss and congrats to Mr. Harvest Smith Jr.
I still don't believe Leroy is real but he is(nt).
Leroy Smith ~ I loser myth
Return of the goat
I’m here! I liked and I will share!!!!!!!
That coach had a sign that said knock before you enter on his front door, meaning his door was always open, that says all you need to know about what type of man he was.
got my 3 points lol #ReachRichards #MisterWessells #Dot6Entertainment #MisterFantastic #TheEngineer
The real one is not among them
T.R.O.I.N.A.T
The One And Only
T.O.A.O
What a closure to the story. Thank you
Merlinda. Lagsican. Ugos. God. Bless. You. Oll. Thankyou. Evreyone. God. Isgod. Oll. The. Tme nice one. See more. Ilove. You. Jesass❤❤🎉🎉🎉👍🏼❤🎉🎉🎉
love this documentary soooo much 😍
Got to love it when it is about basketball, two of the greatest to ever exist and the story behind it is fire 🔥 Subscribed!
who did the first in game windmill bro? You and me prob are the only ones who'd wanna know
keep the amazing videos coming! 🙂
Another lie that has to do with Michael Jordan, is what really happened to his father. And the two patsies that ended up getting put in prison.
I'm trying to figure out, If Michael Jordan said Highschool Varsity, Why didn't you go thru the Highschool year book to find him??
Leroy comes through as such a genuinely beautiful and rare person. Often people are said to have the gift of gab or are good with people as a 'skill' but Leroy achieves those things without even trying due to how disarming his integrity and empathy is.
On MJ, there's an essay on Gandhi by Orwell where he said Gandhi had a childlike capacity for self delusion. Orwell, the colonist midwit he was didn't recognize that what he meant as a pejorative was actually Gandhi's greatest strength which enabled him to go from being flung out of a train in SA to hitting the dagger on the British empire on his own. It's common to be motivated intrinsically or extrinsically but the ability to create an imaginary shadow realm of perceived opponents to motivate yourself is an exceptionally rare gift. His autobiography was eerily called 'My experiments with truth'.
Even though their surface level personalities are radically different, I always thought 'childlike capacity for self delusion' best described the type of attitude and inner steel that MJ had as well.
Couple thoughts
1. This is incredible. Thank you and Harvest for the monumental effort here.
2. I'd rather have MJ's borderline psychopathic bullying over Karl Malone's gaslighting as a good guy at the HOF.
3. This entire MJ x Laney x Leroy x Fred Lynch saga now needs to be a Broadway Musical 😭😭😭😭
It’s good to see Leroy is living a prosperous and fruitful life.
Lmfao he’s not my GOAT, Lebron is but I still have the dvd for come fly with the me and playground and the rest of them till today😂😂😂
Leroy's the freaking man lol