@thesportsontap: Michael Jordan gave 10 million dollars to North Carolina this week. Not one cent of it went to the basketball program. It went to the School of Social Work, and it is named for his mother. Her name is Deloris Jordan. She was born Deloris Peoples in 1941 in Rocky Point, North Carolina, and went to a trade school in Alabama. Before any of this she was a bank teller in New York while her husband trained as a mechanic. They had five kids. Michael was the fourth. Everybody knows what happened to the fourth one. Here is what she did. In 1996 the Jordan family founded the Jordan Institute for Families at the UNC School of Social Work. Thirty years ago. It works on maternal health, caregiving, mental health and keeping families together, and she has sat on its board. Then in 2010 she started something else, 8,000 miles from Chapel Hill. She founded the Kenya Women and Children's Wellness Centre in Nairobi. It exists for women and children who have survived violence and abuse. Medical care, counseling, legal help, a place to stay. That centre has reached more than 203,700 people, because a bank teller from Rocky Point decided to build something there. She is 85, she has been connected to North Carolina for more than 40 years, and she is a New York Times bestselling author. This week her son wrote the biggest check that school has ever received. It renames the university's global research center after her and created the Jordan Family Scholars, which pays for a master's in social work. On October 5 they named the first ten. Each one got $12,500. "My mother has always believed in the power of helping children, families and communities," Michael Jordan said, "and she has spent her life putting that belief into action." Here is what she said. "I am honored that this investment will support the next generation of social workers." He is the most famous athlete who ever lived and there are statues of him on two continents. She built a hospital in Nairobi and almost nobody has heard of her. #NBA #nbabasketball #northcarolina #michaeljordan #unc

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Wednesday 07 October 2026 15:10:23 GMT