Karl Tilleman first encountered Michael Jordan during the 1983 Pan American Games, when he poured in 28 points to Jordan's 20 in Canada's second-round loss to the U.S. At the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles the two met again: Jordan put up 20 to Tilleman's 10 in another Canada defeat. A 6'2" guard out of the University of Calgary who was picked by the Nuggets in the fourth round of the '84 NBA draft, Tilleman made his final Olympic appearance in '88, scoring 37 points against Spain with 10 three-pointers, a record he still shares with Carmelo Anthony.
But by the time of those Games, Tilleman was more concerned with nolo contendere than no-look passes. He was a second-year law student at BYU and could travel to Seoul only by rearranging his course schedule. After graduating in the spring of '90, Tilleman spent a year clerking on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals before obtaining the holy grail for a young attorney: a clerkship at the Supreme Court.
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