Leon Wood has spent more years in the NBA than most after taking a road less traveled.

Many former stars decide to take up roles as coaches, scouts, general managers or — if they earn Michael Jordan money — owners of franchises.

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Wood has taken charge of over 1,500 games[/caption]

But very few decide to pick up a whistle and don the stripes after they have left their playing days behind.

Wood averaged 33.7 points per game at Santa Monica High School — rising as high as a staggering 41.5 points in his senior year.

He left Cal State-Fullerton as an All-American and set a new benchmark for the school in points and assists.

The 6ft 3in, 185lb guard was selected 10th overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1984 NBA Draft — seven spots after Air Jordan.

His time in the league was short-lived but Wood played a significant role in some historic moments.

He was a participant in the first ever 3-point contest in 1984 and won Pan American Games gold in Caracas alongside MJ a year earlier.

The highlight of Wood’s career as a player was being named on the 1984 US Olympic team.

Playing with His Airness, Patrick Ewing, and Chris Mullin, the youngster averaged a team-high 7.9 assists in Los Angeles.

Jordan, of course, led in scoring with 17.1 points per game as Team USA won a gold medal on home soil.

Wood bounced around the league and headed for Europe in 1988 having already played for six NBA teams.

Aside from a brief return to the States in 1990, the journeyman plied his trade abroad until retiring in 1994 after representing the Purefoods TJ Hotdogs in the Philippines.

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Wood once whistled Jordan for a travel[/caption]

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MJ won Olympic gold in 1984 and 1992[/caption]

In 1996, his love of the game saw him decide to patrol the hardwood in black slacks.

In the early years, he was sometimes accused of not going tough enough on people he played with.

“Last year he did one of my games against Chicago,” Washington Bullets forward Harvey Grant told Sports Illustrated in the 1996-97 season.

“Michael committed a foul right in front of him, and (Wood) didn’t call it. I said, ‘Oh, you and Michael played in the Olympics, so you’re not going to call that, huh?’ He got a big charge out of that.”

MJ hardly ever got pinged for a travel but — perhaps to prove a point — Wood once pulled up his former teammate.

“[Jordan] laughed at me,” he told Forbes. “It was almost like, ‘I’ve been doing this move all along.’”

Wood is now 62 and unlikely to be accused of bias towards his former colleagues, unless they are holding a clipboard.

As a player, he was involved in 274 games, averaging 6.4 points, 1.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists.

He never once picked up a technical, saving himself some potentially awkward chats with his new colleagues in black and white.

In the stripes, he has over 1,500 under his belt.

“This is something that’s just over-the-top different than what you normally do,” he said in 2018..

“I really enjoy it. I hope to keep going, as long as I’m healthy.”