Alford and Jordan have much in common, although their career paths took different directions. Both are roughly the same age — Alford is 55, not quite two years younger than Jordan — both were college stars at two of the nation’s most well-known programs, and both were part of the last group of U.S. amateurs to win Olympic gold in basketball. And Alford, a man without a lot of regrets, says that one of his few take-backs in life would have been to end his Olympic experience with a suitcase full of Jordan stuff. “Had I known he was going to go from ‘M.J.’ to ‘Air Jordan,’ I would have had him sign everything that I got in the Olympics,” Alford said in a video interview Thursday. “I got him to sign a pair of shoes; that’s huge. But I would have had him sign everything.”