Flu game false
So Michael Jordan didn’t have the flu against the Utah Jazz? Yep, the infamous “flu game” isn’t all that it seems. Before we delve in to why it’s technically not the flu game here is some back story on the game incase you don’t know.
We’ll take it back to Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals where Michael Jordan single handedly decimated the Utah Jazz with the “flu.” The series was tied 2-2 when Michael Jordan had one of the great basketball performances of all time when he dropped 38 pts,7 rebs, and 5 assists on the Utah Jazz. MJ’s performance propelled the Bulls and MJ to a 5th NBA championship.
Fast forward to now and Jordan’s trainer Tom Grover reveals that Mike didn’t have the flu but it was in fact food poisoning. Read Grover’s story below.
“We were in Park City, Utah, up in a hotel. Room service stopped at like nine o’clock. He got hungry and we really couldn’t find any other place to eat. So we said eh, the only thing I can find is a pizza place. So we says all right, order pizza.
We had been there for a while. Everybody knew what hotel. Park City was not many hotels back then. So everyone kind of knew where we were staying.
So we order pizza. Five guys came to deliver this pizza. I take the pizza and I tell them: “I’ve got a bad feeling about this. … I’ve just got a bad feeling about this.”
Out of everybody in the room, [MJ] was the only one who ate. Nobody else had it. And then 2 o’clock in the morning I get a call to my room. Come to the room. He’s curled up in the fetal position. We’re looking at him, finding the team physician at that time.
Immediately I told him it’s food poisoning. Not the flu.”
Well that’s the real story folks not the flu but food poisoning. Show of hands for those still wanting to call it the “Flu Game” though?
– John McAuliffe (@John_Mac310)
