Michael Jordan relives wild drug-filled hotel scene in ‘Last Dance' doc

Share

Everyone has had that moment in life when they walk into a room and see something they'd rather not see.

For former Chicago Bulls icon Michael Jordan, that moment happened shortly after he was drafted in 1984.

Jordan recounted this wild, wild story during the first episode of "The Last Dance" documentary, which premiered on ESPN on Sunday night.

"Look, guys were doing things that I didn't see," Jordan said. "I had one event, preseason, I think we were in Peoria, [Illinois]. I was in the hotel trying to find my teammates. So I start knocking on doors and I get to this one door and knock on the door and I can hear someone say "Shhhh. Someone's outside." And then you hear this deep voice [say] "Who is it?" I said "MJ." And they said "Ah, f--k, he's just the rookie, don't worry about it." So they open up the door, I walk in and practically the whole team was in there, and it was like, things I've never seen in my life as a young kid. You got your lines [of cocaine] over here, you got your weed smokers over here, you got your women over here.

"So the first thing I said was "Look man, I'm out." Because all I could think about was if they come raid this place right about now, I am just as guilty everybody else that's in this room. From that point on, I was more or less on my own."

Jordan's story was prompted by the person interviewing him saying this:

"One of the articles I read, they called it 'the Bulls traveling cocaine circus.' "

That got a huge belly laugh out of Jordan.

In the NBA today, it's a lot harder to get away with a scene like this because of the Anti-Drug Program where players are tested throughout the season.

[RELATED: Comparing Jordan's injury to Steph's]

According to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, players are to six random, unannounced drug tests during the season and offseason, though that rule has been waived during the stoppage caused by the global coronavirus pandemic.

But back in the 1980s, times were different and you could have scenes where the No. 3 overall draft pick walks into a hotel room for the rest of his team is doing drugs.

Contact Us