We all know the legend of the Michael Jordan flu game (or if you’re young, you’ve seen the images in Gatorade commercials.
It was Game 5 of the 1997 NBA finals and the Bulls and Jazz were tied 2-2. The night before Game 5 Jordan got sick and by game time the next day he looked dehydrated and like death warmed over. He had been in bed for the 24 hours before but dragged himself to the Delta Center for a key game.
And he scored 38 points, 15 in the fourth quarter, played 44 minutes and willed the Bulls to a key win, then Scottie Pippen almost has to carry Jordan off the floor.
Jordan’s ability to play with the flu made him a legend — except his trainer Tim Grover doesn’t think it was the flu. He thinks Jordan was poisoned.
Grover was on TrueHoop TV this week and told the story (nod to Eye on Basketball for pointing this out).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.
Jalen Rose has said that Jordan was hungover. Believe whatever you want,. Whatever you choose it will only add to the legend of Jordan.