‘The Last Dance’: Michael Jordan Reveals The Real Story Behind His Legendary ‘Flu Game’

Even the casual NBA fan has heard about Michael Jordan’s ‘flu game’ on June 11, 1997 — Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz. MJ went off on a tear, despite being gravely ill. He revealed the truth in ‘The Last Dance’ on May 17.

Michael Jordan put decades of speculation about his famous “flu game” to rest during episode 9 of ESPN’s The Last Dance documentary on Sunday. It turns out that MJ didn’t have the flu — he had food poisoning. He explained what led to him throwing up for hours before Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz.

Stuart Scott’s “Flu Game” highlight of MJ will always be 💯#TheLastDance pic.twitter.com/5WNVybQktp

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 17, 2020

It was game time and Michael looked washed. Every time the whistle would blow for a time out, it was almost as if the life came out of his body. MJ was gassed. He would hit the bench and just sprawl out with a towel on his head.

“In ’98, [Bulls General Manager, Jerry] Krause already said at the beginning of the season, ‘Phil can go 82 and 0 and he’s never gonna be coach. And, when Phil said this was ‘the last dance’ it was the last dance,” Michael said. “We knew they weren’t going to keep the team. Now, they could’ve have nixed all of it in the beginning of ’98. Why say all of that in the beginning of ’98? If you ask all of the guys who won in ’98… ‘we’ll give you 1-year contracts to try for seven.’ Do you think they would’ve signed? — Yes, they would’ve signed. Would I have signed for 1-year? Yes, I would’ve signed for one year. I was signing 1-year contracts after that. Would Phil have done it, yes. Now Pip, you would’ve had to do some convincing. But, if Phil, MJ, and Dennis were gonna be there to win 7, Pip was not gonna miss out on that,” he explained.

Article source: https://hollywoodlife.com/2020/05/17/michael-jordan-bad-pizza-flu-game-reason-the-last-dance-recap/