- 2 days ago
38 points with an illness
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Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
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00:13This is going to be a long run!
00:18Don't believe what I just saw!
00:33Hello, I'm Chris Fowler for SportsCentury.
00:36On June 11, 1997, the night of Game 5 of the NBA Finals, the word ricocheted around the
00:43sports world.
00:44Michael Jordan is sick, retchingly wobble-kneed, head-in-a-bucket ill.
00:50The Chicago Bulls were not exactly healthy themselves.
00:53With the series tied at two games each, the Utah Jazz had the Bulls right where they wanted
00:58them, on their home court, where they'd won 23 straight.
01:02As we'll see in the next half hour, what transpired, but forever after, be known as the flu game.
01:15Now the big story here tonight, the story concerning Michael Jordan's physical condition.
01:22Even before we heard about Michael, there was this sense that we were seeing something we'd
01:27never seen before with these Bulls.
01:29If they lost this Game 5 in Utah, they were suddenly going to be on the verge of losing
01:34the NBA Finals.
01:35Yeah.
01:35Then you find out that Jordan is sick.
01:38There was such a big buzz before the game.
01:40Michael's throwing up.
01:41Michael's throwing up.
01:41I mean, it's like we heard every detail about his vomiting.
01:44No one knows exactly what he had.
01:46The temperature, it wasn't the flu.
01:48Food poisoning is what, you know, it was supposedly beat.
01:50There were a lot of...
01:51Got some bad pizza.
01:52It was believable to some people that some guy in a Park City pizza joint had poisoned
01:57Michael.
01:58What a brilliant plan to help the Jazz win the NBA Finals.
02:02The night before, I luckily didn't have any of the pizza.
02:06And the next morning, I remember speaking to him saying he was really sick.
02:10Like, really, really sick.
02:13About 9 o'clock in the morning, we were going to practice, and somebody said one of the
02:16players was sick.
02:18And it turned out it was Michael.
02:20And they went to his room, and Michael didn't look very well.
02:25He'd been up for, I don't know, six or seven hours with a headache and nausea.
02:29I examined him.
02:31He wasn't dehydrated.
02:32He wasn't having diarrhea.
02:34So I gave him a couple of medications to get some rest and relax his stomach.
02:37And I told him I'd check on him after practice.
02:39When we got there in the morning to shoot around, and Michael wasn't there.
02:43I mean, come on.
02:44Where's Michael?
02:45Michael Jordan never misses a shoot around in the Finals.
02:48He's sick.
02:50So now, everybody's thinking, this could be the end of the Bulls.
02:57I mean, if Michael doesn't play, they have no chance.
03:00Bill, you guys still feel a sense of urgency?
03:02Oh, yeah.
03:03How about Michael?
03:05How's Michael doing?
03:06I don't know.
03:06I went by the room, and he was curled up on the couch, like in a fetal position, just
03:12with his head buried in a pillow.
03:14As bad as he was, the possibility of not playing that night never entered his mind, I'm sure.
03:19After all those years, it never really entered mine either.
03:21I went back up after practice, and he was better.
03:24He ate his steak before the game.
03:26Blood pressure, everything else was fine.
03:27Had a minimal headache, if at all.
03:29And he said he wanted to go and play.
03:30So we took the bus ride down from Park City, which was a very, very winding bus ride.
03:37The bus ride was probably 35 minutes from Park City to where we were playing the arena, and
03:42he had a towel around his head.
03:44You can just tell he wasn't his normal self on the bus, getting on, kind of, you know,
03:48talking to each guy, saying, hey, let's get ready and stay focused.
03:51He was kind of at his head down, and you could tell he wasn't feeling well.
03:54He just looked like a basket case, and we were thinking, is this the one time that he's
03:59not going to make it?
04:00When we got to the stadium there, he was feeling very, very dizzy.
04:03And literally, I thought that he struggled to get down the hallway to the training and
04:08where we're at.
04:08Coffee is very, very good for inner ear type things.
04:11So we gave him four, five, six cups of coffee, and he felt a little better.
04:15He did not vomit that I know of.
04:17He did not have any diarrhea.
04:18He did not have any bad pizza that caused anything like that.
04:21I thought he probably had a virus.
04:22He wanted to play.
04:23His blood pressure, his vital signs, everything else was fine.
04:27I walked in the locker room.
04:27He wasn't there, so it wasn't a big concern.
04:29But you can tell the atmosphere was kind of weird.
04:32Everybody was whispering, and that's when I walked in the back room, and he was like
04:37half dead.
04:38He was bending over.
04:39A couple of doctors were holding him up.
04:40He was real weak.
04:41He had no balance.
04:42It didn't look good.
04:44The rest of us just kind of went on to our normal routine of getting ready mentally and
04:50physically prepared for the game.
04:51And, you know, it was always in the back of our mind, like, you know, what's Michael going
04:54to do?
04:55Is he going to be okay?
04:56Is he going to play?
04:58When his dad was alive, I used to talk to him, and I'd say, Michael's not feeling good.
05:02He says, yeah, but watch the game he has tonight.
05:04And so we were sort of kidding about that.
05:07Could he have this type of game?
05:08I walk out and see the equipment manager.
05:11I said, oh, man, Mike doesn't look good.
05:12He goes, great.
05:13I said, what do you mean, great?
05:14He goes, we're going to win.
05:15I said, what do you mean we're going to win?
05:17I mean, he's dead.
05:18He goes, nah, whatever.
05:19He's sick.
05:20He plays phenomenal.
05:21I'm like, come on.
05:22He can't even move.
05:23He goes, watch.
05:25Great.
05:25You have to move for people to say that.
05:27He never got there.
05:2914 years, those guys had been there, you know, fighting every year.
05:33And then finally, one open shot, we were there.
05:36And John Stuckton sends the Utah Jazz to the NBA Finals.
05:42All the frustration, all the years, the playoffs, all the 51 seasons, and now you're there.
05:48You're going to the dance.
05:49And it was incredible.
05:52Several players in the Jazz locker room who broke down with the emotion of finally getting there.
05:57A few hours later, they had to start thinking about trying to win the NBA Finals, but I don't
06:01think they'd even thought about that before, to be honest with you.
06:04The Bulls knew all through the season that they were head and shoulders above everyone
06:07else, and it was just a matter of finding the right gear where they could stay kind of
06:12comfortably ahead of the pack, but wouldn't sap their energy for the playoff run.
06:18The Bulls had cruised through the Eastern Conference playoffs, going 11-2, and then they
06:24won the first two games of the Finals.
06:26But the Jazz evened the series with two home court victories and had pivotal Game 5 at
06:31the Delta Center.
06:32It's awfully tough to beat a team back-to-back, let alone trying to beat them three in a row.
06:38Just winning period was on my mind.
06:40We had to go back anyway to play Game 6, even if we did win.
06:45So I wanted to win that game real bad.
06:48We just said, we have to win this.
06:50You don't come out here and lose three in a row and then expect to go back home and win
06:54two.
06:54It was a really critical game.
06:57So whoever wanted that fifth game of the series felt that was it.
07:03We had this great practice in Salt Lake, and there was this tremendous hail storm while
07:10we were practicing on this June day.
07:12It had the noise of this crowd that Utah could generate this tremendous amount of noise.
07:16And we laughed and said, you know, that God's providing us this noise so that we could prepare
07:21ourselves for game number five.
07:29And now, ladies and gentlemen, introduce it, are you gorgeous?
07:34You've got your home crowd behind you.
07:35And I really think that gives you a little extra, you know, to help you get going.
07:40And man, they were unbelievable.
08:03Jordan very often started out games kind of assessing the situation.
08:08This was a little different, though.
08:09It looked to me like he was trying to figure out if he was going to be able to really
08:12do
08:12this.
08:13And I think that Jazz took advantage of that.
08:15And Juan Carlos putting the spin on the corner.
08:20Down 16 isn't a good thing.
08:22I mean, the crowd was definitely into it.
08:24They were feeling like they had a victory.
08:26We just stayed the course.
08:28We knew in the back of our heads, you know, this is defending world champs.
08:31They're not a champ for nothing.
08:32They're going to come back.
08:33And Jordan puts moves on Hornacek.
08:36The first quarter was probably just to get some of the flu out.
08:40But, you know, as the game go along, and you're a great player as such as Mike, you're going
08:45to find a way to get it done.
08:47And that second quarter, he caught fire.
08:56He would do whatever he could to win the game.
09:00And if it took conning you, he would con you.
09:02And there was a little mixture, you know, among press row.
09:04Is he putting on a little bit?
09:06You know, how sick is he really?
09:07Jordan to the crossroad.
09:09Yes.
09:10There was a little feeling like this was Michael's rope adult.
09:12He obviously wasn't feeling well, but he knew that he had enough to play.
09:16And when the Jazz got out to a big lead, he saw that a big expenditure of energy was
09:21necessary.
09:29Michael Jordan might have been sick, but he wasn't sick to play basketball.
09:34I mean, if you if you bought into that, you could have been sold anything in the world.
09:38I never bought into it.
09:40I told the players never to buy into it.
09:41Because you watch him.
09:42And while the game is going on, while he's playing, he's unbelievable.
09:45But as soon as there's a stoppage in play, he's coming over to the bench for a timeout.
09:49He's just like, oh, and he drops.
09:51You can tell when your teammate is not right.
09:53When you don't see that vicious fire in Michael's eyes, the eye of the tiger.
09:57So his teammates knew it.
09:58And as he sat there with a towel over him, look up as if he was almost getting chills.
10:03Every time they call a timeout, they want to get an update.
10:06And I remember I kept saying back to our producer, he said he's sick.
10:10He said he doesn't feel well.
10:12He said he feels horrible.
10:13And it got to be kind of funny.
10:14It's like a surrealistic experience.
10:16You're going through it and you don't really believe that you're really a part of it and can make a
10:21difference.
10:21I thought about saying something, but I didn't.
10:23That was probably the toughest decision of my medical career because so many things could have happened at that point.
10:30That was probably the biggest concern given, you know, the altitude and dryness of the atmosphere in Salt Lake City
10:34at that time,
10:35that he would just be well hydrated throughout.
10:37So, you know, the big thing is to make sure he's drinking enough fluids throughout the game.
10:41It still often happens.
10:42He seems to kind of grow with the situation.
10:46Jordan won 17 points from his feverish body in the second quarter.
10:50And at halftime, the Bulls trailed 53-49.
10:54There was just something about him where the body, the mind, the soul of Michael Jordan, you just learn never
11:01to doubt it.
11:02Even in that sick game, as we call it, that sick game situation, at halftime, I knew he'd be back.
11:09It's 97.
11:11Most valuable player.
11:17Jordan is the ultimate competitor.
11:19And while Michael had just been dominating everything, they kept giving MVP awards to the other guys.
11:25And I think that irked Michael.
11:27I told Carl, winning the MVP may have been the worst thing that you could have done going into this
11:35series against Michael Jordan.
11:36That was one thing he could hang his head on, going head-to-head against the MVP when everybody knows
11:41I should be the MVP.
11:43He resented it for Carl Malone, not because he didn't respect Carl or anything, but he felt he wanted a
11:48show.
11:48And he believed that he was the best player and the most valuable player all the time.
11:52And Michael always likes to have some sort of poor me thing to fight against.
11:57The thing about me as a person and me as a basketball player later in my years is that inside
12:03my head, I had to start creating challenges for myself
12:06because I accomplished everything that people, you know, said I couldn't do.
12:11Carl Malone had the ball and game one of the NBA Finals in his hands.
12:16There were nine seconds left.
12:17The score was tied at 82, and the mailman was at the free throw line for two.
12:22Game one, you're really trying to set the tone for the series.
12:25And what Utah had done was, you know, put themselves in a great position to win the basketball game.
12:32And, you know, Carl missed a free throw.
12:34When he missed the first free throw, Scottie Pippen mentioned to Malone, the mailman doesn't deliver on Sundays.
12:42Oh, he missed the ball.
12:43He missed the ball by Jordan.
12:45They were huge free throws.
12:46He just missed free throws.
12:47It happens to everybody.
12:49You remember thinking after he missed those free throws, well, the Bulls have done the tough part now.
12:54They got the ball back for Michael Jordan.
12:56We're down to two.
12:58Now to one.
12:58Here's Jordan.
12:59Yes!
13:01He was on.
13:03And it was typical of Jordan to make a statement to open the series to say, not only are you
13:07not MVP, you're not winning this series.
13:11Malone.
13:12If Carl Malone.
13:16If Carl Malone and his George Jefferson hairline could have blocked it out, they would have won the series.
13:25Could have won the series, probably.
13:29Malone had a chance for redemption in game five.
13:32But rather than attack the basket, he was content to linger on the perimeter.
13:36He missed five of his six second-half shots and totaled only 19 points.
13:47We felt like if we could have him shooting, you know, fade-away jump shots 15, 16 feet away from
13:54the basket, he's going to make a lot of those.
13:56That's definitely more to our benefit than having him, you know, pounding in on us inside.
14:00We always try to get him inside.
14:04Carl is a competitor.
14:06That's his mentality is to try to win it however way he can.
14:10And yeah, he may have taken a few more outside shots that game.
14:14Here's Paul.
14:16And Longley rebounds.
14:18At just that point, they was forcing him out a little bit further than normal.
14:21At that time, we were looking for him too much.
14:23I think half of us, we should have stepped up a little bit more in trying to get open and
14:27trying to create our own shots.
14:29John Stockton is disgusted with Malone.
14:32When he makes the same pass he's made a million times to Malone, that Malone has turned into dunks.
14:37And this time, it turns into a missed fall-away jumper.
14:41There's a brief moment of, well, Carl's going to do this to us again that goes across Stockton's face.
14:47Now, who's going to want to shoot here for Utah?
14:50Oh, my God.
14:51He had it nine times.
14:53Carl played like a guy who was trying to protect something rather than get something.
14:57Carl was never able to take the game away from Michael.
15:00And when you look at championship history, it's all about these head-to-head match-ups with guys with differing
15:09games.
15:10And who's going to be able to control the flow?
15:14The way you would have beaten Michael is by having an Akeem Olajuwon or a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or a
15:20Moses Malone or a Shaquille O'Neal.
15:23All these great legendary post guys.
15:25And Carl could have been that guy.
15:27But couldn't get it done.
15:31Well, one of the great things that Chicago always had in big games was the Michael factor.
15:37His toughness of mind, which affected his teammates.
15:40In the third quarter, he only scored two points.
15:44And Scottie Pippen came over to him and said,
15:46Don't worry about the defense.
15:48I'll take care.
15:48I'll play my man and your man.
15:50All you do is do what you do best.
15:52And that's the score in the fourth quarter.
15:57We really should have took advantage of him by running a little bit more to weigh him down.
16:01But we didn't.
16:02He should have been so fatigued that he wouldn't have had any legs for those jump shots.
16:06I mean, we played three quarters and we go into the fourth quarter.
16:10He'd have been tired.
16:11He'd have been feeling from chasing Jeff Hornacek around or chasing myself.
16:16You have to realize who you're attacking.
16:18One of the greatest defensive players, by the way, that's ever played the game.
16:22I didn't think that Jeff Hornacek was going to be able to attack Michael Jordan in that situation with a
16:26ball
16:27because that's who he was guarding.
16:28Jeff has never been that kind of player to take the ball and play one-on-one.
16:34Utah has forever to lament not running Jordan into the ground when he was on defense.
16:40But the more significant fact is the Jazz had no antidote for his offense.
16:45With the Bulls down by eight points in the fourth quarter, Jordan erupted.
16:50Jordan, yes, the Cubs 77 and the Bulls 71.
16:57When Michael got on that roll, it was almost as though you couldn't keep up with him
17:02and you couldn't believe how good this story was getting.
17:05Jordan clears the game, yes, and he's tied the game at 77.
17:11He'd hit shot after shot and he'd make some spectacular shot
17:14and you'd try to write it down on your notepad.
17:16Before you could do it, you'd look up and he'd done something else.
17:19Jordan shooting, yes, Chicago 79 and Utah 77.
17:26He just kept hitting big shot after big shot
17:29and just running back down to the court on defense,
17:32he looked like he was going to fall down.
17:34He just did not look good at all.
17:35I was just sitting there hoping he didn't pass out.
17:38There's nothing else that I could do.
17:39He looked a couple of times in the third and fourth quarter
17:42like he was going to pass out.
17:44Jordan, yes, but Jazz by one.
17:50He passed out.
17:51He passed out a loss to the Jazz.
17:55And from that point on, it was just a battle
17:58in terms of who would take the last second shot.
18:02With 46 seconds to play, Jordan tied it at 85 with one free throw,
18:07then lined up for a second.
18:10That's how you make people.
18:12They're going to speak up the loose ball.
18:15Pilot's team done, you know.
18:18Seven-footer, and they're counting on me to rebound.
18:21That's it, rebound and block shots.
18:22I missed a crucial, crucial box out.
18:25I have some blame to take for that loss.
18:27Well, I've always said, you know, we lost a championship
18:29because we didn't do some of the simple things in basketball,
18:31and that's to block out and give up an offensive rebound on free throws.
18:35You don't expect Michael to miss a free throw,
18:38but he's a human being, so I was just in the right place
18:42at the right time and tipped the ball back.
18:43Michael reaches down with John Stockton right there.
18:47Quick hands.
18:48Michael somehow gathers the ball,
18:50goes outside behind the three-point line.
18:53Ten on the shot point.
18:56So I go down to help, and he kicks it out,
18:59and Mike, no hesitation, shot it.
19:02When you're as good as Michael Jordan is,
19:04why would you ever double-team someone else?
19:07Because I thought he was a little fatigued.
19:10You know, he was bent over at times,
19:12and I was like, well, maybe he don't want to take that
19:15because he's not a better three-point shooter than two.
19:17That's a bit shocking.
19:19Brian said that.
19:20That was a decision that definitely honored him.
19:26Michael Jordan, straight away.
19:29Don't double-team.
19:31That was one of the things where we made a mistake.
19:34You can't make mistakes and win in games like that.
19:37That's a big dagger when you fought the whole game
19:39and have stupid mistakes like that to give them that opportunity.
19:43You can't give the greatest player in the world that opportunity.
19:46Sick or not sick.
19:47Hitting that three-point shot in a very key moment,
19:50you know, when a person was totally drained at the level he was drained at,
19:55was a psychological battle that I'd never seen anybody overcome.
19:58The teams exchanged baskets,
20:01and with the Bulls ahead 90-87 and the clock melting down,
20:05the Jazz still had a chance to force overtime.
20:08Down to six in two tenths seconds.
20:10Romantic.
20:11It's a good start.
20:12It's a good start.
20:13It's a good start.
20:14It's a good start.
20:14Here's the three-point.
20:17The Chicago Bulls have defeated the Utah Jazz.
20:26I was really tired.
20:27I was very weak.
20:28At halftime, I told Phil that he used me in spurts.
20:34But, I mean, somehow I found the energy to stay strong.
20:37I wanted it really bad.
20:38After the game, he looked terrible.
20:41He looked like he was going to pass out.
20:42We lied him down in the locker room.
20:44Blood pressure was okay.
20:46He was so weak that he couldn't drink.
20:48They had a doctor there that wanted to give him an IV,
20:50and he's so afraid of needles,
20:52he wouldn't let the guy give him the IV.
20:54Absolutely not.
20:55We had to force-feed him Gatorade,
20:57and it took about 30 or 45 minutes of giving him a lot of Gatorade,
21:01and then he was finally able to stand up and felt okay.
21:08He played 44 minutes.
21:09He scored 38 points, grabbed 7 rebounds,
21:13and passed out 5 assists.
21:14And he demonstrated anew his remarkable capacity
21:18for seizing the moment and making it his.
21:21My lasting image is Jordan coming to the bench,
21:25just spent towards the end of that game,
21:29and Scottie Pippen had to help him to the bench
21:32and help him sit down.
21:33Mentally, he's got to be the strongest player I've ever played with
21:38and maybe in the history of the NBA
21:40because he's so mentally tough,
21:41and his will to win is so strong.
21:43He's just not going to let us lose,
21:45and that was just the feeling like no matter how sick he was,
21:48whatever his temperature was, what he was feeling,
21:51he was going to, you know, lead us to victory,
21:54and that's what he did.
21:55If you put on the uniform, you're able to play.
21:58There are no excuses.
21:59That's the essence of professional sports.
22:01To say that he had such a great game and he was sick,
22:04what does that mean?
22:05If he wasn't sick, he'd have a better game?
22:06I don't think so.
22:08And that was a great performance whether he was sick or he wasn't.
22:18Two nights after the flu game,
22:20the Bulls and Jazz were tied at 86 in the final half minute of game six.
22:25In the Chicago huddle, a fully recovered Michael Jordan told Steve Kerr to be ready to shoot.
22:31MJ, who had won the opening game with a last-second basket,
22:34was certain Utah would be doubling him.
22:37He couldn't have been more correct.
22:39Kerr took Jordan's pass and with five seconds left,
22:42hit the shot that delivered the Bulls their fifth title in seven years
22:45and reinforced Jordan's reputation as the man who, healthy or ill,
22:51could find both the will and the way to win.
22:54For SportsCentury, I'm Chris Fowler.
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