I’m sure you’ve heard the story of Michael Jordan’s “Flu Game” ahead of Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals in Salt Lake City and you’ve probably heard it multiple times. The story that was told was Jordan felt ill ahead of the game and had a fever.
Despite this Jordan delivered, scoring 38 points in 44 minutes to earn a big win and grab a 3-2 series lead.
But during Episode 9 of “The Last Dance”, the story was told again and this time from the lips of Jordan and those closest to him. In the documentary, Jordan tells the story of how he was sitting in his Salt Lake City hotel room with his body guards, best friend and personal trainer. Jordan was hungry and they decided to order a pizza but being Salt Lake City, nothing was open except a pizza place.
The pizza was delivered around 10 p.m. but something suspicious happened. Five people delivered the pizza, a little unusual, and were peeking inside the hotel room to see who was in there. Jordan was the only one to eat the pizza as his trainer Tim Grover even mentioned how something wasn’t right…
Here is how the story was told in the documentary via Yahoo! Sports:
“Five guys delivering one pizza,” Grover said. “They’re all trying to look in. I take the pizza. I pay them. I put this pizza down. I say ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this pizza,’ Grover said.
Despite the bad feeling, Jordan ate the pizza. Nobody else partook.
“I ate the pizza,” Jordan said. “All by myself. Nobody else ate the pizza. I wake up about 2:30 throwing up left and right.”
Grover described Jordan as curled up in a ball and shaking, asking for a doctor.
“It really wasn’t the flu game,” Jordan said. “It was food poisoning.”
Okay, first off this should teach us to NEVER order pizza in Utah ever again. Just don’t do it. The second thing is that some damn pizza place tried to poison the GOAT and it didn’t freakin’ work. Nice try, asshats.
But who really tried to poison Jordan? Well, it hasn’t been revealed and I don’t think we will ever get the answer…
Horace Grant sounds off on Michael Jordan, calls him a snitch
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5 Comments
It was Davansa’s Pizza in Park City, Utah.
Definitely the pie pizzeria. I moved to salt lake to go to the university of Utah, and on the day before I had lacrosse tryouts, I ate this pizza from the pie. Next thing you know I was throwing up and had the worst diarrhea of my life
The Bulls were staying in Park City that night, not Salt Lake. That’s a common mistake travelers make though. Many believe it was a Park City restaurant called Davanzas. This is a rumor as Davanzas existed at that time, and exists to this day. The real restaurant that served him the pizza was Lakota, which doesn’t exist anymore. Butchers Chop House is now in its place with a different owner. I’ve worked in Park City for years and know people who worked at Lakota the night in question. They seem to remember it well. Who wouldn’t? It’s not everyday the Chicago Bulls are in town partying it up at a local bar/restaurant. Employees also don’t believe it was tainted. According to the story from the employees, MJ and other team members were drinking heavily at Lakota that day. Later that night, he ordered a pizza. They took it to him. He probably was dehydrated from drinking heavily, and drinking heavily at 7000ft when you’re not adapted to the altitude is a bad combination. Altitude sickness can have flu or food poisoning like symptoms. We see it often with vacationers coming into town. They’re not used to the elevation, start partying, and go down hard for a couple days. I doubt it was from the pizza. Food poisoning also sounds better than MJ getting wasted, then having a bad case of altitude sickness from alcohol dehydration. I cannot prove any of this myself, but I do take my friend(s) at their word as they were first hand witnesses and were bartenders to the Bulls at Lakota that night. We’ve been hearing this story in Park City for years. The story in The Last Dance is nothing new to many Park City locals.
I know that Karl and John, Jerry, BRuss and the rest of the Jazz wouldnt have wanted to win a game because some lil disrespectful punks grom my home state poisoned the g.o.a.t thats for sure. Its an embarrassment that Utah fans are so over the top with stupidity and full of disrespect. Those were amazing teams Utah had Jordon was just that damn good. I cant stand him for it, but respect the hell out him. Proud witness tho.
What’s up with the guy from Pizza hut saying he delivered it on the radio?