'The Last Dance' Just Changed Everything We Knew About Michael Jordan's 'Flu Game'
It’s one of the most legendary performances a basketball player has ever given: Michael Jordan’s legendary “Flu Game,” where he scored 38 points in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals while suffering flu-like symptoms.
Episode Nine of The Last Dance, ESPN’s documentary series about the Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, had some of the most revealing moments of the series so far, but one thing will probably have fans talking for a long time after this Sunday night. When The Last Dance revisited that fateful matchup against the Utah Jazz, Michael Jordan’s longtime trainer, Tim Grover, told a story that changes the record—apparently MJ was suffering from food poisoning from a pizza order the night before.
Jordan was hungry before Game 5, but the hotel didn’t have room service—so Grover tracked down the only pizza joint open in the Park City, UT area. Five people showed up to deliver the pizza, knowing it was meant for MJ. Grover recalls having a bad feeling about the order, but Michael ate it anyway—all by himself, he said. A few hours later, he was curled up in the fetal position on the hotel room floor.
“I’ve not known any flu that can hit you that fast, but I know how quickly food poisoning can hit you,” Grover said recently on TNT’s The Steam Room podcast, remembering that he told Jordan, “If you’re going to play, you gotta keep going. … The worst thing that could happen is that you come out and rest for a long period of time.”
Apparently, Jordan told Grover: “Just get me standing. I will do the rest.”
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