Almost 21 years ago, it was all on June 11, 1997 when the fifth game was played in Salt Lake City (Utah) of the series Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz in a game that would go down in history for Michael Jordan's great performance and he would remember it as the flu game.
After Bulls won the first 2 games in the United Center (84-82 and 97-85), Jazz responded by winning the next 2 in Utah (104-93) )) and 78-73). The series was tied (2-2), the next game would be at the Delta Center (the format of the Finals was 2-3-2), it was the most decisive if they wanted to stay in the race for the championship.
There are several hypotheses, but the 2 with more fundamentals are Flu or Food poisoning
It all begins on the night of June 9 to be concrete. A couple of days before the game, I inform the Jordan trainer, Tim Grover.
In the words of Tim Grover, "We were in a hotel in Park City, Utah, after 9:00 pm and room service was already closed." Michael started to feel hungry and we did not know where to have dinner, so we decided to order a pizza. "
"We were there for a few days and everyone knew the hotel we were staying in. Some guys came to distribute the pizza and, as soon as I picked it up, I told my colleagues:" I have a bad feeling about this. "
"Of all the people in the room, Jordan was the only one who ate pizza. Nobody else did it. "
"hours later, the feeling of Grover came true "After 2 in the morning, I received a call from michael I went to his room and he was at the top of the the bed curled up and sweating profusely, with clear symptoms of pain. "
Because of the evident state of jordan, the team's doctors told him that there was no way he could play tomorrow's game.
A mission (almost) impossible
Following the rules of the doctors, Jordan remained in bed for 24 hours, losing training that day and the next scheduled day on the morning of the game, in addition to losing several kilos of weight for severe dehydration.
Jordan knew that his Bulls would need a leader for such a decisive match, Michael gathered all his strength and got out of bed after 5 p.m. with the idea in mind that he would play. This match will be played at 7 p.m. in the Delta Center! .
Officially, it was said that Jordan had the flu and that he had spent all night with a fever, so the Jazz knew that 'Air' would play very badly. In the words of Scottie Pippen in person "when I saw him enter the dressing room I thought it was impossible to touch him, I could not even wear the uniform".
Surely a normal player could not do something like that, but we were not talking about a normal player. we were talking about Michael Jordan himself.
A performance for history
With more heart and determination than the forces, the jumpman went to the Delta Center. Starting as a starter but it was as if he were not there, it was more than disastrous, that his teammates thought that at any moment he would faint. Something that the Jazz of Utah would use to advance to the score by 16 points at the beginning of the second quarter.
At that time it all began, somehow jordan found himself scoring 17 points in that same time ... although he could not decrease the disadvantage to rest (53-39).
In the last quarter and the decisive Jazz won by 77-69, Jordan became the leader that has always been by a partial 10-0 that culminated the return of his team, including a decisive triple that put the 85 -88 with 25 seconds remaining. His image after the bank completely exhausted, accompanied by his faithful squire Pippen, is pure history of the NBA.
Finally the Bulls took the victory with the infallible end of 88-90 and Jordan's statistics were to remember them 38 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, 1 stopper and 2 triples, in 44 minutes end. game.
Jordan says he had a fever of 38, only he will know.
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the article where I get the information http://www.mundodeportivo.com/baloncesto/nba/20170611/423264199944/flu-game-michael-jordan-chicago-bulls-utah-jazz-nba-finals.html
and the links of the images
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/we-went-there-the-1997-nba-finals-live-from-pyongyang/
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/06/the-best-moments-in-nba-finals-history-michael-jordans-flu-game
http://allball.blogs.nba.com/2013/09/24/buy-michael-jordans-flu-game-shoes/
https://solecollector.com/news/2016/05/michael-jordan-flu-game