“Drinking and Eating”: When Michael Jordan Overcame the Fear of Water to Vacation With Wife Yvette Prieto

It’s not always easy to see NBA superstars as entirely human. After all, how could these athletic marvels that fly through the air deal with the same mundane issues as you and I? Michael Jordan is arguably the greatest of all NBA superstars, and with his legendary competitiveness and iconic feats on the basketball court, he’s always seemed, even more than other stars, to be operating on a different plane of existence than the rest of us. The 2013 ESPN story from the great Wright Thompson showed there’s also a human side to His Airness that most people never got to see.

Thompson’s story focused on how Jordan, who at the time of publication was about to turn 50 years old (he’s now 61), was grappling with the realities of growing older. The piece is laced with relatable issues, such as Jordan’s eyesight worsening and his shorts no longer fitting. It also touched on an emotion that most fans couldn’t have imagined was in MJ’s vocabulary: fear.

Thompson wrote about how Jordan went on sailing trips with his Cuban-born then-fiancee (now wife) Yvette Prieto, and to do so he had to face his fear of water.

“He’s trying to change, taking small steps. For the past few years, he’s gone on sailing trips because Yvette loves them, even though he hates the water. The first time, he went stir-crazy on the boat. This most recent trip, he felt his rage dissolve. It was a victory… “Drinking and eating and drinking and eating and drinking and eating” is how he described the vacation to a friend.“

Michael Jordan’s fear of water was reinforced in his younger years

Jordan has spoken about two traumatic incidents that brought about his fear of water. The first, in which he saw his best friend drown in front of him, occurred when he was just seven or eight years old. The second happened in college, as his girlfriend at the time also drowned after being swept away by a flood.

It’s more than understandable that Jordan would want nothing to do with the water after these life-changing incidents, but it’s notable that he faced his fear a) as a way to become closer to the woman he would go on to marry, and b) after his playing career was over and he needed an outlet from basketball.

Jordan’s experience showed the value of facing your fear, and in the end, he ended up enjoying himself as he ate and drank out on the open water. More than anything else, it proves that beyond the championships, the Flu Game, and the defiance of gravity, he deals with the same fears and insecurities as we all do.