Back in 2012, Michael Phelps had his fanboy moment when he met his idol, Michael Jordan, during a taping of Feherty Live.
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No matter how accomplished you are, you will always get butterflies in your stomach interacting with your idol. This seemed to be the case for legendary swimmer Michael Phelps when he first met Michael Jordan.
Back in 2012, Phelps and Jordan appeared at the famous Tivoli Theatre at Downer’s Grove for a screening of Feherty Live.
The most decorated Olympian of all time was simply left in awe and ‘froze’ when he met his childhood hero for the first time. Phelps spoke about the same during the event:
“When I started talking, I was like what’s going on here, and then literally as soon as I turned around, I see MJ. I was like ‘Oh my god’. I just froze, I just literally froze. It was very special that he was able to come by and stop by to say hello, and that was awesome.”
“I have never froze, not like that. I’m still like out of it. That was just awesome. I am very tired but I don’t know if I will be able to sleep now after doing that. I’m pretty excited.”
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“I was going nuts”: Michael Phelps on meeting Michael Jordan
Phelps had a hilarious answer when talking about his fanboy moment with Jordan. The legendary American swimmer told The New York Times:
“I felt like one of those crazy (Justin) Bieber fans who starts crying when they meet him. I was going nuts.”
Back in 2020, the GOAT swimmer spoke about how much MJ meant to him growing up. In an interview with Yahoo Sports, Phelps said:
“For me, MJ was everything growing up. That was the guy I wanted to be. I wanted to do in swimming what he did in the sport of basketball. In my opinion, he completely changed and grew the sport of basketball to an unbelievable place and heights. That’s really what I kind of replicated my career off of.”
There is something about Michaels and being remarkable sporting icons.
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