There is no better performer when the stakes are at their highest on the grandest basketball stages of all than Michael Jordan.
Advertisement
His Airness has six Finals MVP awards to show for it. Nothing and I mean players or circumstances or illness, there wasn’t a thing on planet earth that could stop MJ from winning the title once he reached the Finals, since he made it there for the first time in 1991.
He might have had Phil Jackson arguably the best coach and Scottie Pippen, unarguably the greatest 2nd star, to help him do what he did best, but the things he did against all the odds just seem mythical.
One such thing we are talking about was his performance in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals where he played with a flu. Later speculated to be a food poisoning by his trainer Tim Grover.
The famous flu game Michael Jordan might have been Altitude sickness, the team physician at the time thought so
On June 11, 1997, the Chicago Bulls were in their 5th Finals in 7 years and were tied at 2-2 with Karl Malone and John Stockton’s Utah Jazz. Jordan had flu-like symptoms before the game, and it was out in the media as he didn’t appear healthy enough to play a game.
But what came next added another unforgettable chapter to his legacy with one of the most iconic performances in NBA Finals history. While puking his guts out and taking medications throughout the game Jordan put up 38 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, and a block leading the Bulls to a 90-88 victory.
It is now finally confirmed by the team physician, Dr John Hefferson, what he and the team understood of MJ’s situation at the time.
“I don’t know that he had food poisoning. We thought he might have had altitude sickness.”
“Altitude sickness”!? That has a very wrong buzz to it. Let us all remember that game like we are used to for the last 25 years, shall we? The Flu Game.
