Kane Dane
The last two episodes of The Last Dance offered a triumphant image of the Bulls’ road in six championships, but they also introduced a great mystery: did anyone poison Michael Jordan during the 1997 Utah Championships? That’s what MJ says, but … wait, what?
It wasn’t the flu but food poisoning:
Let’s take a step back. If you’re familiar with Jordan’s history, you’ve probably heard of the “flu game” in which the basketball star fights to secure a victory for the bulls during game 5 of the ’96 finals. ’97 against jazz. But in The Last Dance, Jordan and his confidants say it wasn’t the flu at all: it was food poisoning thanks to a late-night pizza.
The story of Jordan, his coach Tim Grover and his personal assistant George Koehler is said to be something like this: around 10:30 pm, Jordan was hungry. There was no room service. Nothing was open except a pizzeria. They order a pizza. “Five kids deliver pizza,” says Grover. “And everyone is trying to look inside.” Grover pays for the pizza and says to Jordan, “I have a bad feeling about it.” Jordan, according to his estimates, ate pizza on his own and then woke up at about 2.30 pm. It is certain that it was food poisoning.
Why and who killed Jordan?
And that’s basically all the information we receive. Did a group of friends at a pizza in Utah come up with a very quick plan to poison Michael Jordan? Or did he get some bad cheese? Why were there five people at the door? Did they just want to take a look at one of the most famous men on the planet? Or was there something more miserable?
Naturally, viewers were confused. One of the loudest voices questioning this anecdote was comedian Kumail Nanjiani, who highlighted how ludicrous this all sounds on Twitter.
“Hi yes can we order a pizza? It’s for Michael… I mean it’s not for Michael Jordan. Can I get a pizza that’s definitely for not Michael Jordan?”
— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) May 18, 2024
So they were like “Ok the pizza is poisoned. In order to not seem suspicious, let’s send our five best guys to deliver it.”
— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) May 18, 2024
At least one of the protracted mysteries of the event has been solved: why was Jordan the only person to eat pizza? Director Jason Hehir has some thoughts. First of all, all the others present had dinner. Second, the worst explanation, Jordan, has reached pizza. Earlier, Hier explained to David Jacoby and Jalen Rose that Jordan was reportedly used to spitting food to describe it as his own. Heir also said he didn’t believe pizza was a “smell”. He added: “I don’t think anyone else has eaten this pizza.” So there are many holes left in this story. Time for a 10-hour documentary series about the pizza accident.
