It’s been 25 years since the iconic game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals.
By 1997, Michael Jordan had accomplished so much that it was almost impossible to expand his legacy. Then came the “Flu Game” in the 1997 NBA Finals, a performance that saw Jordan fighting through food poisoning to help lead the Chicago Bulls win a crucial Game 5 over the Utah Jazz.
Food poisoning
Jordan was battling flu-like symptoms all day, and was reportedly injected with fluids and pain𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ers at halftime. But he still willed himself to rise up to the occasion and score an incredible 38 points—none bigger than the three-pointer he drilled in with 25 seconds remaining, thus giving the Bulls a lead they wouldn’t relinquish for a 90-88 victory in Game 5.
Jordan looked the part of a sick man early on before scoring 17 in the second quarter. He then struggled in the third before finding his second wind in the final stretch, scoring seven in a 10-0 Bulls’ surge that erased Utah’s 77-69 lead.
“Probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,” Jordan said. “I almost played myself into passing out just to win a basketball game.”
Bad pizza
It may have been called the “flu game,” but Jordan’s trainer, Tim Grover, revealed it wasn’t. Instead, it was food poisoning from the pizza Jordan ate at the hotel the night before.
“So we order a pizza, they come to deliver it, five guys come to deliver this pizza,” Grover said.
“And I’m just… I take the pizza, and I tell them, I said, ‘I got a bad feeling about this.’ I said, ‘I just got a bad feeling about this.’ Out of everybody in the room, he was the only one that ate. Nobody else… then 2 o’clock in the morning, I get a call to my room,” Grover added.
