CRACKS OF DON
Self-inflicted or bit by a bug, Jordan’s sick game enhanced his legacy ... Long wait to finally binge The Last Dance ... LeBron could’ve been a Cowboy
Surely there will be a way for pro sports teams to fly the hurdle plopped down by Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau, whose request to the U.S. that borders remain closed until June 21 was granted Tuesday.
Surely the NHL and NBA playoffs and MLB season will not be delayed further by that son of a PET.
Credit the first born to
Pierre Elliott Trudeau and the former Maggie Sinclair for thinking about our safety first when he had access between the two biggest countries in North America shut down to all but “non-essential” travel for another 30 days.
But J.T. wasn’t being very nice to sports fans. With teams in Canada, neither hockey or basketball or baseball can just resume regularly scheduled programming under those conditions.
So let’s sanitize the hell out of the private charters and get the show on the road because every day it’s becoming more clear that sports is essential to our sanity — especially with what is substituting as our entertainment.
And yeah, I’m talking about you, Michael Jordan.
Admittedly, I have not watched a second of MJ’s wildly popular docu-series,
The Last Dance. Not that I won’t.
The same as some of you, I was just waiting for all the episodes to be aired so I could binge. Like we did with
Tiger King. Now it’s go-time. Not even the nonsense surrounding the “flu game” is a show-stopper. But come on, it is the height of ridiculousness.
So starved for sports are we that talk is overflowing the Twitter-sphere of whether or not Jordan was victim of “food poisoning” prior to his performance in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals between his Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz.
Jordan could barely stand, he was so drained by what play-by-play man Marv
Albert first proclaimed was “flu-like symptoms”.
But he still managed to throw up 38 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three steals and a block, while capping off what’s called the most incredible game of his illustrious career with a last-minute three-pointer that helped the Bulls to a 90-88 victory and propelled them to the championship.
The debate of the day was actually started 15 years ago, when Jordan’s former trainer said he was “100% certain” the great No. 23 played with food poisoning he picked up from a meal at his hotel the night before.
Only now, with nothing better to do, are we digging deeper.
Now we find out that the meal was actually a large Thin ’N’ Crispy with extra pepperoni from a Utah Pizza
Hut which Jordan ordered for himself around 10 p.m. while he was smoking stogies and playing cards.
Stepping forward to say he was the guy who made and delivered the pie is Craig
Fite, who’s from Utah and WAS a Bulls fan.
“As soon as the (elevator) door opened, it was like I got punched in the face with cigar smoke,” Fite said on The
Big Show, a radio program in Salt Lake City.
Fite was allowed to step inside the room to say hi to Jordan, who was in a tank top puffing away by an open window. He recalls getting a $5 tip on the 15 buck bill, and he swears there was nothing wrong with the food he handed back.
“That’s a bunch of crap,” Fite said of the suggestion it made Jordan ill.
We will never know the truth for sure, but my hunch comes from experience: You’re not ordering a pie late at night while playing cards and smoking cigars unless you’re also drinking. And to me, that Jordan had a performance like that while hung over only enhances his legacy.
TOP OF THE ORDER
If you’re paying millions and millions as the rights holder, or you’re just a faithful reporter in Ottawa, don’t you get frustrated when the Senators owner continually delivers his message on Toronto radio? To your competition? ... Tragic news from 31-year-old Diamondbacks outfielder Starling Marte:
“Today I go through the great pain of making public the unfortunate death of my wife Noelia, due to a heart attack.” ... Unique training drill from
Marco Rossi, one of the top prospects in the NHL draft, was posted on social media. It shows the CHL’s scoring champ jumping up on a tight rope and walking its length. Can Alexis Lafreniere do that?
CONNECTING THE DOTS
Not sure why other businesses don’t try it the Senators way. If a customer says, “oh my gosh, how did they make their pizza so good?” apparently the response should be “hey dummy, we’ve been doing this for three years” ... Four-time NBA MVP LeBron James has a unsigned contract from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones as a reminder of how, during the 2011 NBA lockout, he considered switching sports. “I have dreams all the time about playing football,” said the 6-foot-9, 250-pound James, an all-state receiver in high school. Imagine covering that in football gear?
ON THIS DATE
The first game in what started out as a 12-team World Hockey Association the first game was played on Oct. 11, 1972, and saw the Alberta Oilers defeat the Ottawa Nationals 7-4 in front of 5,006 fans. The last game played in the NHL’s rival league was exactly 41 years ago today with the Winnipeg Jets defeating the Edmonton Oilers 7-3 to capture their third Avco Cup. RIP WHA.
FINISHING TOUCHES
Only issue I had with TSN’s all-time Team Canada squad was the third goalie behind
Carey Price and Martin Brodeur. No disrespect to the late Seth Martin, but while he did help the Trail Smoke Eaters become the last amateur Canadian team to win the World Ice Hockey Championship in 1961, his entire NHL career consisted of 30 appearances (8-10-7, 2.59 GAA) as Glenn Hall’s backup with the 1967-68 St. Louis Blues. Have a hard time believing he was anywhere near as good as Ken Dryden, who was the winning ’tender in the final game of the higher-profile ’72 Summit Series, as well as led the Habs to six Cups while posting a career record of 258-57-74 ... Lugano of the Swiss Hockey League was excited to announce “the hiring of a second new foreign striker who will bring new energy and new talent to the team’s offensive department, Mikkel Boedker.” That would be the same 30-yearold former first-rounder who wasn’t good enough to play regularly for the last-place NHL team the past two seasons. But hey, nobody has bigger thighs.