BIG PIZZA LIE
Guy who says he made Jordan’s pie in Utah claims there’s no way it was ‘poisoned’
Any way you slice it, the pizza that Michael Jordan ate the night before Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals wasn’t poisoned, says the man who claims to have made it.
Jordan’s iconic “Flu Game” is back in the news this week after the ninth episode of ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary saw the NBA icon, his friend, George Koehler, and his personal trainer, Tim Grover, discuss what transpired the night before.
During the episode, which aired Sunday, Jordan contended that he actually had food poisoning — and not the flu — during that game against the Utah Jazz. Grover said five people had come to Jordan’s hotel room in Utah the night before the game to deliver the pizza, which he found suspicious.
A man named Craig Fite now claims he’s the one who made the pizza and is “100% certain” that Jordan didn’t get poisoned by it.
Fite said on Salt Lake City radio station 1280 The Zone on Monday that he was a Pizza Hut employee at the time, and that everyone in his industry knew which Park
City hotel the Chicago Bulls were staying at during the NBA Finals.
Fite was a Bulls fan who even named his son after Jordan, he said. He remembers thinking after receiving the late-night pizza order out of the hotel that the pie might be for someone with the Bulls organization.
“I remember saying this: ‘I will make the pizza, ’cause I don’t want any of you doing anything to it,’ and then I told the driver, ‘You’re gonna take me there,’ ” Fite told the radio station.
He said the order, which was made around 10 p.m., was for a large thin-and-crispy pizza with extra pepperoni.
“The crap story the guy said, that there was five people, there was two of us,” Fite said. “I didn’t even have that many people working at the time at the store.”
Fite said he thinks he saw Jordan in the hotel room when they dropped off the pizza, and that Jordan waved from inside and thanked them for the delivery.
Despite not feeling well, Jordan turned in one of his most memorable performances during that Game 5, scoring 38 points in a Bulls victory.