Tim Duncan was like Jordan in post in 1999. I was surprised to recall how spurs swept Lakers in second round of 1999 with Mario Ellie starting.
Ellie was apart of two Shaq sweeps. Obviously, the 1995 championship and spurs versus Lakers in second round of 1999. And yeah Mario Ellie was spurs starter in 1999.
So we can confirm now that Jazz fans are literally the worst fans in the NBA? I mean, we've known this all along, but for anyone else that's been doubting it.
Of course by default I meant the games Jordan played in. There is no point to mention how clutch he was if he didn't even play. True Bulls lost in 95 playoffs. MJ was just back from baseball and clearly he wasn't in his best basketball form. His turnovers in playoffs almost doubled than his career playoff average. I take that as an exemption. Even though Jordan shot poorly by his standard, the bulls team was 34-31 before Jordan came back and they were 14-3 after that. BTW, without Grant or Rodman, I believe Rockets would have won Championship that year even if Jordan played the entire season and got to final. But that has nothing to do with how clutch he was. Anyway, six and a half season without losing 3 games in a row when the ball always went to Jordan in closing moments is a large enough sample to show how clutch he was.
So... are we really taking the "I want a Pizza at 11pm"... and "I ate all the pizza, nobody else had some" story at 100% face value? Keep in mind, just a few episodes prior in the documentary, it was touted how Jordan could literally stay up almost all night, drinking/smoking cigars the night of a playoff game, and somehow miraculously be fine the next day. Not to say that food poisoning didn't happened... but there's also a high possibility that alcohol was flowing (especially in Utah, where you have to work a tad harder to imbibe).
That's a possibility but to spin it the other way: if Jordan has drank and smoked many times before games, why would this time make him this gassed/sick? If the guy drank even at least one drink a night I don't think a night of drinking would have done that kind of damage. I've had legit food poisoning before and it's nothing nice because you do feel like you're crawling slowly to death.
Who knows. He's older now... drinking in higher altitude... an extra day off between games 4 and 5. People can make worse decisions as they get older, in regards to alcohol consumption, because they think their bodies are immune/conditioned. Also, it was well known that when players miss practice or shoot-around for flu-like symptoms, "hangover" is usually the #1 cause. I'm just curious as to how many times somebody will be with a group of friends, a pizza is ordered, and only one person decides to eat it? That's the only way the food poisoning story sticks. In the end, regardless of whether it was food poisoning or alcohol poisoning/bad hangover (or most likely a combination of both)... his performance was still all-time impressive. Him getting better and better as the game went on.
The way the story was told to the director of the doc, the group Jordan was with ate dinner and didn't tell him. So, when he ordered the pizza he said none of y'all are getting any for not telling me y'all were eating dinner and to make sure no one got a slice he spit on the pizza.
