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Whatever was ailing Michael Jordan in the famous “Flu Game” wasn’t bad pizza, says the man who claims to have delivered the food to the Hall of Famer that night. Initially, it was reported at the time Jordan had “flu-like symptoms” in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals against the Jazz. Then during “The …
Whatever was ailing Michael Jordan in the famous “Flu Game” wasn’t bad pizza, says the man who claims to have delivered the food to the Hall of Famer that night.
Initially, it was reported at the time Jordan had “flu-like symptoms” in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals against the Jazz. Then during “The Last Dance” finale on Sunday night it was revealed he had pizza the night before and got sick overnight. Jordan’s trainer Tim Grover swears the pizza was to blame.
Supposedly, five guys delivered a pizza late at night. But Craig Fite, an assistant manager at a Park City Pizza Hut at the time, insists there was nothing wrong with the pizza.
He had an idea it was going to Jordan and took all necessary precautions to make sure the thin-crust pepperoni pizza was of high caliber. He spoke to other people who had pizza delivered that night and nobody else got food poisoning.
“I’m 100 percent certain it wasn’t food poisoning,” he said on 1280 The Zone in Utah. “Or, it wasn’t that pizza.”
Fite also said he delivered it, along with one other person, poking more holes in the story.
“The crap story the guy said, that there was five people, there was two of us — and I didn’t even have that many people working at the time at the store — but there was two of us,” Fite said.
Jordan was the only person in the room who ate the pizza. Director Jason Hehir said that Jordan hadn’t eaten dinner and wouldn’t let anybody else eat any of the pizza.
“When the pizza shows up, Michael says ‘Everybody, do not touch this pizza. This is mine. You didn’t wait for me, don’t touch this.’ So he spits on the pizza,” Hehir said on the Jalen & Jacoby Aftershow.
Jordan woke up in the middle of the night with severe stomach issues.
Whatever it was – the flu, food poisoning or something else — it didn’t stop Jordan from leading the Bulls to a dramatic 90-88 victory across 44 gutsy minutes in which he scored 38 points, added seven rebounds, five assists and drilled the game-winning shot.
