Is it the Flu Game?

  Or is it the Hangover game or the Food Poisoning game? The Stomach Bug Game? Maybe. Altitude Sickness game? It seems like Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals has been called quite of a few names and unsure if we will ever get the truth of what really happened. Regardless of the name, it was one of Michael Jordan's greatest games even though he was 50 percent and probably less than that. Jordan scored 38 points in the games including a game-winning three-pointer with 25 seconds remaining in the game and he did it playing all but four minutes in the game which is amazing. The Bulls won 90-88 and ended up winning the series in Game 6 in Chicago with a much healthier Jordan who scored 39 points winning their fifth title in seven years. Now Michael Jordan had another name for the game: The Food Poisoning game. Also, Jalen Rose has another name of that game called the Hangover Game. I thought that would have been bitter Utah Jazz fans that would have made that up. The story goes with the Hangover Game that Michael Jordan and friends flew over to Las Vegas like he did in Atlantic City in the Eastern Conference Finals in 1993 and had a whale of a time in Vegas and when he got back to Salt Lake City he wasn't feeling well. Sam Smith, aka the Chicago Tribune writer who the Jordan Rules book said on the Dan Patrick Show that it might of being Altitude Sickness not Food Poisoning which makes sense because Utah has high elevation and the Bulls went from Salt Lake City to Park City where their hotel was back and forth for practice and games. It's possible. I know, my dad and his fiance live in Sedona, Arizona which like Utah, Colorado, New Mexico among other states has high elevation and I go there at least once a year. Even entering the airport you need a bottle of water. Every time I go anywhere in Arizona, I take a water bottle with me. Every time. If you don't, you get Altitude Sickness. Guessing Jordan didn't drink enough water and/or more alcohol than water. Also, a known case of this actually happened in a Basketball as the North Carolina State Wolfpack faced off the Houston Cougars aka Phi Slama Jama in the 1983 NCAA Men's Basketball Title Game. Hakeem Olajuwon (yes, that guy again) got sick because of Altitude Sickness and spent time on the bench which was enough for NC State to chip away the lead of the Cougars to later on, tying the game and later on winning the game in on game-winning slam dunk by Lorenzo Charles with Olajuwon watching nearby making it one of the most incredible moments in NCAA Tournament Moments. To be fair to the Houston Cougars that's what NC State that season did to most of their opponents in the postseason including Jordan's North Carolina Tar Heels. Trail late in the game and pull in a game-winning shot. Now to Jordan's (and his people) Version of events which is the Food Poisoning game. The Bulls hotel was a Marriott in Park City, Utah near a ski area and Jordan was with his personal training and assistant and some of his security detail where he was hungry at 10:30 and the hotel wasn't serving room anymore and not many places were open. Remember this is 1997 and again not many places were open that late and you couldn't order via Grubhub, Doordash, or UberEats because smartphones and those companies weren't around at the time. Unsure if those places were open later recently well prior to Covid-19 that is. There were cell phones which team Jordan probably use to called places to find which ones were open. They found one pizza place. According to Jordan and company, that five guys deliver the pizza while trying to get a look (who wouldn't). Jordan ended up eating the whole pizza (spitting on it so no one else would eat it) and a few hours later he got sick. Apparently there's multiply stories on who made the pizza for Jordan. Craig Fite who at the time of the incident was an assistant manager of the Pizza Hut in question called in a radio station in Utah (1280 the Zone) and also claimed that he was the one who made the pizza in question and that he doesn't buy the food poisoning claim and that followed protocol while making the pizza and that you can't really mess in thin-crust pepperoni pizza and that it was just him and another guy delivering the pizza and just those two and at that time he was a Bulls fan but not anymore not because of MJ accusing him but he stopped cheering for them when the Bulls were dismantled and blame Jerry Krause for that though he did name his kid after Jordan. I would make fun of him being a bandwagon fan of the Bulls but I can't because I was also a bandwagon fan of the Bulls at that time. I'm sure Craig and I aren't the only ones that can say that. Also, he said that he was smoking cigars and had the windows open in a place that gets cold after 4 PM because of the mountains (again near a ski area) guessing even in June, Hey Fite would know the area better than me. Yeah that would do it. Also, there's other accounts of who made the pizza and delivered it. One from another one time Pizza Hut employee Aundreia Gallegos that her ex-husband who was a General Manager at the time made the pizza and she (and only her) deliver the pie. There's also another account that it wasn't from the Pizza Hut but from somewhere else. According to guy name Otto calling on the Rich Eisen show, the Pizza Hut in question was closed by then and the pizza in question was made by a bar next to his place of work at the time which this closed now. He also said he doesn't believe the pizza wasn't made badly but didn't write off that the pizza could have made him sick. Also, on Fite's story (Gallegos' story as well) also confirmed that MJ was there in the hotel and not in Vegas so that should end the whole Hangover Game rumor (hopefully). Whatever happened, Jordan got sick and still ended up playing a great game, the helping the Bulls winning Game 5 and later the title in Game 6. Also, Rest in Peace Jerry Sloan. He was the head coach of the Utah Jazz from 1988-2011 which included leading the Jazz to back to back finals appearance against Jordan's Bulls. He was also a Bulls Legend where he played for 10 seasons, making to two All-Star game appearances. They retired his number 4 and coached the Bulls for two-plus seasons from 1979-1982.