Oct 29, 2025, 12:55 AM ET<\/p>\n
Michael Jordan didn’t believe in load management, even when he was violently ill.<\/p>\n
Jordan addressed the topic of NBA players missing games in the second installment of a series that NBC is calling “MJ: Insights to Excellence,” which aired Tuesday night between games of a doubleheader on the network.<\/p>\n
Asked by interviewer Mike Tirico what he thought of the notion of load management, Jordan didn’t hold back.<\/p>\n
“Well, it shouldn’t be needed, first and foremost,” Jordan said. “You know, I never wanted to miss a game because it was an opportunity to prove. It was something that I felt like the fans are there that watch me play. I want to impress that guy way up on top who probably worked his (butt) off to get a ticket or to get money to buy the ticket.”<\/p>\n
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Jordan even said that rule applied to the people who came to games to cheer against him.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, because I know he’s probably yelling at me and I want to shut him up,” Jordan said. “You know, he’s calling me all kinds of names. I definitely want to shut him up. … You have a duty that if they’re wanting to see you, and as an entertainer, I want to show. Right?”<\/p>\n
Jordan told the story of playing through a sprained ankle early in his career because he wanted to make a name for himself. And many basketball fans — especially those in Utah — remember what he did in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals.<\/p>\n
Jordan believes he was dealing with a case of food poisoning on June 11, 1997, the day of Game 5 of that series against the Jazz. He was very sick and bedridden until about 90 minutes before game time, then didn’t even bother with a traditional warmup. Commonly called “The Flu Game,” Jordan scored 38 points, led Chicago to a win that put the Bulls one win away from the NBA title, then collapsed onto the chest of teammate Scottie Pippen<\/a>.<\/p>\n “I was going to find a way to get out there, even if I was a decoy,” Jordan said. “Well, once I got out there, you never know how — pushing yourself — you never know what happens, right? … Next thing you know, the emotions, the situation, the need of the team. All those things catapulted me to, ‘I’m going to gut this thing out.'”<\/p>\n Jordan and the Bulls went on to win that title, then beat the Jazz in the Finals again in 1998 after Jordan hit a jumper over Utah’s Byron Russell with 5.2 seconds left in the series-deciding Game 6 to help clinch the crown. Jazz fans still insist that Jordan pushed off on that play to create the space he needed for that shot.<\/p>\n The Jazz have not forgotten. A wireless network in Utah’s arena, as recently as Monday, still carries the name “JordanPushedOff” — an obvious nod to that famous play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oct 29, 2025, 12:55 AM ET Michael Jordan didn’t believe in load management, even when he was violently…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-247947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}