One of Michael Jordan’s most iconic moments is literally known as The Flu Game.
The Chicago Bulls legend played through quite the sickness in a crucial NBA Finals game against the Utah Jazz. That should tell you all you need to know about his thoughts on load management.
“The Flu Game, it’s Game 5, which is a very pivotal game,” MJ told NBC’s Mike Tirico. “I was gonna find a way to get out there, even if I was a decoy. Once I was out there, pushing yourself, you never know what happens. The emotions, situation, need of the team, kind of got me, ‘I’m gonna gut this thing out.'”
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The all-time great did a lengthy interview with Tirico on a variety of topics, and NBC is releasing bits and pieces of it as the season goes along.
The latest segment is about the idea of load management — players sitting out a game here or there in the interests of staying healthy for the long run.
Michael doesn’t like that.
“It shouldn’t be needed, first and foremost,” Jordan said. “I never wanted to miss a game.”
He has a great logic, with a bit of MJ humor, for his thinking.
“It was something I felt, the fans were there to watch me play, and I wanted to impress that guy way up top who probably worked his a— off to get a ticket,” Jordan said before Tirico asked him if that was true even on the road in Detroit. “… I knew he was probably yelling at me, and I definitely wanted to shut him up. You have a duty, if they’re wanting to see you, as an entertainer, I want to put on a show.”
Jordan also referenced an early-career sprained ankle, saying a veteran told him to come take a seat and recover. The young MJ didn’t want to do that. He wanted to keep playing to “prove myself.”
Out of Jordan’s 15 NBA seasons, he played 80, 81 or 82 games in 11 of them. That includes his very last campaign with the Washington Wizards.
It’s a lesson he wants today’s players to heed: that it’s their job to be out on the floor.
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