Of all the legendary performances in Michael Jordan’s career, few are told and retold with the reverence of the “Flu Game.” On June 11, 1997, with the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz tied 2-2 in the NBA Finals, Jordan woke up on the day of Game 5 severely ill, suffering from symptoms widely reported at the time as the flu, though later accounts, including from Jordan’s longtime trainer Tim Grover, suggested food poisoning from a late-night pizza delivery in Park City, Utah, may have been the actual culprit.
Jordan was reportedly too weak to attend the Bulls’ morning shootaround and spent much of the day in bed, dealing with fever, chills, and exhaustion. Coaches and teammates were unsure he would even be able to suit up for the game at Utah’s Delta Center. He did play, but visibly struggled throughout, at times looking drained and unsteady on the court, and required help from teammate Scottie Pippen to walk to the bench during timeouts.
Despite his condition, Jordan delivered one of the most extraordinary statistical performances of his career, finishing with 38 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists in 44 minutes, nearly the entire game. The signature moment came late in the fourth quarter when Jordan, playing through visible fatigue, drained a three-pointer to give Chicago a cushion in the closing seconds. The Bulls held on to win 90-88, taking a 3-2 series lead. After the final buzzer, an utterly spent Jordan collapsed into Pippen’s arms, an image that has become one of the most iconic photographs in NBA history, capturing both his physical toll and his refusal to leave the floor.
The win proved decisive. The Bulls closed out the series two nights later back home at the United Center, winning Game 6 to capture their fifth NBA championship, with Jordan again named Finals MVP. The Flu Game, though, is the performance most often cited when discussing Jordan’s competitive resolve, frequently invoked as the benchmark for playing through adversity in professional sports. It has since inspired countless comparisons whenever an athlete performs well while injured or ill, and it remains a staple in documentaries and retrospectives about Jordan’s career, including a prominent feature in the 2020 documentary series “The Last Dance.”
For Chicago sports fans, the Flu Game endures not just as a box score but as a symbol of the standard Jordan set for what it meant to compete at the highest level, sick or not. It is remembered alongside “The Last Shot” from the following year’s Finals as one of the two signature closing images of the Bulls’ 1990s dynasty, a reminder that some of the greatest moments in the city’s sports history were won as much through sheer will as through talent.
Leave a Reply