I remember when I first moved to Los Angeles. My future wife lived in Hollywood, right down the street from this pizza joint named Shakey’s. I didn’t think anything of it; let me pick up some pizza and an appetizer. Brought it back to the apartment, and… I couldn’t eat it; that was some bad pizza. For me, not to even be able to eat it… that’s really rare, especially pizza. One of the other times I remember that happening was back in high school, when I tried Domino’s for the first time; I couldn’t do it. I recall thinking that sausage tasted like dog crap. Even Pizza Hut and Little Caesar’s I can eat; Papa John’s… ugh. You see, living in Chicago, we didn’t have to resort to those type of places. No, we had many neighborhood pizza joints to choose from, and I’m not talking the pizza Chicago is nationally recognized for. Sure, I love thick crust, pan, stuffed… all that stuff, but thin crust is the weekly staple; yeah, we have it good in Chicago. Any type of pizza you want, we got… and good stuff too. I’ve had pizza in New York. I’ve had pizza in Venice, Italy. Both very good, don’t get me wrong, but… there ain’t no better place for pizza than Chicago, period. I see this stuff about Detroit and St. Louis style… WTF?!?! Just throw a city’s name in front of the pizza huh? Haha… what a joke. How about that famous Salt Lake City style pizza?
25 years ago today, Michael Jordan found out what bad pizza tastes like. Yes, the famous Flu Game. I could do this all the time, writing about a past day in Chicago sports history. The month of June brings many of these opportunities, especially for the Bulls and Blackhawks. Between the two, they’ve won 9 championships in my lifetime during the month of June; June is a pretty good month. Of course, the “Food Poisoning” game wasn’t to win the title… just the prelude. I remember it well; it may be my favorite single Bulls game of all time.
You could tell MJ was really sick. Watching him play all those years, we had seen him sweat; I don’t know anybody who doesn’t when they’re playing basketball. But the way he was sweating on that night in Utah; it was different. Something WAS wrong. This time was different right? Different than all the other times Jordan played sick… I remember watching the Bulls growing up; I remember a number of games when it was reported that MJ wasn’t feeling well and/or was a game time decision. It never failed though; he would always play… he would always play BETTER than normal, and that’s saying something because MJ always dropped 30. Yeah, however sick he was never mattered come game time, although now that I think back, was this information just pointing gambler’s away from the Bulls on those nights? Who knows, but would MJ be able to do it THIS time? On the biggest stage, on the road, and yeah, he looked like fricking death out there…
We all know the answer to that question; how many times have you watched the highlights from that game? The follow-up of Scottie’s missed layup on the fast break, the pass fake three pointer, the shot that sealed the game late, the collapsing into Scottie’s arms walking off the court; I still have a T-shirt with that image. The Bulls winning Game 5, taking the 3-2 lead in the series, sending it back to Chicago for Kerr’s title winning shot in Game 6. These were some unforgettable days living in Chicago, rooting for our Bulls. With MJ, healthy or not, we always had that ace in the hole…
Hopefully MJ learned his lesson… about eating pizza in Utah; hopefully he remembers where the best pizza in the world is located. I don’t think he’d have to pay for a pizza, or anything in this city ever again… although he could probably buy half of the pizza places… haha. Speaking of pizza… it’s never a bad time for some… the one food I could eat every day in Chicago…
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