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There is a reason he's the greatest of all time. Cut all talk of Lebron out of this conversation. Michael Jordan is the G.O.A.T for one defining reason and that reason alone. The Flu Game. While his body of work was impressive enough as it was, the Flu Game was absolutely instrumental in cementing Michael Jordan as hands down the greatest basketball player to ever walk this planet.While the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan were obviously the favorites, the Utah Jazz were no slouches during the '96-'97 season. They had future Hall of Fame members such as Karl Malone and John Stockton on the roster, as well as one of the best passers in the game, Jeff Hornacek. It's not like MJ was playing against a slouch of a team, the Jazz were serious contenders for the title and the series was tied up at two games apiece.That's ok, it's usually a safe bet when Michael Jordan is on your team that you'll be the favorite. Except Michael had gotten sick. While people speculate over whether or not it was actually the flu or some other affliction, the point was that Michael Jordan was feeling dehydrated and not himself. It took the perennial all-star an entire quarter to get going, but once he did, man, he dropped 17 points on the Jazz in the second quarter. The Bulls still trailed at the half though. Michael was even worse off than he had been at the beginning of the game. As he played his fluid levels dipped dangerously low.
The third quarter was evidence enough of this as Michael struggled again, before throwing down his last points of the game in the fourth quarter. Seven points in the fourth. In all Michael Jordan threw down 38 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 1 block. All while being visibly weakened. Most stars in the NBA can't throw down a 38 point game while healthy, or in the finals against the likes of John Stockton and Karl Malone...Michael Jordan is and always will be the G.O.A.T because of that game (we're Spurs fans and we can admit this).Read more stories of American Grit here:
