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"Michael was always the sickest" - Bulls reporter revealed Jordan was often ill during his career
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- "Michael was always the sickest" - Bulls reporter revealed Jordan was often ill during his career
Melissa Isaacson covered the Chicago Bulls for The Chicago Tribune in the '90s. While her job was to report on the team, she also noticed a lot of things happening with the players, especially Michael Jordan .
According to Isaacson, it was quite puzzling why MJ was often either nauseous or basically sick at the time. Whether it was a lingering cold, a bout of the flu or something else, His Airness frequently wasn't 100 percent healthy.
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Michael probably had a weak immune system, for all they know. Yet, Isaacson observed that come game time, Jordan's sickness was always almost gone.
"For whatever reason, when a cold or flu bug swept through the team as it invariably did once every season, Michael was always the sickest, his nose running, fever blazing," Isaacson told The Athletic in 2020. "And always, he would somehow summon his best performances. Some used to wonder if it was a con job as Michael limped into the arena and back into one game a la Willis Reed or wheezed his way to 40 points in another."
Did Jordan really play with the flu?
No better moment encapsulates Jordan's strange superpower than Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals, immortalized as the "Flu Game." Over the years, the narrative surrounding that championship game in Salt Lake City has been scrutinized, deconstructed and even dismissed by some skeptics.
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Theories have ranged from a simple hangover to a more conspiratorial pizza poisoning plot orchestrated by Utah Jazz fans. Some naysayers have even suggested that the entire thing was just a theatrical performance designed to bolster Jordan's mythos.
However, Isaacson begged to differ. She was also there to witness the grim reality of MJ's condition during that iconic game.
"I was courtside, close enough to see the bags under Michael's eyes as he slumped against Scottie… It was Game 5 of the '97 NBA Finals in Salt Lake City, and after Michael scored 38 points, including a 3-pointer in the last minute that would be the difference in the game, Bryon Russell snarled that he didn't believe Michael was ill. 'He didn't look sick dropping 38,'" she narrated.
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"Clearly, Russell didn't see him cradling a barf bucket in the locker room before the game, as his teammates did, Pippen doubting whether he could put his uniform on by himself. And Russell either didn't know or more likely didn't care that Jordan had a long history of playing his best when he was sickest," she added.
Why Michael always played hard despite being sick
Jordan himself had also once publicly addressed the "Flu Game." Admittedly, Michael, who posted 38 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three steals and one block, didn't even expect a lot from himself that day .
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However, Mike put an emphasis on how his mental toughness had always played a key role in pushing him to do the unthinkable and achieve the impossible.
"The motivation was: I've always been there for my team. As long as I am able to walk, run, and shoot," Jordan once said .
Only a legitimate, licensed physician could have explained what was happening to Jordan's body during his playing years. What's even more intriguing is the thought of what more MJ could have accomplished had he always been healthy.
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This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Apr 5, 2026, where it first appeared in the Teams section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
