Do Go On - 148 - Michael Jordan and Space Jam

Episode Date: August 22, 2018

This week's episode is about legendary basketballer Michael Jordan and his rollercoaster of a life, hitting the highs of Sport (with the Chicago Bulls) and film (with Space Jam) and lows including family tragedies and a career change that didn't quite go to plan.Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPodSubmit a topic idea directly to the hat: http://bit.ly/DoGoOnHat Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] out Matt's new podcast Prime Mates: https://www.planetbroadcasting.com/our-shows/prime-matesMatt's Tour dates: mattstewartcomedy.com/gigsReferences and further reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2017/12/13/the-25-highest-paid-athletes-of-all-time/#1b85f4694b64https://www.si.com/nba/2018/06/11/michael-jordan-lebron-james-greatest-of-all-time-debatehttp://www.notablebiographies.com/Jo-Ki/Jordan-Michael.htmlhttp://www.nba.com/history/players/jordan_bio.htmlhttps://www.biography.com/people/michael-jordan-9358066https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003044/biohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jordanhttps://www.britannica.com/biography/Michael-Jordanhttp://www.businessinsider.com/michael-jordan-ritual-how-superstitions-improve-performance-2015-12https://www.dish.com/dig/sports/the-evolution-of-baggy-basketball-shorts/https://www.nba.com/bulls/history/Chicago_Bulls_History-24393-42.htmlhttps://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/jordan-scores-63-points-in-playoff-gamehttp://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/bulls/ct-james-jordan-murder-timeline-full-htmlstory.htmlhttps://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/07/28/michael-jordan-father-death/

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amarna, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.

Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates.

Matt here, just with a quick update on the UK tour before we get started with this week's episode. Birmingham, the first show sold out. So the second one was put on sale. There are still some tickets available for that one. And Manchester were down to less than 20 tickets left for that one too. So jump on to those if you are keen. And new announcements, Edinburgh and London. London have both got extra tickets available now.

The Edinburgh show has been moved to a bigger room and there are limited extra seats, which will go on sale this Friday at 9am UK time. And London, an extra show has been added on Sunday, November the 18th. And that will also go on sale at 9am on Friday, UK time. This is going to be the biggest show of the tour and also the final show of the tour. So that's really exciting if you're keen for Edinburgh or London, jump online. this Friday, 9 a.m. Or if you're keen to get to Birmingham or Manchester,

you can get those tickets right now. Now, on with the show. Hello and welcome to another episode of Do Go On, the People's Podcast. My name is Dave Ony and I'm here with People that are People. It's Jess Perkins and Matt Stewart. Hello. Oh, I'm a people who's a podcast. Yes, you're a People who's a podcast. Oh, no. We're podcast people, people.

It's confusing already. Are you, in what way are you confused by that? Good point. Are we not people? Are we not bleed? If you podcast through my arm, do I not bleed? I don't, I don't know. I'm not a podcast through your arm.

I do it through a microphone. Thank God. Thank God I only got two arms. I was definitely going to bleed. I was not ready to bleed for the show. This is a show, Dave. If you didn't know, where we talk about a topic or something like that. And we've struggled, traditionally struggled to explain how this show works in a short amount of time.

So I've asked our Patreon listeners to give us some one sentence descriptions of the shows to get us on topic. This week, though, before I do that, I should say, we're in Sydney this week, this Friday. This Friday night. You can see us describe the show live in person at the Giant Twelfth Theatre at 8.30. And that means I'm in Tasmania tonight. So if you're in Hobart and you're listening on the day this comes out, come down to Joker's Comedy Club, it's going to be a high. A whole lot of fun. Oh, so much fun.

So I've asked people to describe the show. I mean, before we say that, we should also say we're going to be in many other places soon doing podcasts. Okay, sure. Why not? We'll be describing the podcast in real life soon in Melbourne for a live show on October the 14th at Howler, which is a Bon Voyage show before our UK tour. We're coming over for some shows in November. And once again, I will have a jug there for donations. For souvenirs.

Please put nothing in the job. Oh, my God. If anything, take from the jug, it's your money. money people. Fill the jug. Fill the jug. That's like build the wall. Fill the jug.

If you're going to fill the jug with anything, fill it with old British magnets that you've got from your own trips that you don't want anymore. Okay, yeah, I'll take those, but also cash. I'll take both. Cash money. Cash and magnets. UK pounds? Yeah, go on.

If you've got any left, if you've just come back from a trip to UK and you've just got those leftover pesky pounds. A couple of P? It's not worth converting it back into Australian dollars because it'll be like five by. and you're like, oh, don't worry about it. Just give it to me. Don't do it. And I'll take it on a whirlwind adventure.

And that whirlwind adventure will take us to Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham and London, all for live podcasts. Please come along. Do go on pod.com if you want to buy some tickets. And I will buy a magnet at each place. Oh, that would be great. I cannot wait to get my Leeds magnet. Yeah. Yeah, Harry Kuhle may be featured.

Yeah, I'll get a Harrikew magnet. I'm assuming. I really hope there's still Harry Kuhl memorabil. robillia in Leeds. How much of an impact did he have on that town? That's what I'll soon find out. Was it a town before he was there? Yeah, it was a town and now it is a metropolis. Yeah, a bustling metropolis. I'm really hoping. Leeds, hopefully you're ready for Matt's live report on the life of Harry Kuhl that will no doubt be presenting for you. It is going to be hard to avoid that. So this week I've got Patreon Sof Waldron, who we know quite well from

live shows of Melbourne. Hi, Sov. Over the last few years. This is how So Sof describes a show. Three comedians cover a random topic every episode with one giving a report while the other two try to derail and interrupt with jokes and tangents. I don't know if we try to derail. It just happens. Anyway, thank you so much for that. Thanks, Sof. And to start to get us on topic, the report giver, which this week is me, asks the question.

The other two do not know what the topic is. Here we go. Here's this week's question. All right. According to a Forbes article from 2017 titled the 25 highest paid athletes of all time, who is the highest paid athlete of all time? Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods is number two.

And I should also say I put out the call about a month ago for sports topics. Yeah, you did. And I put up a vote with I think maybe something like 12 different options. And this one leapt out of the box and was never caught. Awesome. Oh, so is it a runner you're trying to say? No, I don't know why I put that in running. Usain Bolt?

It's not Usain Bolt. Highestern of all times. Did I say? So Tiger, I've got the list here. Tiger is number two? Of all time. All time. Floyd Money, Mayweather.

Oh! Last two years he's been number one sports owner. Okay, I was going to say Greg Norman, but it's not Greg Norman. He's number 13. I think I know it. Roger Federer. Cristiana Rinaldo. He's having to search so it's not them because it's Michael Jordan.

It is Michael Jordan. Yes. It's Michael Jordan. The topic that was actually put forward, and probably what the name of this episode will be, is Michael Jordan and Space Jam. Great. But the bulk of the report is on Space Jam, obviously. Do you know what I learned while watching Space Jam? Hmm.

Is it MJ? War hears. Please, just let's not preempt anything that's going to be potentially coming up in the show. Awesome. Can I wait for the fun fact. section of the show. Also, I got the question. You did, yet again. I never get the question. I'm a big dummy. That is not true. Big old dumb. You're not. Just please. So he's the highest earning athlete of all time. Number two is Tiger. Number three, Arnold Palmer.

Number four, Jack Nicholas. Isn't Arnold Palmer a drink? Probably. I think it is. Arnold Palmer's a drink. As in they named a drink after him, not that he is a famous drink. He's a tall glass of water. And he owned a lot of care. I think it is. You continue, I'm going to Google the Arnold Palmer Cocktail. Michael Schumarker number five, rounding out the top five. That's interesting. So it's, it's, um, wow.

Yeah, a lot of golfers right up the top. You would think that going forward in the future of football players. There are also a bunch of footballs on the list as well. An Arnold Palmer is a non-alcoholic beverage of iced tea and lemonade, named after American golfer Arnold Palmer. An alcoholic version of the Arnold Palmer, generally made with vodka, is called a John daily. I thought it was going to be called a slow Arnold palm against the wall or something.

You know, they're always, because I've got these weird innuendo ones. Yeah. Screw against the wall. Yeah, which is like an offshoot of a screwdriver. What's the innuendo there? It's pretty blatant. Just a great fuck. Oh, I think I'm picking up what you're putting down.

A hot root against a wall. This could be sexual. Yeah. A double meaning. I love it on hond. Quick fuck. So according to this article, Michael Jordan's career earnings are $1.85 billion. That is crazy.

That is so many dollars. And it says, but this is interesting how he's got it. It sort of says, Jordan still maintains his long-time endorsement relationships with Gatorade, Haynes, Nike, and Upper Deck. But the investment that made him a billionaire was the $175 million dollar fire sale price. He got the Charlotte Bobcats, who are now called the Charlotte Hornets again, for in 2010. Jordan bumped his Hornet's stake up to 90% in 2013.

90, wow. Wow. And the team is now worth $780 million. So he just... Do you cover why the team was so cheap at the time? I think I don't at all, no. I don't talk about that again. But he...

Because you're not about money, are you, man? I'm not about the man. The report's not about the money, Dave. The report actually doesn't get that far into his life. It ends sort of at the end of his basketball career. It ends at the end of space. Jam. You describe the credits and then we finish the episode. And we roll credits. Plenty of people suggested this topic including Bradford Carlson, Robbie, Anciss Eversons, Cole Nielsen, Corey Inners, Dean Clark and Tim Williams.

That's a lot of suggestions. Tim suggested it way back, like very early in the original hat. Cool. So here we go. Here is the story of Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan was born on the 17th of February 9th. 1963 in Brooklyn, New York. Oh. He didn't live there long, though. His parents, James, who was a general electric plant supervisor, and Dolores, who worked at a bank, had four other children, so it was one of five. And when Michael was still very young, the Jordan's moved to Wilmington in North Carolina.

Looked it up, I hadn't heard of it. Wilmington. Wilmington. No, I like it. Sounds nice. It's got a population of around 100,000, a little bit more than that. It's the eighth most popular city in North Carolina. I'm imagining he's the most famous person that's ever lived there.

I looked it up because I was interested in that. And the only other name that really jumped out at me was Woodrow Wilson, who lived there briefly, who was... Presidente. It's a president, but also famous, maybe more so in our world for being the name that Bart uses when he answers his teacher, Mrs. Crobopple's personal ad. Bar gets in over his head. And they sort of develop a real love affair between the two. Woody. Woody.

And then in the end, the rest of the Simpsons end up having to help. write a letter to break up with her. He wants to write a letter. Or Homer wants to write him write a letter saying, a crocodile bit off my face. I had off my face, yeah. No, Homer. And Homer, because, yeah, anyway.

I also like, dear baby, welcome to Dumpville. Population, you. But in the end, with the help of mainly margin, Lisa, and Homer as well, this is what the letter ends up. This is a weird, really side track. This is how the letter goes. You guys may have remember it. Dearest Edna.

I must leave you. Why, I cannot say. Where you cannot know. How I will get there, I haven't decided yet. But one thing I can tell you, any time I hear the wind blow, it will whisper the name.

Edna. And so let us part with a love that will echo through the ages, which I think is what Homer suggested. It's a great line. Woodrow. Anyway, so that... Edna.

He lived in Wilmington for a few years when he was younger. And went on to be. become president of the United States of America. I thought one of you would have got that. I had no idea. So Jordan played basketball in high school, but he didn't make the high school team in his sophomore year.

You are shitting me. Isn't that amazing? I love that so much. He didn't make the team. I didn't make the team. I could be Michael Jordan. Oh my God, you're Michael Jordan. I could own the Charlotte Hornets or Bobcats one day.

I love when shit like that happens, though. on a much, much, much smaller scale. My brother failed woodwork in New 12, and he is a builder now. He is a carpenter. At what point did he go, you know, out of all the subjects I failed, I'm going to do that for it. Like, why did he, when did he decide that?

What could I have achieved on subjects I failed? Yeah, they are kind of inspiring stories when people don't let setbacks like that knock them down. Apparently he trained super hard from there, like it only made him more determined. And he made the team the following year. and he obviously improved very quickly because he didn't make the team one year, then he did,

and then as soon as he graduated high school, he took a basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina. Wow. So now he's getting his studies paid for based backed on his basketball. Did he have like a growth spread or something? Is that part of it? That might be part of it. Yeah, sometimes it's like, oh, I'm only 5 foot 4.

I can never make the team over summer. You come back, I'm 6 foot 6. I can slam dunk now. And it works in reverse. as well where kids are tall for their age. Oh, and they're like... They had an early gross spurt and the other kids are just... Did that happen, Jess?

Yes. You're a captain of the football team? I was one of the tallest kids in grade six. I was, like, tall than all the other kids in basketball. And then everybody else grew, and now I am average height. And it is a sore point for me. But I'm assuming also that, like, obviously he played a lot in high school and he got better. But surely he would have been playing as a kid as well, like...

Yeah. Starting young. Yeah, I mean, if Space Sam has anything to be believed, he was shooting shot after shot in his backyard when his dad came out, had a chat to him. And he was using that net made out of chain that made a sweet noise. Is that basically? We had one of those. That's all real. That's all documentary footage.

Oh, I love that chain noise. It's so satisfying when you get it in. Yeah, we had one in the backyard. It was sick. Any net just swishing. Yeah, the switch is great. Oh, yeah. Such a sweet sound.

Cool. So he's got a full scholarship. Full scholarship. And then in 1982, his first season at North Carolina, he was named Rookie of the Year, and his team won the Atlanta Coast Conference Championship. So he was very good in a very good team. They also beat Georgetown University to take out the NCAA Championship, with Jordan scoring the winning basket.

Oh, nice. They were making these big clutch shots. Even then. Yeah. He led the A.C of the Atlanta Coast Conference in scoring, and was named the college player of the United Coast Conference in scoring, and was named a college player of the year in both his years at college. Wow.

So he went from not making the high school team to being a gun. The best player in college. And college sport over there, it's not like university sport here, where there's four people at the stadium watching. They have full stadiums. Yeah, thousands of people. It's on TV. Like you are a superstar already, basically.

I think they even have it. Yeah, that's right. And some decide to play longer in college ball. and some decide to move over to NBA, it'll depend on the player. But even, I think in football they have, people will just watch the college football games on its own night, which is maybe Saturday.

I should talk when I don't know what I'm talking about. Something like that. I'm just saying it's a popular broadcast. Yeah, that's right. Whereas in Australia, no one could tell you anything about any of the college. Yeah, no, no, no. It's either the top league or nothing else. Yeah.

I think my university's team was called the Griff, Griffins or someone, I don't even know. Anyway. Go griffins. But over there, you would know. You would know what your college mascot was. You'd probably yell it out every day. Go griffons.

I just said it. You did. Make it up for lost time. He was picked up by the Chicago Bulls in the NBA with the third pick of the 984 draft. So he wasn't number one. It wasn't even number one. The number one pick did go to a very good player.

Hakeem. Hakeem Olajuwon. I don't know if you remember him at all. Yeah, he's from the Houston Rockets. Before starting his professional career with the Bulls, Jordan was selected to play in the 1984 Olympics in L.A. And back then, it was, the teams weren't made up of pro basketballs. I think often in the old Olympics, the teams weren't filled with professionals.

And still in boxing, you can't be a professional. Right. So it's interesting that it's sort of, it's changed a bit in some of them. I think in soccer it's like there's an age limit on it. I think it's 21 and under or something. Yeah, something like that or 23 maybe. Keep the superstars away so it's more of a team game. And also there's already the World Cup, I guess.

Yeah, true. So it's sort of like it would just be a second level World Cup maybe. I don't know, sure. That's changed now and I'll talk about that a little bit later, but the NBA players now do go to the Olympics. At that 84, Olympics he won, they won gold, the USA team. Is that the first dream team? No, well, the dream team was later when pro players were allowed in.

So that was, so before he even played in the NBA, he was an Olympic gold medal. Holy shit. I actually didn't know that about him. Yeah, I didn't realize that. Yeah. I learned a lot from this. I do remember him being a gun when I was little, but I don't remember. Yeah, I remember him playing against aliens in some big match, but that's about it.

One interesting fact that a lot of people don't know is that throughout his professional career at the Chicago Bulls, Jordan wore two pairs of shorts. The standard Chicago Bulls red uniform, but underneath those, and this is where it gets interesting, he also wore the blue University of North Carolina shorts from his days playing college ball. Wow. Yeah. So he's wearing two pairs of shorts, because I found. But they clash too. He's wearing blue on red. So he had to fully cover them right.

And this is another interesting thing, and I didn't really know about this at all. To fit the second pair of shorts underneath, he requested that the uniform manufacturer, appropriately called Champion, made his shorts longer and wider so that he could fully cover the smaller, shorter, tighter, standard basketball shorts. And Jordan's request changed everything. Well, at least basketball shorts fashion. Probably it didn't change everything. Of course, because they used to be almost like AFL footy shorts, like quite short.

Short and tight. And then they went to like really long and baggy. And according to an article at dish.com, that's the quote, at first nobody seemed to take note of Jordan's change in uniform as a hot trend. By the end of the 1989 season though, Scotty Pippen was also wearing his shorts below the knees. And as Jordan's popularity grow, he appeared in more commercials for Nike wearing his new baggy shorts.

By the time the 1990 season began, every team in the NBA had a few players wearing baggy shorts. But notably, Utah Jazz Point Guard, John Stockton, was the last professional player to hold out with his short shorts, which was just a personal preference. So it swept through in just a matter of a couple of years. It went from Jordan is the only one with big baggy shorts, handful of players, everyone but John Stockton. That was the evolution. John Stockton, did he just retire? And that was it? He retired his shorts.

I say bring back the short shorts. Especially on men with such long legs. Wow. Those, yeah, that retro footage is sick. I remember seeing that old footage, but I just,

I don't remember that ever been, well, I don't think I'd seen basketball then, but it was just fascinating that it, just one guy for a practical reason and just how cool he is in the community, he affected everyone. That's how it happens though.

I remember that happening in high school. Michael Jordan dropped by. Yeah, and we all started wearing a show. No, there was a girl at my school who was like very effortlessly cool. It's one of those people. And she had these. You're talking about yourself in third person again? Oh, God, no.

Now I'm effortlessly. Anyway. You learned it. You learned that. I learned that. I learned that. Tell me about it. She wore a specific school shoe.

It was a tea bar. Oh, that would be at my school too. Yeah. Well, like, but the rest of us weren't wearing them. We were wearing lace-up shoes. She had like the sandals. And my mum had been saying for years, you should get these tea bars. I was like, oh, mom, no, I want lace up shoes.

And I'm going to wear socks, not stockings. And then, like, Felicity was wearing tea bars and stockings. And I was like, Mom, I need tea bars this year. And can you give me some blue stockings, please? Not wearing this stupid thing you made me wear. I hate you. I can't believe you thought this was a good idea. And she was like, I'm going to murder you.

So was that because a flick, as we call her, didn't give a shit? Or is it, is that, was that a like a? She was just so cool. And then it just kind of spread. Everybody was wearing them. That's so funny. And now they've banned them at my old school. Ban the T-bars.

Yep. So we were one of the last generations to get to wear T-bars at my school. Now they're seen as a symbol of rebellion once again. It's pretty great. So I get the Jordan effect. Yeah, I get it. What happened to flick? I don't know.

She left for school in year eight. Real? Yeah. What does start trends in another? She's like, my work here is done. Yeah. She's like, I've healed them. Next.

Is that like a heel? Is that a pun on heel? Is that a pun on heel? Yes, I meant that. So good. Thank you. Your mind is so sharp. It's very sharp.

When Jordan arrived at the Bulls in 1984, they were not going too well. They joined the competition in 1966, which interesting is also the year that the St. Kilda Football Club won there, one and only premiership in the VFL slash AFL. To date. So far. Thank you. If someone hears this next year, that may be done. That's right.

Perfect. I mean, it's still true that it was their first, but just not their only anymore. It's also the year that England won the Football World Cup. They brought it home that year. That's still going to be the first and only. Anyhow, well, it will be for at least the next four years. Shots right, Dave, we need to sell tickets to our UK show. So if you could not insult.

No, no, no. I insult people so they have to pay money to see me in person to punch me. Dave, that's a terrible idea. And then I buy a security guard. Buy one? Buy one. We're going to perform behind a fence like in Blues Brothers. Yeah, chicken wire.

Yeah, throw whatever you want, pal. Please don't throw stuff. No liquids. That gets through. Oh, no, nothing gets liquid out. Anyhow, the Bulls joined the NBA in 1966 and had been a middling club since then. They had a few periods where they were kind of pushing towards contention and out. But in the early 80s, they were going particularly poorly.

So when he got drafted, was he like, uh, crap? I know I think he was like pretty average team I guess so I think I guess I guess you're just happy to get picked up Yeah I think you'd just be grateful Yeah third pick you're getting paid a lot of money Yeah

So they're going poorly Attendances reflected that Not big crowds going to the games But the arrival of Jordan started turning this All around almost immediately And he was named the league's Rookie of the year And made the All-Star team in his first season

Wow do people usually do that I don't think so no I mean, rookie of the year normally happens in the first season, but making the All-Star team. All-Star team in your first. Yeah. An Australian won rookie of the year this year. Yeah, Ben Simmons.

Did he make the All-Star team that? I don't think so, but I'm not 100% sure on that. Simo. Yeah, we went to school together, whatever. Did you? No. I'm a lot older than him. How old is he?

He'd be 19, I guess. Oh, fuck. I hate that. I hate that now. You know? It's because it feels so far away. Like, ah. Hey, remember that Jordan debuted in 1982, 84.

Mm-hmm. So does that make you feel better? You weren't even born then? That's true. That does make me feel better. He found the second year a lot harder, though, as he missed much of the season with a broken foot. But he did return in time for the playoffs,

and he scored 63 points against the Boston Celtics. I think it was in his second game back after. 63 points in a game. After a broken foot. No. That's fucking mental. It's still the record for a playoff. Do you want to know my P.B.?

Love to know. No. 26. That's very good. That's great, Jess. 63! Yeah, but that's Michael Jordan. That's Michael Jordan, what you're forgetting.

Wow. And he was only playing against the Boston Celtics. I bet you were playing against the Harlem Club Trottles or something. Yeah, they're very tall. Jess played for the generals and got 26 points. It's crazy. So yeah, I think that's still the NBA playoff record. I'm pretty sure that is correct.

That's insane. But even that wasn't enough. You should have saved that for a fun fact. I'd deem that fun. Well, that was a fun fact then. Oh, fun! Okay, great. It wasn't enough for them to win the game though, Celtics.

What? They won in double overtime and went on to win the championship for Celtics. Larry Bird. 63 points from one player, not enough. I imagine every other player got one point each. That's crazy. That has blown my mind. All right, guys, game plan.

Throw it to Michael. Well, that was, yeah, I reckon that was probably the game. We've definitely all been in teams like that. I was never the person who's pass it to. Michael Jordan gives the ball. All right, what do I? Oh, I'm Michael Jordan. I'm Michael freaking Jordan.

The legendary Celtics player Larry Bird said at the time, time of Jordan. He is the most exciting, awesome player in the game today. I think it's just God disguised as Michael Jordan. Wow, that's a cool quote. Larry Bird seems cool. I don't know a lot about him either. So I don't want to say that in case, like, he's a creep. I think he's nice. From what I read about him in this, he seemed like a little bit of fun. There's a little bit of cheekiness from him later. But other people seem to think he was like he was a bit, it was very competitive and stuff maybe. But I don't know. I don't know. Sports person.

Yeah, I don't know a lot about him. Like, think of anybody who's a professional sports person. It's like, oh, they're a bit competitive. Yeah. Yeah. That's how they fucking win. Yeah, that's how they bother doing what is basically a pointless pursuit. Yeah.

To a very high level. Says three podcasters. To a very high level. Pointless pursuit. The following season, Jordan once again, had a year of personal success, becoming only the second NBA player after Wilk the Stilt Chamberlain to score 3,000 points in a season. 3,000 points. Well, do you know the record holder for the most points in the game is Wilk Chamberlain?

He's the only one to score over 100 in a game. Well, the Stilt seems like an absolute freak. A hundred. A hundred points. I one time was MVP of my team because I got just over 100 in a season. That's crazy. But how many games are in your seasons? I don't know.

They do play a lot of games. Yeah, I mean, like, I mean, it's Michael's job. Yeah, no, we just played one game, so I'll go home points. That's good then. Thank you. Thank you. You just equal the record. That's crazy.

On top of that, he was the first player to get 200 steals and 100 blocks in a single season. So he was also seen as a really good defensive player. It was an all-round player. I'd like to meet the people who keep these stats, too. Like, people are like, oh, yeah, but you got this many assists. It's like, how do you possibly keep track of it? Are you sitting there with a clipboard and just like marking everything down as it happens? Yeah, I think there's a team of them sitting at the game.

So it's like, yeah, but if there is, is one person in charge of points, somebody's in charge of fouls, somebody's in charge of assists. Honestly, probably, because at the end they're always obsessed with who got a triple double. Yeah, triple double. It's crazy. I've seen videos of the teams who do it in the AFL. I feel like it's one guy calling with binoculars. and another person with the pen, mark him down, so you'd be like, hardball get this name or number.

Fuck. And there's all these weird stats. That'd be exhausting. Yeah. Well, some of the stats they come up with, like the commentators, you'll hear them say, well, this is the first player to do this since this player and this year. And you're like, where did you pull that from?

Yeah. How did you just go, well, this person's just done something. Let's see the last time that was done. How? Amazing. They'd have some sweet spreadsheets. Oh, the spreadsheets. The software they'd have.

Oh. Mmm, yum, yum. Spreadsheets. He racked up more individual accolades over the next few years, but it was the ultimate success that Jordan was after. And a handy team was being built around Jordan to help him achieve that, including players like Scotty Pippen, Horace Grant, and John Paxson. Horace Grant, I've never heard that name about it.

I'm pretty sure he was going with the goggles, if I'm remembering correctly. You remember a player who used to wear Where the Goggles? Sports goggles Is that not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Oh, there's probably been two players. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, what a name.

He's the highest-scoring player all time. What does he? His trademark move, the Skyhook, I think that was him. And just Kareem Abdul-Jabar, what a name. What an everything. He's my everything. He's my everything.

So the team's getting stronger around Jordan as well. And that led to the NBA title in 1991 by defeating the LA Lakers. They then went back to back in 92 by beating the Portland Trailblazers. And that same year, Jordan would win another Olympic gold medal in Barcelona. Barcelona. So he's, I mean, I've breathed across his first two championships. There's so many things you could focus. on. I could have broken down seasons, obviously.

That might have been a bit. Game nine. First quarter. He also has a lot of success. So the Olympics, this is the dream team year. They were the first USA Olympic basketball team to be made up of active NBA players. And they became known as the dream team. And are described by some as the best sporting team ever put together of any code.

Wow. They thrashed opponents on their way to the gold. The closest anyone got to them was in the gold medal match. How close, you reckon? That's not that ridiculous, but it's... Within 15? 32. That was the closest in any game.

They were played against Croatia in the gold medal match. Australia, we must have been sick or something like that. We were sick. Yeah, no, big deal was. Where was Gaze? Gaze. Gaze would have been there. Gaze!

I named a goldfish. after Andrew Gaze. I loved Andrew Gaze. I wanted to be number 10 like him. Yeah. He was number 10, Dave. He seems like a good guy. He seems like a great dude.

When he commentates, oh man, he's the best. He gets so excited. It's so cute. Sorry. He used to do the, I think he used to do like the, the footy tips or something at the end of the Channel 10 sports news. And then he'd shoot a ball over his head or something. And he got it at least half the time.

I'm just looking up the, because I remember the boomers, which is the Australian basketball team, have a pretty good record at the Olympics. That year they made quarterfinals and finished sixth. Okay. That's pretty good for a small not super basketbally nation. Yeah. I feel like the team that we must be looking to put together in the future,

it's got to be handy with players like Simmons. Yeah, true. And I think there's something like eight Australians in the NBA now, which is wild. Yeah, so basically the team is just them, right? Yeah, I think so. Finish fourth, the Australians, in 96, 2000 and 2016. So top four, it seems like that shouldn't be right, but anyway, but he is.

Anyway, so with that dream team, I remember reading that, like, the opponents basically would stick around and ask for, like, photos and autographs with the other team after the game. Yeah. Because you're, like, you're playing against, like, the best, like, heroes of the game. People you've got posters of on your wall at home. And they... Who would that be for us in podcast terms? I guess, Steele Saunders.

Cameron Alexi from Mike Check. Yep. To the think tank. Miss the Sunday movies would be there. Yep. May so, obviously. I'd have Naomi. We get to work amongst our heroes.

Yeah, that's true. I've met all these people. Best team we've ever put together. Wow. That's cool. So this is some of the players on the team. Check this out for a roll call. Okay.

Clyde the glide Drexler. Oh, the glide. Sir Charles Barkley. Charles Barkley. What are they called Sir Charles Barkley? Oh, he's got a really funny nickname. I think it's a good name for a dog. Magic Johnson.

Magic Johnson. That's a good nickname. Carl the Mailman Malone. Fuck yes. As well as players that I couldn't remember nicknames for, Patrick Hewing, David Robertson and Larry Bird amongst many others. Tight shorts, Stockton was there too. So Charles Barkley's nickname is the round mound of rebound.

Also Charles. But I really like the round amount of rebound. The round mound of rebound. I don't know how I feel about it. Yeah, it's a... I love it. Obviously. I don't get it.

But I love it. The round mound. I think they've just gone, he's a good rebounder. And he's like pretty short. And pretty stocky for an NBA player. Yeah, so I thought he was like a shorter player, though. I didn't think he was short. Dave, you look that up.

Mounds don't have to be that big. No, I'm just thinking like rebounders would be tall. Check height. Maybe I'm wrong. He's 1 metre 98. Because he co-hosts the TNT NBA show with Shaq, who is 2 metres 16, so anyone next to him looks down. Shaq is huge.

Yeah, he's very big. Kareem Abdul-Jabar, who we had before, he's 2 metres 18. Wow, I didn't realize Kareem's so big. How do you buy pants? Whereas Michael Jordan is 6-6, which I think is around that one at 98 as well, maybe. Something like that. How does Shaq buy pants? I don't think he gets snow on pants.

God. He's got his own shop. Shack. Shack, shack. Yeah. The Shaq Shack Shack Short Shack. No. The Shack Shack Shack.

Shat, short, shat. But the first. This one is Shaq like name. And the second one is Shaq like S-H. And that's where he buys Shack stuff. No. Oh. Get a stack of the Shack.

At Shack Shack Shack. Shack Slack Shack. Oh, yes. Okay, yes. That's great. Shack's funny packs. Shack's funny shack bag. Should really do an episode on Shack one day.

He is. Seems like a really cool guy. Yeah. Seems like really fun. It does seem like a fun guy. But he wasn't in this team? I don't know he's a gold medal. No, I think this might be just pre-Shack.

Anyway. A pre-Shack world. Back to Jordan. Sorry, yes. He's only successful because he's in a pre-Shack world. Are we right? Yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely.

Do you mind looking up when Shack came into it? Yeah. Back to Jordan. So after the Olympics, he then led the Bulls to a three-peat. in 1993 when they beat Sir Charles Barclays, the round mound of sound. Rebound. And rebound.

The pound of rebound. And his Phoenix Sun's team. So that's for the third time, Jordan was awarded the playoff's MVP as well. So he's starring in the best team. He's killing it. The Sun's mascot, by the ways, Go the Guerrilla,

as discussed on episode two of Primates podcast, which is... Why isn't it a son? Yeah, well, I tell that, story on episode two of the podcast, Prime Man, you should check it out. Shaq debuted in 92 for Orlando Magic. So he just didn't quite... And he was the first pick.

Yes. And it was he... It felt like he might have been rookie of the year. He won a gold medal in 96, the next Olympics. Right. So he just didn't quite make the dreamtie. 96 was Atlanta. Yeah.

Yes! And he was the rookie of the year. He was the rookie of the year. He was the rookie of me. You never get things. We'll talk about Shaq another time, though. So this, I mean, it's hard to go through a do-go-on episode without hitting tragedy. And I didn't realize this, but while Jordan

and his career was reaching heights on the court, he found tragedy off the court in 1993. He was around a month after winning the championship. Jordan was informed that his father never arrived home after leaving a friend's house just after midnight on July 23rd, which was a week before his 57th birthday. On August the 3rd, a body is found in a creek in South Carolina. Oh, my God. But at that stage is unidentified and listed as a John Doe. There is a gun wound in the badly decaying body.

Four days later, the body is cremated by a state coroner as a John Doe. The coroner is quoted as saying, this was the first time that we didn't know who we had within a few days or so. We were left with nobody missing in North Carolina and nobody missing in South Carolina. It was not done lightly. I hope the family understands why we did what we had to do. Wow.

Yeah. What's I thought? I'm like, Cremeders are John Doe, but they just... But hang on. But, but... They hadn't, the family hadn't. But nobody noticed? Well, I found this a bit confusing, but it sounds like he traveled a lot for work and

there was some confusion. They didn't realize he was missing until a little while later. And on August the 5th, police find a Lexus that has been stripped down for parts. It is found around 60 miles southwest of where the body had been found. And it is later realized that this is Jordan's car. And on August the 13th, James Jordan is identified by his dental records. This is after, obviously, they've called it in. Teenage friends Daniel Green and Larry Demery are the prime suspects for the murder of James Jordan.

and key evidence came from the records of Jordan's car phone at 705 on the morning of the murder a two-minute call is made to a sex line then at 10... From a car phone? From his car phone. The car phone they stole it just after killing someone. It doesn't feel like the sexiest place to make a call from.

Just killed someone 60s later. It's just the car that's... That's the only thing throwing Jess off. Just killed a person. I'll probably go inside to make the sex call. I'm going to call a sex line from the car. Hot. It's the car phone.

No, I know. Do you want him to just pull that cord out just outside of the car? Would that be better? I mean, no, it's better to, because I don't know what he's doing while there's a sex, or on the phone of the sex line. You have a wild guess? Ask the directions. Yeah, exactly.

So I'd rather he do that in the car than not in the car. But, you know. Soon after the phone is used to call, this is at 1047. the phone is used to call Green's half-brother before a series of calls are made to relatives and friends of Green and Demery over the following days. Largely due to these phone records

on August the 15th Green and Demery are arrested and charged and the following day, police search Green's home finding a gun and also a rap video in which Green is wearing Michael Jordan's NBA Championship Watch

and 1986 NBA All-Star Ring both given as presents from Michael to James. A wrap video. He records a rap video where he's like showing off his Michael Jordan bling. You fucking moron. Green and Demery agreed to testify against each other. So they turn on each other.

Of course they do. And in their trials, 1996, so a few years later, both have found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Both had records of some pretty wild stuff before that. Yeah, I think lateish teenagers tried as adults, I guess. Still, it's like, come on. So, like, that was a weird thing in the middle of this report. I had no idea.

Do you come across any articles that talked about Michael Jackson's dad and how there's, like, rumors that he was killed by the mob and things like that? Michael Jackson's dad? Sorry, Michael Jordan's dad. Oh, no. They thought that this is some sort of cover up. Yeah, because he was like, maybe Gamp, this is all absolute speculation online that I've read before. Right.

No, I didn't see any of that. But he's like, yeah. I didn't go into the dark web, though, Dave. Yeah, well, where you do your reports. It's my homepage. Check out Annie Oakley. Some pretty dark stuff in there. Yeah, no, I just remember reading an article about that one's going. It's one of those theories that, you know, he was gambling and...

Weird. Possibly. But I, that sounds pretty open and shot to me. Yeah, with the videos and stuff. That's ridiculous. We're in the ring. Yeah. Sorry to have fixed it on the car phone.

I just thought that's a weird place to call a sex line. Yeah, I mean, it seems like these might be kind of weird dudes. Yeah, I think you're right. Not very bright either. No. I'm very glad they got caught. Do you think they're still in jail? Yes, I believe so.

Wow. I did not look that up, so I don't know why I say I believe so. Just a feeling I hope so. Yeah, me too. Obviously, Jordan was grief-stricken by his father's death, and this was one of the key reasons why Jordan quit basketball at the heart of his powers. So he just won three championships in a row with no reason why they wouldn't be going for a fourth the following year. But this shocked the sporting world.

According to notable biographies.com, Jordan had won three straight NBA titles, three regular season MVP awards, three playoff MVP titles, seven consecutive scoring titles, and he was a member of the All-Star team every year that he was in the league. In just nine seasons,

he'd become the Bulls' all-time leading scorer. You just can't get a better record than that in those years. No, it's just like... It can't get better. That's just so perfect. Without winning every single. single title, right? Or, you know, like, but it's just wild.

It's just such a good. Yeah, because the last three years, he's won. He's won the championship. He was the best player in the championship, and he was also named the best player in the whole league. Yeah, well. It's on every level. And the top scorer.

Those last three years you can't give it. And also the fact that he turned a team that was battling into, you know, an unstoppable force. Clearly, he is the key ingredient in all of that. Wow. Okay. So what's next for Jordan? What's he up to next?

He quit basketball, but he's got to do something with this time. Do you guys know what comes next? If Space Am is true. Golf. It's vaguely based on it. He plays golf and he gets stuck in a hole and Newman gets a bulldozer in and just starts dig into heaven. I mean, hell.

That's your version of heaven. You're a bad boy. My bad, bad boy. Does he actually try baseball? Yes, he does. That's what he does. We all grieve in our own ways. out that MJ does it by switching sports.

Still in a professional capacity. In the 19994-95 season, Jordan tried out with the Chicago White Sox. The big teams also obviously just in the same town as the Bulls. And Chicago's bull coach at the time, Phil Jackson said at the time, I've said that too many times at the time. When was this? It was at the time. Okay. His father, this is what he said.

His father wanted to play pro ball and did play semi-pro. His dad James wanted to play. When his father passed away, I think Michael was kind of living out his father's dream. That's one of the things I thought when I heard it. Also, his father wanted to play pro baseball. Yes. And he kind of wanted, and he also encouraged Michael to play. But he was also super encouraging with his basketball.

He didn't just keep hitting the ball out of his hand and putting a baseball glove on. Yeah, he kept giving him a, he's like, you can use the basketball. but here is a really huge baseball bat. And hopefully this will somehow still work out for you. According to Michael Jordan the Life by Roland Lazenby, which I'm going to quote a little bit here, Jordan was excited about the change, quoting the book quoted him as saying,

all of a sudden I felt like a kid again. Aw, that's nice. They also described Jordan's legendary work ethic transferring over to baseball, which prompted White Sox hitting coach, Walt Renerach, to describe him as, One hardworking motherfucker.

Sorry, Walt, can we just get a quick quote for our biography on Michael Jordan? How did you describe him? One hardworking motherfucker. Thanks, Walt. Thanks, Walt. That's all we need. Okay. That'll do, yep.

And cut. See you, Walt. The hard work didn't really pay off particularly, though. Oh, the motherfucker. He struggled and was a long way off the Major League pace. Instead, he was allocated to the Birmingham Barons in the AA Southern League, which, according to the article, is a Prospects League, mostly for young talent and kind of like a, I guess one of their feeder kind of clubs. So I didn't realize this, but it sounds like the Pro Bowl major league clubs will have little clubs around, littered around the country at different levels. Sure, like in a league below.

Yeah, I guess, you know, like as a training ground. Fostering talent. Yes. Yeah. Well, sometimes in our Aussie rules, an AFL, they get sent back to the VFL when they come back from injury to sort of just get back into Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it's some sort of version of that, but it's interesting that it's not even in the same city.

So these guys, I think they were in Alabama. Right. Yeah, and there's other, yeah, it sounds like they have teams all around the country. You see a local Alabama team and the world's greatest basketball players playing basically. Yeah, it's so strange. Apparently it was a big circus people, like brought so many journalists and fans and stuff would follow them around.

And there's also like the in in soccer or football, my Melbourne team, Melbourne City, they've been bought by Manchester City who also own New York football club. Wow. Or New York City football club. So they've got these other teams around the world. And one of the Melbourne players is being sent over to, he's been signed to Manchester. So I think they're using it in a similar kind of. way. So that's probably more common.

It's just a bit weird for Australia because we just don't have that big of a, yeah, like there's not as much money and so they can't afford to just have teams everywhere. Anyhow, in general, yeah, you found it they're going very tough. And he was quoted talking to the New York Times saying it's been embarrassing, it's been frustrating. It can make you mad. I don't remember the last time I had all those feelings at once. And I've been working too hard at this to make myself look like a fool.

For the last nine years, I lived in a situation where I had the world at my feet. Now I'm just another minor leaguer in the clubhouse here trying to make it to the major leagues. He was generally trying and he really did want to make a go of it. But the idea of trying his hand at pro baseball first came up in 1990, apparently he's saying it began as my father's idea. We had seen Bo Jackson and a guy called Deon Sanders try two sports. and my father had said that he felt I could have made it in baseball too.

He said, you've got the skills. He thought I'd proved everything I could in basketball and then I might want to give baseball a shot. I told him, no, I haven't done everything. I haven't won a championship. This is back in 1990. Right. Then I won it and we talked about baseball on occasion

and then we won two more championships and then he was killed. So you can sort of see where his head was at and why he did want to have a crack at baseball. I mean, you'd feel, yeah, you'd be feeling a lot of different things. But, I mean, with all that in mind, it makes some sense. This is a quote from a pitching instructor Tom House, who said at the time, he's attempting to compete with hitters who have seen 350,000 fastballs in their baseball lives and 204,000 breaking balls.

Such weird specific numbers. Yeah. He said, baseball is a function of repetition. If Michael had pursued, I'm guessing he's basing that on real data, but anyway, baseball is a function of repetition. If Michael had pursued baseball out of high school, I don't doubt that he would have wound up making as much money in baseball as in basketball. But he's not exactly tearing up AA, and that's light years from the big leagues.

Wow, okay. That makes sense. Baseball, it's really just swing. And that's what, isn't that how they train? It's just like a ball machine just flinging balls out. You're just in the nets, just hitting and hitting and hitting. And he's going to be very hard. hard to come back from that. You'd have to have just some sort of freakish talent, which I guess.

Which he has. For basketball. Yeah, that's true. He did steadily improve as the season wore on, though, earning a promotion to the Scottsdale Scorpions of the Arizona Fall League. But in the end, baseball wasn't for him. A mix of circumstances, including a major major league baseball player strike meant that Jordan decided to go back to the NBA. He did, there's a lot of, it's again, like everything, I could have done the whole episode on his baseball career. There's a lot of cool little stories in there, how he interacted with the other. Like, he's playing with, you know, other battlers in baseball league, just young kids and an old journeyman and stuff. Right. And he's like, obviously, a multi-millionaire.

Yeah, so it's just a real fascinating way how that would have all worked. That would have made a great movie, I reckon. It's all more, it feels like something, you know, like Space Jam 2. That's in the works, apparently. I'm available. It would be taking a different direction to make it a different direction to make it a about his users playing baseball in the minor leagues, but anyway. I mean, they had a little bit of that.

Yeah, there was a little bit of that, which was fun. I was just going to deep dive. They're going to explore it more. He also did play an exhibition match for the White Sox. And he did a few little. I've looked at some highlights. And he made, you know, he made a few hits. He made some runs.

But, yeah, he was just a, he went from really ordinary up to pretty average. But he was on, like, if he kept going on that path, who knows, he may have. He's obviously a competent. player. He's a very good natural sports person. And has the work ethic to... Totally. And commitment that would have, if anyone had a chance, maybe he would have. But it just sounded like it was too hard.

And then that player strike happened. So I think he saw that as an opportunity potentially. And on March the 18th, 19995, Jordan sent his now legendary two-word facts, which is also like his announcement and also his press release. I quit? I'm back. Yeah. I'd never heard of that.

just makes sense. And that was him announcing that apparently with his team around him, they, they were writing all these different drafts. And he's like, I don't know, it's not quite right. And he's like, let me write it. And he came back with the two words. Oh, that's badass. So how long have you been away for?

Just one season? Yeah, about a year and a half. Right. So it's a lot, again, like not playing baseball since you were a kid. He hadn't played baseball since he was in high school. So for over a decade. And he tried to, and he did okay. K playing professionally.

That's crazy. But a year and a half away from, and he didn't play any basketball in that time. He was very focused on baseball. So it's a long time, dude. Do you reckon any of the doubts start to creep in? You're like, what if I'm not good anymore? Yeah, of course.

There must have been some of those doubts, I'm guessing. Like you take a break from anything. But then you remind yourself, I'm Michael Jordan. Yes, that's true. Oh, hang on. You catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror. Oh, fuck, I'll be, oh, I'll be great. Oh, I'm such an idiot.

I'm synonymous with good basketball. Yeah. I'm the highest compliment you could pay someone in basketball I looked at my shoes and I saw that it's a picture of me on there I'm no I'm pretty good at this that day a guy called Steve Shanweld who worked for the bull said that the phones instantly started ringing off the hook our season ticket waiting list started to grow again

TV ratings skyrocketed and interest from companies who wanted to sponsor us accelerated he said overnight we became the center of the sports universe again instead of just another very good NBA team. I reckon when he left the team and his teammates would have been really pissed off. Because he'd be like... You must have had some understanding with what he went through.

I suppose. Yeah, that's different. Yeah, it's not just like he was like, well, I'm good. But you'd hope that he's not like a diver of the team, you know, because obviously, well, look at all the attention that I get because he's coming back. So he's making the money. So obviously they'll do whatever they can to keep him happy. And he's also gave a bunch of them premiership with championship rings.

Yeah. and watches apparently, which I didn't realize is a thing. But yeah, so I think there must be mixed emotions between jealousy but also appreciation. And also just you'd be like, I feel lucky to be playing in this once in a generation team. But I'm a very good basketballer as well. Yeah, exactly. My whole life, I was the gun, which is what, I guess anyone in a professional team. Yeah, I was the best in my college.

Yeah. Yeah, I was the best in my college's league probably. Yeah. And then you get there and you're like, oh, Michael Jordan. He makes me look not very good. Apparently he, and a guy was traded back into the team who started with them to take over his place. And he was like a good ordinary player. I wish I could remember his name.

But apparently once Jordan said he was coming back, they arrived for the first game back. And the coach saw this guy in the locker room and he goes, I'm going to start Michael tonight. And he goes, you sure you want to do that? And he said they both laughed and just walked in them. He's that like a real cool guy He was the guy who you think could have hard feelings He's like All right

You want your spot back cool I guess I'll I feel so bad for this guy Yeah But he just I don't know He's also part of this awesome story So it's a tricky one

And he still played out You know a whole career He got the ring at the end of the season Ended up being a bit of a journeyman around the place His famous number 23 Was retired by the club When he left to play baseball But there was no rule

saying it couldn't be unretired, even though he wore number 45 when he came back. And I always thought that was because of the, there must have been some weird strict rule about retiring numbers, but that wasn't the case. He just wanted to wear the number he wore playing baseball, which I don't know why, but I'm thinking maybe it's just to show that he wasn't embarrassed about his baseball years. He didn't want to hide from it. Maybe, I don't know. But it seems like that's potentially just a sign of him going, I'm proud of what I did in

baseball. I suppose you've got to also print and sell a whole new bunch of T-shirts. shirts. Yeah. As well. Yeah. Everyone's like, well, can't get the 45 jersey now. Yeah, that's true.

Some doubted, I don't, whether or not he did, but some doubted that he could return to the heights he'd previously achieved with basketball. I'd love that person. Yeah. Don't have to go back to their article. Yeah, I got it wrong. It's all that time away from the game. But when he returned, he didn't quite hit the same standards that he'd set.

The Bulls were knocked out in the playoffs by Shaquille O'Anneill's Orlando Magic. And that series, early on, Jordan changed his number back to 23, apparently, which meant the team got fined from wearing the wrong number, but he just wanted to wear that number again. The Magic then went on to lose the championship decider to the Houston Rockets. I don't think the Magic ever won one. Is that right, Dave? It doesn't matter.

Check definitely has. But that was, was that for the Lakers? It doesn't matter. Anyway, he went on to lose, the magic went on to lose the championship decided to the Houston Rockets, led by Hakeem Ilajuwon, the number one draft pick. Oh. Yeah.

In the off season, Jordan was determined to get himself and the Bulls back to the top. Only trouble was he'd signed a deal to make a movie that off season. That movie, any guesses? Titanic. Titanic. I was Space Jam. Oh. Isn't he in Titanic, though?

I'm sure he is. In a way. He's in What a Girl wants. What a girl. You know, I thought you said Water Girl. Water Girl wants? I didn't say that. No, that's what I thought.

Oh, you said Water Girl once. And you said Titanic. Which is basically the same movie. Do you get Dave and my voices mixed up? Look, to be honest, I thought. You were singing what a girl wants, and that made me assume you also said. He was singing what a girl. I started to.

Oh, my God. You do get us confused. Who said that? I need my contacts. Matt, it's me, Jess. Yes, Dave. What? Oh, God.

Losing him. So I'm going to talk about Space Jam for a bit here. Yes. So the backstory you just set up there was that he said, oh, don't want. I can commit to. the team but I've signed a film deal he's like he the team did okay on his return but he wasn't he wasn't quite heading the peaks he's like in this off season I've got to take it up

a notch only problem is got another little commitment and that is to film a a Hollywood movie so this is what he did he made it clear to the filmmakers that he needed a first class training facility so it could work on his game between shooting and they delivered They made a pop-up state-of-the-art facility on the Warner Brothers lot housing a full basketball court that was shipped in from Long Beach Arena That poor local team doesn't have a possible

Some of the players still training Michael Jordan needs this They realize they're on the back of a truck all of a sudden According to an article on news.com It says it also included an open living room with big screen TV, which was impressive back then. Now, any bloody house, you'll find a bloody big screen TV, am I right? No, every house is a living room.

I have a living room, not to brag. Huge. Yep. Sound system, couches. I mean, some of these things aren't huge brags, really. I don't know how these are state-of-the-art training facilities for him. Like, it's not where to sit. I know what actor doesn't get a couch on the cell.

Now, news.com, it's fandom noteworthy, and also a living room table. Also. A table. He had a table. He had a toilet. And also somewhere to nap, aka a bed.

Sorry, Tim Allen just walked in. No, Tim. Sorry, Tim Taylor. A full gymnasium was also there with free weights and workout machines. Free weights? Yeah. He wasn't having to pay for the weights.

But he wanted a treadmill. You better believe he was putting in two dollars. There was little coin slot there. and a locker room with several showers. Why? It's just Michael Jordan. Just in case Michael and Newman need to take a shower at the same time. He had seven showers one for each day of the week. This is my Monday shower, my Tuesday shower.

The other half way of, eh? How many showers do you have, Dave? How many showers a day or how many different showers? How many different showers? Four. How many showers a day? Four. Wow. One and each.

Very good. Keep it even. Otherwise they get dry. I'm jealous. That's what I was thinking. Maddie, how many showers do you have? Depends if Dave lets me in or not. He's banging on the door with a towel on his shoulder.

Dave, please. I'm very stinky. I'm filthy. I'm very stinky. There was also a putting green and a card table. I mean a card table a little. I mean like a full poker. Stay at the art card table.

The entire dome costs Warner Brothers $10,000 a week just to air condition. What the actual? Okay, he's a diva. Just in air, he can't have 10 grand a week. That is. Did he request all those things? Or they're like, and we'll give him this, and we'll give him this? Yeah, I'm not sure.

He just wanted somewhere to train. That's all he asked for. And they're like, a card table, yeah, okay. He's like, no, no, I just want like a basketball ring. No, just remember, he's an insane gambler as well. Yeah, big gambler. Probably, yeah, I don't know if he's a good gambler or not. Do you talk about his gambling, no?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure. It did come up. though he would gamble with his baron's teammates and and wouldn't he like sometimes like stay out in Vegas till the middle of the night and then go to a game on two hours sleep and beat everyone like frustratingly good that would be frustrating yeah he definitely definitely into a bit of gambling according to Nathaniel bellamy junior who was Jordan stand-in for the movie during the shooting period basketball games would be organized in lunch breaks with a bunch of NBA stars who

who would come in to play Jordan, saying after a while I just got used to seeing all the Hollywood stars and Warner Brothers executives at Jordan Dome pick up games. They called it Jordan Dome, the court. Okay. So he would play against famous people that aren't basketballs. Yeah, just people would be coming through,

just other actors and stuff. Pierce Brosnan's making a film, drops by. Apparently. Hello, I'm Pierce Bronson. Apparently Hollywood stars like... I'm such a good impression. It was a little. The name's Barnes, James Barnes.

Let's have a shoot some hoops, Michael. Michael. You all sounded more like Bono or something. Oh, I'm pretty sure it appears as Irish, isn't he? I think Bono was also there, to be fair. No, that would be good to be fair. I didn't, I'm not, I don't think every Irish person sounds the same. I think you particularly sounded like Bono.

They all sound like Bono. That's true. I've got one Irish accent and it's Bono. Imagine that. Imagine. I can't. My brain is. is not big enough to be able to...

Imagine having less than nine separate Irish dialect accents. Come on. Crazy. Come on. So apparently Hollywood stars... Pierce Brosnan is Irish. I looked it up. Thank you.

Apparently... Apparently Hollywood stars like Mark Hamill and George Clooney would get there a bit. He said so many stars came by the Jordan Dome that you just can't name them all. Bellamy recalled. Well, name a couple of... He names two. He names two. That's not enough.

No. I need you to get through six or seven before you. And then you think, all right, stop the list. That's enough. Yeah. But, I mean, is it really helping Michael Jordan if he plays against Mark Hamel? Yeah. That's not really training.

No, it's Mark Hamill. He just doesn't seem like he's not in the same level as Shaq. He's a Jedi Knight. That's true. As far as I understand. One of their things is good basketball. That's true. Use the force.

to slam dung. The movie also featured other NBA players, including Charles Barkley. Yes. The Mound of Sound. Yes. Sean Bradley. What's his nickname? You got a nickname for him?

Boo. Bood Bradley. Nice. Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson and Mugsy Boggs. He's the really short one, isn't he? Yeah, they all have their talent stolen by the Alien Monstars. And Larry Bird also makes a cameo. Mm-hmm.

Oh, this is one of the listeners who suggested the topic. Also, he mentioned in his little blurb for why I would make a good topic, he said, asking to talk about Larry Bird's antics on set. Oh? And I found, I found, I found, I found, I found, a bit of a prankster, is he? It's a bit cheeky, Larry. I've found the, you left the door open on Jordan Dome, huh? I've got to pay 12 grand that way to air conditioning, all right.

It's a similar sort of level. I found, I found the, I found from Byrd's book, his autobiography, He talks, there's a few paragraphs about this particular thing that they wanted me to bring up. And this is from the book. The movie, the movie people really took care of us. They had this big room filled, in the hotel filled with food, drinks, anything you wanted. One cooler had beer, another had soda, another had sandwiches. And then there was this big.

Is that all you want? That's all you want. Sounds like he's trying to pat his book out. Yeah, it does. Sandwiches were there. I could have a sandwich and a soda. No problem. The soddened John smelled really good.

Sometimes I had a beer with my sandwich. But there was always a sandwich and some kind of libation. I'm Larry Byrd. Sorry, I can't mention that. Just in case you've joined us now, I'm Larry Bird talking about some stuff that's happened to me. Anyway, back to the story. And then there was this big cooler marked Michael only. You weren't supposed to touch that one because it was Michael Jordan's special stuff.

They flew in just for him. So one day, Bill Murray and I were just sitting there. Name drop. And it's the best name drop too. Oh, yeah, totally. And I go over to Michael's cooler and I lift up the lid. Oh, my God, he's easy. There was this girl there, and her only job was to make sure everything was just right for Michael Jordan.

I thought you meant there was a girl inside. He's lifted up the lid. There was this girl there. I was like, what are you doing there? She looked terrified. I'm really cold. You know what? It's not clear if that that isn't what he means.

her only job was to make sure everything was just right for Michael Jordan and she starts yelling at me from inside the cooler Larry you can't come in here no I don't say Larry you can't go in there Larry you can't come in here I said I said what are you talking about that's bull everyone here is family so he's big in himself

I'll be talked pretty sternly to him she was getting all nervous and said no no those are all things that Michael told me he wanted and if you take something out of there Michael won't be able to have it and we just can't let that happen. Bill Murray is laughing the whole time listening to this because whenever Michael walked into the room,

he always went to one of the other coolers and pulled something out. He's just like the rest of us. All right, Michael can go to all the coolers and Michael's cooler. You can't go to Michael's. That's the only rule. Michael's not limited to the Michael cooler, okay? Yeah, that's obviously that's...

This is called Jordan Dome. Fuck! Fuck, Larry. How do we make this clearer? How dumb are you? But he said, but he said he hardly ever opened his own cooler. I mean, that's his prerogative. Larry?

What's in there? Anyhow, I waited until the girl left. Then I reached in and started grabbing stuff out of Michael's cooler and throwing out to the crew all over the set. I threw it everywhere, gatorade bottles, some special drinky-like candy bars. She was so mad at me. Medicine. A kidney?

He doesn't need this. For the rest of our stay, every time I went by that cooler, I took something out. That is the Larry Bird story. Those are the Larry Bird antics. What I love about that is... Well done, Larry Bird. You know how a lot of celebrities, especially if they're not from like a writing background, will get a ghost writer?

It's clear he did not. Because that is terribly written. Also poorly read by Matt. Terribly written. poorly read, badly recounted. It's a fail all round. I enjoyed that a lot. It's two out of five stars.

I found it so fun as well. And the fact that it was mentioned in this very short thing, hey, you should do an episode about Michael Jordan and Space Jam. You can talk about this, this, and how, and he said how Larry Bird stole Michael Jordan's sandwiches. So there may be a more entertainingly written version of that story. I don't know that there is. I don't know how they could be. It was a good amount of fun.

I loved it. That's an episode highlight. I'm glad they brought that. That's really funny. I read it and I'm like, do I put this in? It is fun. It does show a different side of Larry. You made the right call.

You know? Yeah. Do you think of Larry Bird differently now? I do. Yeah. And I just don't like that kind of disregard for rules. Yeah. Because I would be that, that woman trying to just keep the piece and keep things rolling.

And then there's one little turd, fucking everything. Yeah. And then who gets in trouble when Michael needs something. in his cooler and it's not there. Who gets in trouble there? It's not Larry Bird. It's not Larry Bird, is it? Also, Larry, you're also a big star, very rich man.

There are many other coolers. You've said there's everything you need. Yes, you literally said there's everything you need. Beer, soda, sandwiches. The Big Three, baby. What do you need? Just ask. If there's something you want, just ask.

I'll get it for you. I'm sure there's someone here at this Hollywood studio that can get you Larry Bird doing a cameo in the movie. Also, how weird for the people on. set like Larry Bird hands you a sandwich. You're like, oh, thanks so much. He started eating and he's like, yeah, that's Michael Jordan. You're like, oh my God, I'm going to get fired. Nah, it's fun.

This is fun. We're having fun. She's so mad. I'm putting this in my book. I always find that weird. Hold on, just let me write down this idea for my book, which I'll write in a few years. It's inevitable that I'll write a book. I always find it weird when people think it's really funny when someone's mad at you.

Yeah. That's strange to me. Like, oh, man, she's so pissed off. Like, yeah, you're pissed off because you're acting inconsiderately. And, yeah, it is weird. It's also like, you know, when people write a book and a bit of time is going by and it's a memory, they normally, they juice it up a little bit. Imagine what the reality of the story was.

It was like a one-minute thing. She said, don't go in there. He went, no worries, miss. Yeah, and then she left thinking nothing would go wrong. And he took out a... He's sweating bullets. Yeah. I've got to impress Bill Murray.

He's laughing. Bill's like snoozing over in the corner He's just in the room Bill Murray was laughing his head off Bill Murray said I'm the funniest person He's ever met in his life He said I should have been in ghostbusters He said fuck Dan awkward

Apparently We're moving on again Apparently the Michael Jordan work ethic transferred over to acting as well According to Bellamy I'm really I'm working this guy Bellamy Who no one's ever heard of a bit

Because he was just quoted a bit in this article. And he had some real insights. According to Bellamy, Mike was great on set and he was always prepared to work. Acting wise, he got incrementally better

as the shoot went along. It's a little backhander. Incrementally. And also just saying he improved sort of implies that he wasn't great at the start. Well, if you watched the film, he's not great in it. But he's also fine, right?

I think the real breakout performer there is Daffy. Yeah. Bugs is always a real star, obviously. Obviously. A little natural talent. Lola Bunny. That's her first appearance in anything. She was created for the movie Lola.

She was great. Lola was great. Girl power, am I right? Oh, you are so right. And incrementally is not enough. Dave, remind me to tell you a joke about girl power later off Mike because it's not appropriate for on Mike. Is it appropriate for you to well?

Well, it's very funny. I bet it's going to be a Larry Bird-esque anecdote. It's going to be a real ripy-law. So the Spars Girls weren't going to out with these coolers. If you don't know Space Jam, I know you two sound like you definitely do, but some people listening at home might not. Here's a brief synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes. Basketball superstar Michael Jordan and cartoon favorite Bugs Bunny

team up with other basketball greats and Looney Tunes characters in this combination animated slash live action feature. Jordan must help the Looney Tunes gang with a basketball game against a group of outer space creatures, the monsters, whose plan, if they win, is to kidnap the Looney Tunes and take them to the failing intergalactic amusement park as the latest attraction. Oh, I forgot what that was.

Yeah, so that's for the game. So if they lost, the Looney Tunes would have to go up to Moron Mountain. And they're just playing one game against them? One game. Why did the Looney Tunes agree to it? I can't remember. Do they kidnap someone or something? Yeah.

Why do they agree to those terms? All right. There's a stupid terms. Yeah, that's maybe it's one of, there's often stupid terms in those movies. I think you'd go best of three games. Yeah. Just in case.

It does happen in movies. I've just, it just made me think of the time it happens in, in the Tenacious D movie. When they make a deal where it's like, and the devil, and you can take, you can take Kyle.

There's a Jack. so you can take Kyle as your sex slave. And Carl's like, what? And Jake Black's like, it's the only way. Very, very funny. It's the only way. That is kind of what these movies always like. Somehow they make it so it's the only way.

It's like, there's definitely other opportunities. Other ways we can handle this. No. No, it's the only way. We have to play a basketball game to save you from having to go to Moreon Mountain. And it doesn't go I watched it a few years ago again I don't think it goes for about 80 minutes or something

It's very short Kids movie Yeah I guess that's probably normal Maybe not normal 80s about right for a kid Yeah it's pretty I mean I get to I get bored after all anyway

I mean the premises We've been going for you know Over an hour and I'm getting itchy feet When you want to get married Is that what itchy feet No it's cold feet not wanting to get married Itchy feet's wanting to move Cold Feet's not wanting to get married.

I always assumed Bichy Feet was wanting to get married. Yes, Matt, I want to get married. Because you want to get to the dance floor. Correct. Yep. Want a boogie. And that's the only way to get to a dance floor. To get married.

Yeah. I won't let single or unmarried people dance. No, that's not a place for them. It's foot loose all over again. It's inappropriate. Yuck. It goes for 88 minutes. 88 minutes.

Dave, can you look this up? The movie's original promotional website can still be found online. Yes. And it's still the same. I've been on it. It's all exactly the same. And it is such a cool. Yeah, I'll show it to you.

It's all exactly as it was in 1996. Oh, fuck yeah. It's like you remember, oh, the first time I went on the internet stuff like that. Yeah. It's like a real cool time capsule. That's awesome. What's the website?

Spacejam.com, which now goes to Warnerbrothers.com and it's been archived. But it's exactly the same, yeah. Nice. I got the following information about the film from the website. The movie, which is like handy information, the movie incorporated live action along with CGI, 2D and 3D animation. Animation producer Ron Tippe explained, everyone knows the Looney Tunes, but we wanted Space Jam audiences to see the Looney Tunes as they had never seen them before.

There are animated effects in this movie that have never, ever been attempted on screen in previous movies. We're combining two and three-dimensional animation with CGI. so far back that they had to put in brackets computer generated imagery. Oh, it's so good, yes. In a digital setting. All of which is tech talk for saying the look,

the effects and the blending of the real and the fanciful are truly state of the art. Hell yeah. I love it. I love it when creatives big themselves up. State of the art. While animation was responding to the challenge of getting the animation on screen, director Joe Pitca was.

was working on the live action portion of the film. Stage 22 at Warner Brothers was converted by a Sin site into a huge, or Cynosite, into a huge green screen set. There, against Walls marked with a graphic grid to help pinpoint future character positions, Jordan played basketball, both of these Looney Tunes teammates and against the animated alien evaders, the Monsters. So he just played basketball by himself, basically, didn't he? Yeah, I've seen footage of it.

It looks cool. He's not exactly playing by himself. There are people in green suits with only their eyes showing as well so that they could tell where the other characters would end up being. Two-thirds of the 60-day production schedule took place on this stage, during which time Jordan, Bill Murray and Wayne Knight were the only live actors on the set. Waynight being Newman. They've mentioned he also plays Newman in Seinfeld, the postman and Jerry's nemesis.

He's also, he's in Jurassic Park. Oh, he's too, yes. And he's a funny... I was just thinking about Jurassic Park because I was thinking about how... What year did Jurassic Park come out? 94, maybe. Similar-ish time.

Because there's, like, the dinosaurs in that are so amazing still, I watched it recently, that I can only imagine watching it back then it would have been like, it would have blown your fucking mind. It was the highest-grossing film of all time at the time. Because it's still, like,

they're even better than recent films, seen. Yeah, because I think a lot of it was real, it wasn't CGI. I think CGI at the time would have dated, but because it was big animals. Yeah, they used real dinosaurs. But they use physical, whatever you call it. I think a lot of the stuff was real, you can touch it stuff. What do you call that?

Real effects, whatever that's called. Puppets. Puppets, that's it. Muppets. Kermit the Frog played the T-Rex. Wow, it was his best role yet. In order to keep the ball in motion and orient the star, eye contact and responses, the Looney Tunes and Monstar's positions were played by actual actors

clothes from head to toe in green suits, rendering them invisible when the film was composited. Cool stuff. And it all paid off because it was a big hit. It wasn't really expected to be, but it was a big surprise box office hit, taking in around $230 million from an $80 million budget. Nice. Here are some fun facts about the movie from the IMDB trivia page. Great. Love it. I love those fun facts on IMDB. Some of them are very very. dull. And you're like, okay. I try to pluck out ones that weren't dull.

Thank you. Good choice. The concept for the movie originated from a series of highly popular Nike ads where Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan faced off against Marvin the Martian and his alien henchmen in basketball. I did not know that. I never saw those. Inspired by Nike ads, which is... They made a film out of it.

Yeah, that was super popular, I guess, and they were like, cool. Let's go with this. Next fact. Noel Blank, Mel Blank's son, who, was, you know, the... The man of a thousand voices. The real one.

Well, I'm the man of a thousand noises. Pardon me. Please. Dave, that is... Sounds? What are you sounds? Noises. No, I think it's noise.

Noises sense funny. It does. No, I don't make sounds. I make noises. Ah! 81. So Noel Blank, it was originally booked to provide

all of the regular Warner Brothers male cartoon character of voices, but he and Warner Brothers couldn't agree. on a contract. So the studio replaced Blank with four other people to do the 12 male voices instead of blank doing more, obviously. This included doing the Bugs Bunny in Elmaphad was Billy West.

I didn't realize this. Who is the voice of Fry. Fritram. A Futurama. I think he did Renan Stimpy and heaps of other stuff. But that was really cool. So, yeah, I guess he does it so well because I just, I didn't realize that so many different people who played bugs.

I thought it was just a small handful. And he doesn't at all sound like, because Fry's kind of like Billy West's voice, slightly modified, I guess. But yeah, I'd have to go back and watch it again, but I don't remember thinking it sounded off at all to me. So obviously he did a good job, which is high praise for a guy whose profession is voice acting.

Yeah, he got incrementally better as the movie gone. Michael Jordan, here's another fact from the IMDB page. Jordan actually wore his North Carolina College basketball shorts under his Chicago Pools uniform every game as a good luck charm. Did you know that? Jess is

looking at me in disbelief, but yes, it is true. She's not happy with that, are you? Would you call that face of disbelief? I would call it disdain. And the last scene shows Michael Jordan return to the NBA wearing the number 45 jersey,

which obviously little bits of the movie were out from real life. He played baseball in it. They had a lot of fun with him being a battling baseball player in the movie. Did you guys enjoy the movie back in the day? Yeah, I haven't watched it recently. I'd like to rewatch it. Yeah, as a kid and my friend had the toys of like the Monstars and, you know, it was really fun.

A lot of big merchandising. There has been talk for a long time about a sequel. There was actually a sequel that was a long way down getting made, but they couldn't get Jordan to sign on. And it went through all these script changes. And after quite a while, it finally came out starring Brendan Fraser and called Looney Tunes Back in Action. Oh.

Are you serious? That started its life out as Space Jam 2. So we'll obviously be doing that in phrasing the bar. Fraising the Bar. Is that a real, that's a real film? That is a real film. Never heard of it. Yeah, it was not a...

Tune into our podcast, phrasing the bar. Fraising the bar. Friesing the bar. Wow. Tell me more about it. When you were talking about that a couple of weeks ago, I originally thought you were starting a Frazier-themed podcast. Maybe that's the offshoot, season two.

Yeah, season two. When you run out of these 11 films he's been in. We go through the 11 seasons or whatever of Frasier. And then we go back to Cheers. Yeah. What have we got ourselves? Yeah, good luck with that one, guys. I'm happy not to be invited.

Oh, well. That's interesting. That makes the next question moot. Dave, would you like to be involved? Brendan Fraser, yes. Frazier, no, thank you. By the time the film was released at cinemas, the following NBA season had been completed already,

and Jordan had just won the MVP award again, and he led the Bulls to a record-breaking season. So remember, at the end of the last season, he didn't quite reach the heights, had this off-season filmed Space Jam. By the time all the post-production had been done and had been released, the NBA season had gone

through and he was back to his best. And did the team win another championship? The team won 72 out of 82 games for the regular season, which was a new record, which was an all-time record then until just a couple years ago when

the Golden State Warriors broke it in 2016 by one game. So it's still the second highest. Golden State Warriors didn't go on to win the championship that year, but the Bulls did. So that was his fourth championship and the Bulls' fourth championship as well. And Jordan also earned his eighth scoring title that season became the 10th NBA player to score 25,000 career points

in the second fastest amount of time after Wilk the Stilt. And he'd had 18 months off. Yeah, that's right. What is it per game? It might be per game, yeah. Didn't he have a family as well? He did have a family, yeah. They're in Space Jam.

That's what I thought. Like Bugs Bunny's in their head. house. Yes, that's their names, but not his kids. So they're actors playing his family, yeah. But also. I feel so robbed. Where does he find the time?

I know, I just, yeah, it's amazingly to squeeze all that in the off season. I don't want to make assumptions, but I would assume he'd be an absent dad. No, see, he's so busy. What Matt failed to mention was that living room that they shipped in, they also shipped in his family. Oh, that's okay then. The basketball court they shipped in was where his kids played local basketball. And it was a game they were playing in when they took it up off the ground.

I just picture like a really big digger. Well, he couldn't make it to that game. And taking out the land underneath the whole. He couldn't make it to the game. So he brought the game to him. And that's good parenting. That's good parenting. Sorry, Michael.

For assuming you were an absent dad. When you were just busy playing basketball and filming Hollywood films. So in the championship game, See championship playoffs they beat the Seattle Supersonics Tying it in with Frazier, his hometown. Frasier Cransdown. Maybe I hear the rules are calling it a salad and scrambled eggs. Oh my, oh my.

I assume that's the theme song for the Super Sonics, or what is it called? And maybe I feel a bit confused. Well, maybe, but I got you rich. I'm saying nearly every word wrong. A scrambled eggs, their mascot. I don't know what to do without a salad and Scrabble.

Seattle super scrambled eggs. According to notable biographies. Few who watched will ever forget how Jordan sank to his knees, head bent over the winning ball in a moment of bittersweet victory and deep sadness. The game had been played on Father's Day, three years after his father's murder. The championship game. Yeah. Wow.

So it's just so much going on. Yeah. Now, not to breeze over it too much, but I'm going to breeze over it. Jordan and the Bulls would go on to win the following two titles, bringing their total to six championship titles up from zero when he arrived in the late 80s. Jordan won the finals MVP award for the sixth time also. In the 1997 playoffs, one of the they went on to win the championship in, one game is now known as the flu game,

which I hadn't heard of this, but apparently it's quite famous. In game five, Jordan came down with a mystery illness, but forged on anyway and ended up dragging. the bulls over the line with 38 points. Wow. I've seen, have you watched the footage of it? Yeah, so he nearly passed out a few times. He's like on the side in like the halftime breaks with a tail over his head,

practically like vomiting. And then he goes on there and like it's the top score of the game. Just amazing. How did he do that? So it's known as the flu game apparently, but there's also a theory that it was food poisoning on purpose. Tim Grover, Michael's personal trainer at the time, recounted that he was. This is all quote from Grover.

Yes, he was 100% poison for the flu game. Everyone called it the flu game, but we sat there and we knew, we were in the room. We were in Park City, Utah, up in a hotel. Room service stopped like at 9 o'clock, and he got hungry. And we really couldn't find any other place to eat, so he ordered. I said, hey, the only thing I could find is a pizza place. He said, all right, order pizza. Another good story.

I think Larry Bird helped him write up. A natural born storyteller. Goes right to Larry Bird. We'd been there for a while so everyone knows what hotel. Everyone kind of knew where we were staying. So we ordered a pizza. They came to deliver it. Five guys came to deliver the pizza, which is fun.

They had to take two cars. I said, I got a bad feeling about this. Out of everyone in the room, he was the only one who ate it, no one else. Then at 2 o'clock in the morning, I get a call to my roll. room. I come to the room. He's curled up in the fetal position. Immediately I said, it's food poisoning. Guaranteed, not the flu. So another flu game, the poo game. Yeah. I mean, either way, whatever it was, he was crook as. And that backfired on them as well.

They're like, ha ha, we got him. Oh, fuck. The five pizza boys, they thought they had him another victim. And it's just weird. If that's true five people, here's your pizza. Why are there? Yeah, why? Tip us all. I mean, it's possible that they just heard it was for Jordan. They're like, we love to be there. Surely that's what happened. If you went to go poison him, why would like make it weirder?

Surely you'd go with one of you and you'd wear a balaclava. Five people drop it off and they're all like, make sure only Michael eats this. Yeah, make sure he eats it all. It seems like a wild conspiracy. They just want to see the superstar. Yeah, fair enough. It feels more accurate to me, but who knows? I mean, you're a pizza delivery driver.

How many times you get to deliver to Michael Jordan? Yeah. Probably like two or three times. It's probably twice in a lifetime, three in a lifetime event. Yeah, it's two and a lifetime. It's two in a lifetime. It's once on your way up. Yeah, once you get that second call,

and you know it's time to start thinking about hanging up the delivery driver boots. Jordan retired again in 1999, though we did make one final comeback. to play for the Washington Wizards for a couple of seasons. He had an ownership stake in the team, and despite getting on in age, I think he was like 38, he sold his stake so he could come back and play for the team. And he helped bring the seller-dweller team up to a competitive level

for succumbing to injury. But he did improve the team even in his sort of... Right, so he was still good. Right, right. Yeah, still, like, without being dominating like he did, he was still like a very, very good player. It's easy to see why Jordan is still seen Or is seen as one of the greatest of all time by many

Because you know So much individual and team success The other name that people have been debating a lot lately You're familiar with? LeBron James It sounds like Wilt the Stilts should be in this conversation Why are people not talking about the Stills Yeah it's like he's not made

It's like people can't outside their lifetime It's like they don't count Well, Kareem Abdul, he scored more points than anyone else. Yeah, so I feel like they should be in the conversation. But maybe there's a reason for that. Maybe not. I'm not sure. But anyway, I found this article with an expert in debating who talked about it.

I'll tell you about that a second. But the other thing about LeBron James is he's the one that's rumored to be in the sequel for Space Jam. It's long been in talks. He's some acting credits already. Yeah, so it sounds like that helped him when he was in the Amy... Train wreck. The train wreck movie. Apparently, it was very funny in that, so that brought the conversation up again.

But anyway, Sports Illustrated enlisted the director of debate from the University of Kansas, Dr. Scott Harris, to cast his eyes over the arguments. And he seemed a little split. He liked LeBron if it was a one-on-one game. He just thought at their peak, LeBron would win one-on-one. but he suggests that MJ perhaps has a bigger heart and will to win, saying which the flu game sort of is a pretty good illustration of that. But this is a quote from The Doctor.

He said, if I were picking a team, if I were picking one of them to win a do-or-die game against an alien space invaders for the future of the planet, I'm probably picking Michael Jordan. Oh, wow. Was he trying to pitch his own space fan plot? I think he was using hyperbole to say if it was his life on the line, he'd pick Jordan.

No pressure. I'm still using the very fun space jam reference there. That's the end of the report. I do have some fun facts if you reckon we have time. I think we do. I reckon. It's always time for fun facts. I found this a little listicle on Huffington Post, with a few great fun facts that I had no idea about.

Like this one, Michael Jordan played. a cartoon superhero and a short-lived series with Wayne Gretzky and Bo Jackson. It's called Pro Stars and it lasted for two seasons in the early 90s. Sounds amazing. It featured the three sports stars living together in a gym and saving the world from villains. Michael Jordan was the leader and brainy one of the group, often explaining long scientific reasonings for plans. They didn't voice their own characters, but that was just based on them.

Oh, they didn't even voice the characters. That's so good. Kind of a cup out, really. Yeah. This is another fun fact. Michael Jordan donated his first year salary with the Washington Wizards, which is about a million dollars to the recovery effort for the victims' families of 9-11. Oh.

Which happened, you know, just before he started out with him. A bit of fun. Growing up, his nickname was Magic. Magic Jordan named after Magic Johnson. Oh, right. But then he got... He even had number plates on his car. Magic.

Early same Magic Jordan. But then... Apparently they... In Martin America. Apparently they didn't get on very well for a while for different reasons, but eventually became friends when they talked it out years later. I hear a buddy cop film. Magic and magic.

Kit. This might not be fun, but this is an amazing stat. Starting in November 1990, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls never lost three games in a row. Wow. They play that many games in a year. You never like that would that must be some sort of a record right that seems so that's nine oh well you mean you did take that season off but still that is wild yeah um and this I hadn't heard his

best friend is uh this limo driver called uh George Cola um of Coca Cola apparently when he first landed at Chicago airport in 984 the Bulls forgot to send anyone a pick him up and a limo driver named George Kohler took pity on him and offered to help. Cullo was a young man as well and the two hit it off despite an initial confusion. Cola recounted, I was excited because I knew who he was and I thought, holy smokes, it's Larry Jordan. Now, let this guy write a book. That's good stuff. Look at that one line.

He's already better than fucking bird. Holy smokes. It's Larry Jordan. And Michael's like, oh, close enough, gets in the back. Yeah, it's fine. Apparently he said to him, he said, when he saw him, I said, Larry Jordan. Oh, Larry was Michael's brother. Okay, so it wasn't that wild, but anyway.

Cola only charged Jordan $25 and offered him to show him around the city to help him find a beer. A couple of weeks later, Jordan called him to hang out, and they developed a friendship in their best friends, apparently. That is so lovely. That's the best. Maybe that's a nice one to finish off. This other one that I thought was pretty good was the Miami Heat also retired number 23 out of respect for him. Having never played there, yeah. And that's the first jersey that Miami Heat ever retired.

Look, we didn't have enough good players to retire a jersey. They're a pretty new team, I guess. But yeah, it's an interesting, I guess it's almost like a, it feels almost like a publicity stunt. That's so good. The ceremony take, man, I'm talking. weird again. I say this nearly every episode lately and it's starting to feel like I just don't talk very well. You've been fine up until that point. The ceremony took place on April 11th, 2003 before a game between the Washington Wizards and the Heat. No one will ever wear number 23

for the Miami Heat. You're the best, heat president. Pat Riley said to Jordan. Riley had coached against Jordan many times when he still played with the Chicago Bulls and the Wizards won that game. You're the best and all the players are like, what about us? What about the place we're right here? Yeah, and he's like, I don't even know your names. And I don't care to know. I love you, Michael. I didn't feel like that.

It was him going, maybe this is the way I can meet Michael Jordan. How can I? I just want him to talk to me. Yeah, I want to win over Michael. Oh, that is the end of the fun facts. You didn't say, but I assume you thought all of those were fun. All of those were fun. That was a cool topic.

Yeah, good one. It was a roller coaster, right? Yeah. And now he's obviously a super successful business person. Yes, so he's super rich. And yeah, he's doing a lot of good stuff. Had a lot of kids. Did any of them ever show promise?

Yeah, I think he's, maybe his elder son, played college ball and I think he got to a pretty decent level. But obviously, living in the shadow, it's hard. But I think it was a handy player. Handy. Hansy? He was a handsy player. Great hand skills, which is important.

Gordon in basketball. Great handsy eye coordination. Oh, good stuff, man. That was a, that's, that's what I, that's all I wanted to hear. That was, it was good fun, the old Michael Jordan. Now, at the end of our reports, we've got a segment that's come up over the last month or so where we talk about a quote, a fact or a question. That's right. And this segment's called fact quote or question. Great. And these come from Patreon supporters. And if you'd like to become one of those and support the show. Help us keep growing. You can go to patreon.com slash do go on pod

and you get stuff in exchange including two possible bonus episodes that we put out every month. So pretty cool. And this week's fact quote or question comes from listener and patron supporter Odie Matthews, who's been a long-term support of the show.

Thank you so much, Odie. His name comes up and I think, what a cracker. What a cracker, what a bloody, which means, it's like not a nice thing in America. Oh, I mean like what a cracking name.

Yeah. Like, oh, that's a cracker. Crackers, it's a big gap in meaning between American Australia.

Cracker is such a positive here. Nothing to do with Roes over here. I'm sorry. So, Odie also gets to give himself a title. And this is, I don't think his heart was in it. So in the past,

I've had things like Junior Vice Intern of Sydney Shineberg, Junior Vice President of Canaloni production, Senora Presidente of Tago Bell. And this is, It's what Odie Matthew's reply when I said, and you can also give yourself a title. He goes,

I'll go with chips and salsa because that's currently what I'm eating. So his title is chips and salsa. I love it. It's not even like president of the chips and salsa. It immediately made me want to eat chips and salsa. No, but I also love that like one track mind, like I can't think of anything else because I'm distracted by chips and salsa. I'm enjoying these chips and salsa.

Fair enough. Good for you. Chips and salsa are delicious. It's good marketing. Anyway, so he's, chosen to give us a quote. And this is a quote from Odie himself, which is a loophole. Someone found a few weeks ago as well.

This is what Odie said. Quote, I showed my girlfriend, Minna Gannon, you guys, and now she absolutely loves the show. It makes me so happy that we can talk about them together now. And she especially likes Jess's laugh. We are both massive fans and love you guys. That's the quote. Oh,di.

That's a beautiful quote. I'm going to get that printed on a teetow and sell it at markets. And I'm going to get it tattooed on your back. On my back. On your back. Okay. In teetow form. Oh, yeah.

Okay. Now I'm back on board, yes. That's really sweet. Thanks so much, Odie. Thanks, Odie. Can you convince my girlfriend to listen? That'd be really good. Nah.

She doesn't support us. No. And we also, another thing we do... Matt and I aren't sure that she's real. Yeah. Even though we did meet her that one time. Yeah, we met that paid actress one time. That's true.

Very easy to work. And what an actress? She came over and she gave me, hey babes, let's give me massages. And I'm like, yeah, you can see that we're in love. That didn't happen at all. No, that's right. We could not see that you were in love.

No, it was quite frosty. Oh, yeah. She kept calling him Steve, and he was going, Diff dove. It's babe, babe. Call me babe. She's like, you're going to have to pay me more. And then you like fake laugh, so we would be thrown off.

She's like, I didn't realize how tough this would be. But Matt and I were like writing notes to each other. Just like, this is fucking weird. Get us out of here. Quick, pretend your phone is ringing. Oh, it's an emergency. It's my dad, mom. You're in the Hope It All?

Okay. Quick. Oh, no, it's my fake. Boyfriend. He's dead. Got a grunt. Got to go to his cremation factory. Quick.

Matt has to come too. Bye. Yeah. I thought they were all real things. You're telling me that was made up? I said fake boyfriend. That's the confusing part. I thought that was a cool nickname. Yeah, I call him fake. Faky. It's pronounced babe.

Another. The other thing we like to do at the end of the episode is Dave is another Patreon-related thing. I was trying to throw it to Dave to explain it. But please, Jess, could you explain this bit at the end? We thank some of the Patreon supporters. Sucinct, yet... And we do it. Yet what?

Yet what? I mean, I think it's better when I fumble it. Okay, fine, you go for it then. No, back to Jess. So we're going to shout out a few names, and Jess comes up with a little game for us to play, which is not really a game. Basketball nickname All right

basketball So like The Round of Sound Round Wilt the Stilt Wiltle Stilt's so good Round of rebound Carl the Mailman Malone

That's great Because he always delivers Always delivers That's fantastic Do you know the best sports nickname though Is nobody What's just happened

Sorry Is that serious? Yeah Because I had a blake I was going to say it's nobody silence john eels john eels nickname

john eels nickname is nobody nobody because nobody's perfect oh very good that is very good and I nailed it I got larry bird to help me right shout out to larry

all right let's thank some people are you googling that now I'm googling some sweet basketball player nicknames nice I looked up Larry Bird's nicknames and they were a bit silly. Let me find them. Larry Legend.

Oh, lame. Also, the basketball Jesus. Someone's written. Why? For Larry Bird, the Hick from French Lick. Yeah, that's the other one I saw. The Hick from French Lick, because that's, I think he was... Town in Orange County, in Indiana.

French Lick. Yeah. That's terrible. Also the Great White Hope. Ugh. Okay. I like the Great White Shark Gregi

Greg was taken so I had to change to something else So let's thank some supporters I'd love to thank a cracking name They're always cracking names From Ballarat In Australia

Which is where the episode From not too long ago It was set about the Eureka Stockade And my grandparents live Sandy Ty Sandy Ty I mean I've got a list of basketball nicknames Or do we want to make one up?

No, go on. What do you got? Anything good stand out there? Dr. Duncanstein. Oh, yeah. Dr. Duncanstein?

That's Daryl Griffithy. I like that. Dr. Duncanstein. Sandy, Dr. Duncanstein, Ty. Love it. Yes.

Dr. Duncanstein. Because Dr. J. Yeah. Dr. J. Who was Dr. J? Dr. Dr.

Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Sir, I'm stuck. Dr. Julius Irving I can't get out of this

Dr. Julius Irving the second He's answering you I can't Dr. Oh no Dr.

Jay Oh thank God Dr. Dr. Julia Dr. J so good Yeah

I think they used to do better nicknames Yeah So what's So can you give me Sandys again?

Dr. Duncanstein That is very good Or Dr. Duncanstein I guess like Frankenstein That makes more sense

Duncan Duncanstein. Fuck. Yeah, it's good stuff. And I'd also like to thank from Bristol. Oh, we're coming for you, baby. Dave, can you look up and see if that's close at all to any of our live shows? That is.

Definitely close to our Manchester show. No, Bristol, Wednesday, November 14th of the Improv Theatre. I'd love to thank Mr. Thomas Keywood. Oh, that's good. So, key. Key. There's a key punch. Surely.

Yeah. The lock. He's a lock. And like, he's in the key. Like a sure thing. Oh, I was in the,

oh, the basketball key. Yeah. Oh, okay. Um, I'm going to say, unless you time out, I'm just going to say the first thing

that comes out of my head. So you want to say something smart. Do so. Otherwise, I'm going to call him. We want you to embarrass yourself. Okay, I'm going to say,

okay. Okay. Okay, I'm just going to, is it's going to hot in here? So I just got, the mouse just got a bit dry. Okay.

Okay, let's see. First thing that comes to me at basketball. All right, here we go. And then dunk's already been taken. That's ruled out nearly everything I've got. Yeah. Okay. Thomas Slamminate.

Slamcino. Slamcino. That's good. I like that. Slamcino is good. What does that mean? Nothing. I've got a real empty head.

Are you alright? I don't feel very good. Okay. Someone poisoned my pizza? Have Fafghurs delivered me a pizza lately? I worry about you. Thanks, Stam Sino. What a great nickname.

Sam Sino. Thomas, I'm so sorry. If you come to Bristol, I'll have something better for you by then. Can I please thank some people also? Yeah, that'd be really nice. I would like to thank from Nightcliffe in the Northern Territory. Oh, wow. What a great sounding town.

in Australia. Madeline Davies Kildia. Oh, wow. I mean, the assassin? Oh, yeah. Kildia. Bang, yeah, great, good one. MDK, the assassin.

MDK. Oh, yeah, that sounds sick. That's awesome. Way better than one on Wikipedia here listed as Elliot Perry, nicknamed socks in brackets because he always wear his socks to his knees. God, they're creative, aren't they? I love one that to explain it. Yeah, it's so good.

And I'd also like to thank from New York. city in New York in the United States of America. Jake Sullivan. Instantly, I think the snake, but I can get that a bit. Also, like, I just thought one of my favorite childhood plays for the Saints with this go called Stewie Lowe and his nickname because he had real big hands, it was buckets. It had hands like buckets. That is good.

And Buckets also works for basketball. Do you think that could work? Buckets. Yeah, right. Jake Bucket Sullivan. Love it. Jake Bucket Sullivan. That sounds good.

That's great. Classic. Jake Bucket Sullivan. Jake the snake, bucket Sullivan. Bucket of snakes. Stop. No buckets of snakes. That's not enough. They deserve to be treated better. I'd like to thank a couple of peeps now if I could. I would like to thank whose Patreon username is JMFK, but then full name is Jennifer Kittney. Jennifer Kittney.

I mean, JMFK is a pretty sweet name. Do you think it's Jennifer Motherfucking Kine? J.M.F.K. Is that what? Do you reckon that's what I know? I really hope so. And I love it. And obviously, you could call her JMFK in the commentary

and everyone would know it's a rude name, but you could say that on TV. It's Jennifer Motherfucking Ketna! Yeah, that is good. Hell yeah. And she's from Basilden in Great Britain, or Basilden. That sounds better. Basilden.

It sounds more British. Basilder, but knowing how the Brits pronounce their own words, it's probably basid, or something like, basilida. That'd be weird, silent letters in there. Probably not in this one, but in other examples. Not that far out of London, so I'm really hoping to see you at our London show. Jay, Motherfucking Kay. Jade of the Motherfucking Kay.

Very good. And finally, I'd like to thank from right here in Brunswick, East Victoria. Scott Watkins Oh that's got a real nice rhythm to it Scott Lightbulb Watkins Yeah Scotty Watkins He's a smart player He's a smart player on the court

He lights up the court Yes These are all good Scotty Watkins Thank you so much light bulb I reckon if you put them together Those six players They would be the best dream team

They've ever put together Yeah I reckon Do you think we could get them all in the same place Same time? Yep Yeah. It's an international team. Easy.

Everybody? Everyone meet in London on November 18. Okay. And then we'll figure it out from there. Yeah. And we'll... Scott, you can probably stay here. We'll come back here anyway.

Who are they taken on, do you think? Globe Travellers? Yeah. The Avengers. The Avengers. The Avengers. The Avengers of basketball in brackets, the Globetrotters. Right.

You know how they're talking about. You know what it's like. You know what they like. the end of the show. Little plug section. I've been enjoying making this show called Primates and other podcasts. About episodes featuring Jess Perkins, Dave Warnocky, Mr. Sunday movies, Claire Tonti, Andy Matthews.

Andy Matthews, Alastair Trumblo, Bertul. People from across the Planet Broadcasting Network. And beyond. And beyond. So there's probably a link to that in the description here. But also, if you want to find us. at Do Go On. We're on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook at Do Go On Pod. We're also have an email address, dogo on pod at gmail.com or website dogoonpod.com. We have a YouTube channel, which is YouTube

slash do go on pod, at Patreon, which is patreon.com slash do go on pod. Do go on pod is the main thing to remember that. Yeah, just look that up. We really nailed it on every platform. Yeah, good for us. We bloody did it. Except my space. We never got in there. And if you are in England or Scotland or if you have the ability to get to any of those places. I know we've had people in the past say that if we come to there, they'll come fly over from other places in Europe, which would be very exciting. It would be so amazing.

And we're also going to be doing a show live at Howler in Melbourne on the 13th of October. Great venue. Such a nice place. St. Vincent's played there. King Gizzen and the Lizard Wizard have played there. The killers have played there. Jess Perkins recently did a set and smashed there. Yeah.

You can see the place where Jess Perkins smashed. You can see Jess Perkins smashed. Yep, it'll happen. It's also the first place Jess ever did a gig. Okay. Yeah, how la? 14, let's go. Jess has coughed off.

She's not enjoying this long outro. A long kiss, good night. But she's like, her lips have left the building. All right, thanks guys for listening. We'll be back next week with another episode. and hopefully see you in Sydney this Friday night. And for everyone else, I'll say thank you. And goodbye.

Later. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. I mean, if you want, it's up to you. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear six months later, oh, you should come to Manchester. We were just in Manchester.

But this way you'll never, it'll never. miss out and don't forget to sign up, go to our Instagram, click our link tree. Very, very easy. It means we know to come to you and you also know that we're coming to you. Yeah, we'll come to you, you come to us. Very good. And we give you a spam-free guarantee.