Anecdote of the Day

Anecdote of the day. I graduated high school in 1993. I graduated young for most. My parents, specifically my father had promised for my graduation present to take me to a Chicago Bulls game. As with many, I was in awe with Michael Jordan. Fortunately, I had an inside track. 

My cousin, who at the time owned the largest market research firm in the world, which was in the city of Chicago, knew many of the players personally, worked with the Chicago Bulls and had a sky box in Chicago Stadium. My father never kept his promise. Michael Jordan retired. And then the great news, he came out of retirement, as I had thought that my opportunity was gone. 

At the age of 23, I had went to Chicago to record a music video. This happened to be at the same time as the NBA finalsChıcago Bulls vs. Portland Trailblazers. During that time several of us had went out on my cousin's yacht, which was at port in Montrose Harbor. The first part that is interesting is that his boat was right next to Scottie Pippin's and Michael Jordan's.

 At this time my cousin was a billionaire, but still a cool guy. Now he is not a cool guy, and is what we call stupid rich. I had been fortunate enough to meet and go out for a short period of time on Scottie Pippin's boat for about 20 minutes. This was before I lost all respect for Scottie because of his treatment of Michael and the Bulls and throwing them under the bus. In passing, there he was, the great Michael Jordan as we were walking on the dock. 

My cousin immediately took the reigns, walked up and had a conversation with Michael. Michael was kind enough to look beyond my cousin Matthew and introduce himself to the rest of us. The 7th game was coming up as they had lost the 6th in Portland. I asked Michael why he was out and about and he said he really needed some "me" time and wanted to enjoy the fireworks that were being set off all along the bay. Knowing my cousin Matthew personally, he said, "I can't wait to see you all at the game and I hope you enjoy it." Of course, being Michael, guaranteeing the win, which they did. So generous is Michael Jordan, set up passes so that we could go where ever we wanted within the stadium. 

On a funny note: though I can not remember the time a large steel beam drops down to close exit and entry from the harbor. All of us, including Scottie and Michael were stuck, there was a security guard as we pulled up to exit who walked to our car and we asked can you raise the gate? He said he couldn't, it was on a timer. As all of us were in what would be considered sports cars, they were very low to the ground. Yet there was no way out. So the security guard says, hop the curb and just drive through the lawn as there was about a ten foot wide gap in the fencing to get through. All three cars did so. Two of the cars lost their mufflers that evening. And of course Michael was the one who didn't, because he gets a lot of air.

So the morning of the game we finished our video. My father did not want to stay. He wanted to head back to Michigan. He played harmonica in my band as the rest of them resided in Chicago. As I had pointed out, this is an opportunity to fulfill that promise. It mattered none. Unfortunately, I was never able to make that game. To be honest, it still haunts me to this day. It is simply a tragedy. These opportunities, especially for a young man like myself, come around once in a lifetime. But, leaving with a good note. My cousin had known that my father was not going to stick around so I would miss the game, as he was the driver. Before I get to the ending, I look back now and I think to myself, Why didn't I just stay anyway? I had the money. I suppose at this time it was a family obligation. I was raised to respect my elders. Which is good in theory, unless they create chaos and in this case oppression.

Since I have a large amount of family in Chicago one of my cousins who did commercials for Michael and his endorsers called him up and told him the situation. As we were at my cousin Phil's house there was a knock at the door. My cousin Phil asked me to get the door, which seemed very odd to me. And there he was, Michael Jordan. My cousin Phil lived and still lives in Oakpark. Outside was MJ's Lamborghini with the plates that say AIR1 So even though I wasn't able to see the game. I was able to take a ride in the Lambo, go out to lunch with MJ, and sit in on the pre-game meeting and to top it all off got to play 2 games of HORSE with MJ. One I lost, and the other I won. Michael tried to top me with dunks, but had no idea that this white boy had a 51" vertical. Good times. It was a great experience. But I have to say, I still wish I could have seen that game. I was fortunate enough to know someone for a short period of time at a personal level, but at 23, I could not really soak that up. I did not quite understand how special that was until several years later. I suppose my brain didn't comprehend, as I had dreamt about seeing Michael in action on the court as I'm still hoping that he'll come out of retirement again. It's hard to explain. I have spoken with MJ several times in the last fifteen years. But still to this day I'm at a query of if I could go back what I would choose. To know Michael personally, or to see the greatest basketball player of all time in action. What would you all choose?