We’ve all stayed out too long drinking, and maybe even to the point where we’ve lost a painful amount of money gambling.
But I don’t think any of us have ever managed to turn it around into a triumphant win as much as the man himself, Michael Jordan.
In an interview with former NHL player, Jeremy Roenick, it was revealed that MJ had a loose one. And right before he was set to lead the Chicago Bulls against the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 1992 NBA season in a game that evening.
As the story goes, Roenick and MJ met to play 18-holes and throw back a few cold ones on the day leading up to game night. To make things more interesting, the two blokes thought it’d be a good idea to put some money on the slow-paced action.
“‘Meet me at Sunset Ridge, early. We’re gonna go play 18-holes,'” Jordan had said, according to Roenick.
Roenick went on to detail how he absolutely rinsed Jordan during the first round – which was when MJ, refusing to take the L, challenged him to another 18-holes.
“We played a round, I beat him for a couple thousand and got ready to leave,” says Roenick.
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“Now, the Bulls are playing that night. They played Cleveland that night. I’m thinking he’s leaving, it’s 10 o’clock. He goes, ‘No, let’s go play again.'”
Roenick rinsed MJ once more, and by the end of the 36-hole session, the latter found himself owing the former a few thousand dollars. Only this time, MJ had to really leave the green and head straight to the stadium (if he wanted any chance of making the game).
“Now we’ve been drinking all afternoon and he’s going from Sunset Ridge to the stadium, to play a game… I’m messing around. I’m like, ‘I’m gonna call my bookie. All the money you just lost to me, I’m putting on Cleveland.'”
That’s when MJ went all in. Like the competitive beast he was, he opted to raise the stakes and throw down a new challenge at Roenick’s feet.
“He goes, ‘I’ll tell you what. I’ll bet you that we’ll win by 20 points and I have more than 40 [points].’ I’m like, ‘Done,’… Son of a gun goes out and scores 52 and they win by 26 points or something!”
This is where a dose of fact-checking becomes necessary. Roenick does not specify which game the story revolves around exactly, but the closest fit to this incredible narrative would be the Bulls v Cavs game on March 28, 1992. Jordan never scored 52 as alleged, but what he did manage to pull off right after being on the piss was 44 points. This led to a decisive 126-102 victory against Cleveland with a 24 point lead – not 26. So while the story isn’t completely accurate, it technically did happen.
The epilogue to this tale is how the Chicago Bulls later would go on to secure the NBA championship by the end of the ’92 season – defeating the Portland Trailblazers in six games.
Legendary.
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