One man in Utah has claimed he made and delivered the pizza that made Michael Jordan believe he got the flu or another illness before Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals. During the last episodes of ‘The Last Dance,’ we learned that Michael was a victim of food poisoning after eating a whole pizza by himself the night prior to that game.
Contrary to what Tim Groover said in the docu-series, a local man claimed he was alone the night he delivered that pizza. Not only that, but he assured he made the pizza himself. Groover, MJ’s trainer, said there were five people at the door when the pizza was delivered.
Craig Fite took to Twitter to tell his version of the story, explaining he made and delivered the pizza. He was accompanied by the driver and that was it.
“For the record….I made and delivered the famous pizza to MJ. There was only me and the driver and we were decked out in our official gear. Big company.”
For the record….I made and delivered the famous pizza to MJ. There was only me and the driver and we were decked out in our official gear. Big company.
— Coach Fite (@CraigFite) May 18, 2020
Fite also appeared on “The Big Show” with Jake Scott and Gordon Monson to confirm his story, making it clear that nobody else was in contact with that pie.
“I said, ‘Well, I’m delivering it’,” Fite recalled. “I remember saying this: ‘I will make the pizza because I don’t want any of you doing anything to it.’ And then I told the driver, you’re going to take me there.”
He also gave an explanation of what could have happened to MJ that night, blaming the weather for the bad night the 6x NBA champion spent.
“Did you get it diagnosed? Did you go to the doctor? All this is innuendo on their part,” Fite said, via SI. “One thing I remind everybody is, he was smoking so many cigars. They had windows open. He didn’t have a shirt on or he was in a tank top. At around 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon in Park City, the sun is gone behind that mountain so it gets colder up there.”
“Or they could have brought him food from somewhere else if it really was food poisoning,” Fite continued. “But that pizza was made well. I followed all the rules.”
Whether or not he added some extra ingredient to the pizza to affect MJ’s performance in the Finals, that wasn’t successful. Jordans still dropped 38 points, earning a big W for his Bulls, who would later capture their fifth NBA title.
