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Charles Barkley was, unsurprisingly, a big drinker. Jordan’s longtime coach Phil Jackson famously ended each work night with a beer and a smoke. It’s no secret that the NBA was a drinker’s league at one point, for both players and coaches. Then again, it’s not like post-game beers were all that unusual in the NBA of MJ’s day-an era before personal chefs, nutritionists, and the 24-hour scrutiny of Deadspin/Skip Bayless/et cetera. Jordan sucked down champagne like a baby sucking on a bottle.Ī few other books also mentioned Jordan drinking beers after games, but none specifically noted that #23 drank those beers for any other reason than as a celebratory post-game ritual, or for giving him the added bravado to razz a front-office employee. “Those guys would get a few beers in ’em back there, and then they’d start in on him,” one staff member recalled, singling out Jordan for being particularly ornery after he’d had a few brews (“Hey, Jerry Krause, this bus went faster yesterday without your fat ass on it!”). But this liquid intake seems to have been a mere side note to the more important tradition of heckling of portly team GM Jerry Krause: A pretty evocative image, sure, but I’m guessing Jordan wasn’t drinking the bubbly because he thought it possessed any sort of restorative powers.Ĭonversely, in Michael Jordan: The Life, some Bulls employees discuss how Jordan and his teammates used to enjoy a few beers on the team bus. Sam Smith’ once-controversial The Jordan Rules recalled that Jordan “sucked down champagne like a baby sucking on a bottle” after the Bulls’ first NBA Championship.
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I plowed through all the books on Jordan-and, oh boy, are there a lot of them, perhaps 5,500- plus available on Amazon-looking for any mentions of his post-game drinking habits. There were a few. It simply gave me page after page of dweebs on two-bit sports blogs arguing about whether or not Michael Jordan was a beer pong cheat ( “No elbows, MJ!!!”).Ĭhampers to celebrate, Bud Light to hydrate. Unfortunately, the mere fact that His Airness played an impromptu beer pong game with some Florida bros back in 2013 meant that Googling “Michael Jordan beer” was worthless. Was drinking cheap, light beer (packed with sugar, carbs, and electrolytes) after an intense workout-and not Gatorade-the best way to actually be like Mike? Where had I first heard this rumor? Was it just an urban legend that had been passed around by barstool jockeys for years? Or was it a sports tippling tale that sounded absurd on the surface- like Wade Boggs drinking 107 beers on a cross country flight-but actually held water? As I walked home I realized maybe I didn’t either. “I know,” I told him, adding, “Did you know Michael Jordan used to drink a six pack after every single game?” He said he didn’t. “Well, beer is replenishing,” he conceded. I’d gone straight into the store after a jog to grab some beers for the rest of the day. The counter guy at Bierkraft laughed at how sweaty I was.