Unforgettable: The day Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls visited Allen Fieldhouse
Former Kansas Jayhawks guard Ryan Robertson remembers the day NBA phenom Michael Jordan came to town as the headliner in an unforgettable NBA exhibition game between the Chicago Bulls and Seattle SuperSonics inside tradition-rich Allen Fieldhouse.
It was early evening, Oct. 12, 1997 in Lawrence, when the now, 43-year-old Robertson and teammates Paul Pierce, Billy Thomas, Raef LaFrentz and Nick Bradford studied every move of the future Hall of Famer as he stretched and shot baskets before tipoff.
“I don’t remember thinking how good he was. I was worried he may not play a lot,” the St. Charles, Missouri native Robertson said of Jordan, who as a 13-year NBA veteran figured to play limited minutes in a game that wouldn’t count in the standings.
“He played hard and played a lot of minutes. He didn’t go through the motions. He was into the game and did the things you’d expect Michael Jordan to do.”
Jordan is back in the news this week as the star of a five-week, 10-part documentary entitled “The Last Dance,” which debuted on ESPN Sunday. He scored 23 points while playing 27 minutes in the Bulls’ 101-92 victory over Seattle that day in 1997.
The game was contested before 16,300 spectators — a crowd that included the 1997-98 Jayhawks players as well as KU coach Roy Williams, an assistant coach at North Carolina during Jordan’s three years as a Tar Heel, including the 1982 NCAA championship season. North Carolina grad George Karl coached the Sonics.
Jordan hit 10 of 19 shots and was 3-of-3 from the line against Seattle. He also had six rebounds and two assists in the only game ever played at Allen Fieldhouse.
“He came up to coach Williams’ office before the game to watch the World Series with us,” said Robertson, recalling parts of Jordan’s appearance that had nothing to do with the actual exhibition.
“I remember he made fun of two people. I think it was Nick (Bradford, KU guard), because Nick was wearing Jordans (shoes), and he made fun of me. I had one of those disposable cameras that took pictures. He (Jordan) saw it and said, ‘Nice camera,’ making fun of my cheap camera. I’m a college kid with no money. I remember coach Williams defended me,” Robertson added, laughing.
“Coach said, ‘Michael, he’s a college kid. You remember what it’s like being a college kid.’’’
Bradford recalls Jordan singling him out as well — all in good fun, of course — as the World Series appeared on a TV screen in the background.
“My memory is when he was talking to us as a team, he said, ‘Who is Bradford? Where’s Bradford?’’’ Bradford, now a 42-year-old high school coach in Fayetteville, Arkansas, recalled Monday. “I said, ‘That’s me.’ He said, ‘I’m using your locker. There’s nothing in it. Why’s there nothing in it?’’’
“I said, ‘Coach Williams told us to clean our lockers out,’’’ Bradford explained. “I remember he told me he took my locker because it’s closest to the shower.”
Former KU guard Billy Thomas interacted with Jordan after the exhibition game had ended.
“I remember the suit he had on. He grabbed some food from Coach Williams personally. Coach brought some of the food he liked,” said Thomas, now a 44-year-old basketball coach at Kansas City’s Barstow High. “He was personable. He was a jokester. When we got a picture taken with him he mentioned I looked taller than him (only) because he was leaning over.
“Here’s my childhood idol, the guy I grew up wanting to be. To get to meet him and get in a picture with him, I was floating on air.”
Thomas said he was impressed with all aspects of Jordan’s game, including his minutes played that night.
“Normally, guys of that stature don’’t play that much (27 minutes in exhibition),” Thomas said. “It speaks to who he is wanting to do that.”
Jordan was not distracted by an adoring Fieldhouse crowd that elected to take pictures with flash cameras throughout, including when Jordan shot free throws. Remember, there were no cellphone cameras back then.
“The fans were so enthused, it gives you motivation,” Jordan told reporters after the game. “This reminded me a lot of Carmichael Auditorium” — a comparison to North Carolina’s hoops facility at the time, which was replaced by the massive Smith Center in January 1986 in Chapel Hill.
Of the lights flashing throughout the game, then-KU sports information director Dean Buchan quipped that, “It reminded me of ‘The Natural’’’ — a reference to the movie in which the baseball stadium lights exploded after Robert Redford’s character slammed a home run off a light standard.
KU officials had anticipated the light show and asked the Bulls if they wanted fans to be warned not to take pictures during the actual game. The Bulls said the fans could click as many pictures as they wanted.
“They wanted it to be as fan friendly as possible,” Buchan said of the organization that in 1997-98 went on to win its third straight NBA title and sixth and final crown in the Jordan era.
There was only one minor hiccup that day. After Jordan left the game for good in the fourth quarter, some fans decided to exit the Fieldhouse by walking right behind the Bulls’ bench. Some managed to stick their cameras in Jordan’s face at close distance.
“A couple fans actually touched him,” Buchan said at the time. “But there were no security problems. All the attention Michael received was expected.”
Buchan remembers the long line for tickets stretching past the old ticket office far up Naismith Drive on the day tickets went on sale to the general public. The entire spectacle, he said, was “different. There wasn’t a student section. There wasn’t the band, not any of that. The fans were not just KU fans, but Bulls fans. There was a different vibe because Michael was bigger than life. It was eventful.”
And now, in this spring without sports, Buchan and the 1997-98 Jayhawks who that year went 35-4 overall, can look forward to four more Sundays of Jordan-dominated cable TV.
“I had nothing but Jordan gear on last night watching — Jordan T-shirt and sweats,” Bradford said Monday. “He was ‘the guy’ in our era. The funny thing is we were wearing his shoes when he was still going strong (as player). People are still wearing them.”
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Unforgettable: The day Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls visited Allen Fieldhouse."
