On September 1, 1990, Michael Jordan, a few months before his first NBA title, wore the colors of Tours BC for an exhibition match against the Germans of Steiner Bayreuth. Jordan was on a Nike promotional tour with an exhibition match on the schedule. It might sound like a joke but the Tours team, who had just been relegated from N1A to N1B, far from their level of 1976 French champions, were chosen because they were sponsored by the comma brand. as reported by Benjamin Henry of The New Republic. The match took place at the Geo-André gymnasium in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, a little too small…
“I told the leaders of Nike that they had seen too small with this room of 1,500 places. They assumed that there had only been a few hundred people when Jordan first came to Boulogne-Billancourt in 1985. I had told them that they could have done Bercy. Although he was not yet an NBA champion, he was already becoming an icon. »George Eddy
Around the room, too small, nearly 10,000 people are waiting!
“Before the match, I had to get on a bus to announce to 8,000 people to go home, I was booed copiously. It was so full as an egg that there were people sitting on the floor all the way to the sidelines. It was very hot, it was unbreathable. When Jordan sees the situation, he says, ‘No, we’re canceling everything, it’s dangerous’. We finally managed to convince him to give it a shot. »George Eddy
Finally, Jordan slams 37 points then slips away before the end of the match to avoid the riot.
“I am one of the only coaches in Europe to have coached him, I am proud of that. More seriously, I did not coach Jordan, I do not have that claim. He was on the team and that’s it. He played, he had fun, he made the players happy. He was very collective, he put himself at the service of the team. » Michel Bergeron, Tours BC coach in 1990
Tours for its part lost by a small point, 81-80.
Read the full article at The New Republic.