As you read the title, you may have thought, ”how does this no name blogger know MJ?”
We’ve never chugged down tequila, smoked fat cigars, talked about all the things he took personally, or bet ten grand a hole in golf. Yet, for a brief moment in time, his Airness knew that I existed.
I used to work for an apparel company in Central New York that sells Syracuse Orange clothing. I will not give the name of the store because there are no free ads in this blog. Editor’s note: contact us if you’d like to advertise on HoopSocial.
After the second time hearing “You got anything orange in here??”, it gets real old quick. I also used to with the people who would show me pictures of their children on their phone and ask, “Do you think this would fit them?” I’d have to explain, “I can’t tell from this picture and you’re putting a lot of responsibility on my 18 year old self to not ruin Christmas for this child”. There really wasn’t anything terribly exciting from the normal day to day when it came to that gig. Except for one particular snowy Sunday.
Working a Sunday shift at the mall and dealing with a massive hangover from drinking whatever you can get your hands on isn’t the best time. On this day, however, we had an in-store signing with a Syracuse basketball player: fan-favorite guard Scoop Jardine.
Trust me, the Michael Jordan part is coming.
Scoop came to the signing with his girlfriend at the time, Jasmine Jordan. The last name may sound familiar- her father is the greatest basketball of all time.
I was only working at the store a few months and thought it was appropriate to name myself employee of the month, with a picture of my younger self to show the rest of the employees the absolute unit that they were dealing with. The picture I chose, of course, was this gem of me rocking a Michael Jordan tune squad jersey.
I’m not sure how old I was in this picture but I had to be in the 10-12 age range. I know this because the size ”Husky” was still a thing. I climbed halfway up the steps at Watkins Glen State Park and was completely out of breath. I also couldn’t rock basketball jerseys without a shirt underneath due to chaffing reasons.
I knew who Jasmine was and I was so jazzed to show her who her father’s true biggest supporter was. I showed Jasmine the picture and she audibly laughed. Couldn’t tell if she was laughing with me or at me, but she said she was going to text her father this photo. I watched as she sent the text message. I couldn’t stop looking at her phone thinking to myself, “this is really happening!”.
Jasmine and Scoop left shortly thereafter. I have no idea what Michael’s response was, or if there even was one.
One thing is for sure: for a brief moment in time, Michael Jordan knew who I was… Sort of.
