that wasn’t the only time i had a run-in with michael jordan. it’s surprising how often you bump into the guy when you have family in the northwest suburbs of chicago. i guess it’s kinda like how everyone out west has their own stephen harper story.
anyway, i had been waiting tables at an olive garden in a town called bloomingdale in illinois for a few weeks while i was there for the summer. bloomingdale doesn’t really seem like the kind of town bursting at the seams with celebrities, but in my few weeks there i had already met one (the guy who did the sub zero motion capture from mortal kombat -- absolutely true story, he was/is a cop in bloomingdale). anyway, i was working a closing shift one night and it got to be around 9:55 pm. i told the hostess, "you should lock the door, it's almost closing time." sure enough, she came and found me in the kitchen a few minutes later and, with a smile, said "you are not going to believe who it is!"
i couldn’t believe my fucking eyes. michael jordan, sitting in the smoking section, smoking a fat cigar with scottie pippen and two other dudes who looked like basketball players i had never seen before. i went up to the table and said "hey michael, how are you doing? you won't remember me, but i actually met you like ten years ago, i was really young." he replies "that’s right (BAN ME PLEASE), i don't remember you. plenty of niggas lose bets to me. now bring us some fuckin' breadsticks and four whiskeys on the rocks befo' it gets ugly in here!"
our restaurant closed at 10 pm, but they stayed until at least 12. the manager didn't want to kick them out, because basically they’re chicago royalty and they had singlehandedly tripled our add-on sales for the day. eventually though, they were ready to leave and when i dropped the bill, michael picked it up for the rest of the table. between the four of them, they managed to tally up a $400 bill -- of which, i was tipped no more than six dollars and twenty-three cents. i was obviously upset; at this point in my life, this guy has now metaphorically rubbed his balls on my face twice. i vented to my manager a bit, said goodnight as she counted cash in her office, and then hit the bathroom on the way out. michael was in there, washing his hands after what i could only imagine was a large, time consuming dump (the bathroom smelling the way it did helped confirmed this theory).
believe it or not, i actually asked him, then and there, why he was such as asshole to me all night. between calling me '(BAN ME PLEASE)', '(BAN ME PLEASE)', and tipping so shitty, he had really begun to grind on me. i was shocked to see that he was actually apologetic. he mumbled something about how he gets "caught up in his image when he's hanging out with his boys", and that he meant no hard feelings. he reached into the front pocket of his sportcoat and pulled out two white pills, and said, "we each take one and we'll be friends". i’m thinking, wow, okay, i'm doing drugs with my friend michael jordan. so we each popped the pill. after i swallowed mine, he reached into his mouth and pulled out the pill i thought he swallowed. suddenly my legs got weak and my head very light. the last thing i remember is him laughing maniacally while he managed to say "night night, (BAN ME PLEASE)"
i woke up a few hours later on the floor of the olive garden bathroom, lying in a pile of (hopefully) my own excrement, with my open wallet resting on my belly. i picked it up and checked it out. everything was intact, save for my tip earnings from last night: my six dollars and twenty-three cents.