Michael Jordan Once Gave Himself a Gruesome Injury With a Cigar Cutter
What happened to Michael Jordan's finger? After profitable six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls, the mythical basketball player suffered a life-altering injury.
When ESPN started airing its Michael Jordan documentary sequence, The Last Dance, in April, sports enthusiasts had been extremely joyful to revisit the Chicago Bulls’ landmark 1997-Ninety eight NBA season even though they knew how the bittersweet story ends.
Throughout the 10-part broadcast, Michael’s decision to retire from basketball after leading the Bulls to six championship wins has steadily been blamed on his souring courting with the staff’s normal manager, Jerry Krause — however a severe finger injury can have been the general nail in the coffin.
What happened to Michael Jordan’s finger?
In an excerpt from Jerry’s unfinished and unpublished memoirs, which was obtained by means of NBC Sports Chicago, the overdue NBA scout (who kicked the bucket in 2017) recalled Michael severing a tendon in the index finger of his taking pictures hand with a cigar cutter. The incident allegedly happened when the athlete was on holiday within the Bahamas.
He underwent surgical treatment on his hand, but the laceration had brought about lasting harm. "It was seriously questionable if he could regain enough movement in the finger to be himself again as a shooter," Jerry wrote, including how appreciative he used to be that Michael moved forward with his plans to retire after that.
"He could have easily put us in an extremely tough situation by saying he wanted to play and force us to sign him to the biggest contract in team sports history," Jerry defined.
"It would then have been easy to go on the disabled list with the finger injury and spend the rest of that strike-shortened season picking up checks every two weeks and not playing at all. But Michael being Michael, once he signed a contract, he gave you a thousand percent effort and would not think of stiffing you."
Michael claimed his mind was once made as much as depart the NBA prior to he minimize his finger.
After word got out about the procedure to fix the tendon in his index finger, Michael shut down rumors relating to the future of his career. "My decision [to retire] was made before this happened, and from what doctors have told me, that even if I chose to play, I wouldn't be able to play for two months," he reportedly stated on the time.
"But that never had any factors in terms of my decision," the six-time NBA Finals MVP insisted, adding, "Hopefully, it doesn't alter my golf game."
In a 2000 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Michael went into extra detail in regards to the extent of his injury. "When [Bulls physician John] Hefferon did the surgery, he saw all the ligament damage I already had from dislocating my finger so many times," the capturing guard shared.
"So the only thing he could do was reattach the tendon. He said, 'You'll lose some mobility, there is nothing I can do,'" Michael recalled, clarifying that he may just still shoot, "but I can't grip the ball completely. I have a tough time picking it up off the dribble like I used to."
Still, Michael returned to the NBA in 2001 to play for the Washington Wizards, although torn cartilage in his right knee ended his season after simply 60 video games. He performed professionally for the last time in April 2003.
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