Video: Michael Jordan recalls Bulls’ ‘cocaine circus’ parties

The Chicago Bulls were not a very good franchise before Michael Jordan got there, and if you hear about the things going on with the roster, you’ll understand why.

During episode 1 of “The Last Dance,” which is the ESPN documentary series about the 1997-1998 Chicago Bulls, Jordan was asked about the drugs and partying that went on within the franchise. An article described it as a “cocaine circus”, which made Jordan laugh.

Jordan says the partying was unlike anything he had seen before, and he was not a part of it.

“Look, guys were doing things that I didn’t see,” Jordan recalled. “I had one event, preseason, I think we were in Peoria. It was in the hotel, so I’m trying to find my teammates. I started knocking on doors. I get to this one door, and I knock on the door and I can hear someone says, ‘Shh shh shh, someone’s outside.’ And then you hear this deep voice say, ‘Who is it?’ I say, ‘MJ.’ And then they all say, ‘aw f–k, he’s just a rookie, don’t worry about it.’ So they open up the door, I walk in and practically the whole team was in there. And it was like, things I’ve never seen in my life as a young kid. You got your lines over here, your weed smokers over here, you’ve got your women over here. So, the first thing I said, ‘Look, man, I’m out.’ Cause all I can about think is, if they come and raid this place right about now, I am just as guilty as everyone else that’s in this room. And from that point on, I was more or less on my
own.”

Jordan averaged 28.2 points per game as a rookie with the Bulls and led them to the playoffs, where they lost in the first round. He took some time to pull the franchise forward, as it wasn’t until his fourth season that they won a playoff series. The partying by the players going into things probably didn’t help. And if their partying sounds bad, read about what the Mavericks were doing before Mark Cuban bought them.