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Eminem once jokingly threatened to dunk on Michael Jordan, nearly torpedoed shoe deal
Kevin Mazur
Alright, we're going to level with you: Every Monday for the next month, you're going to get absolutely flattened by Michael Jordan stories. We're talking straight-up steamrolled. You can blame ThE dAMn mEdIA or you can blame ESPN's 10-part documentary 'The Last Dance,' which airs every Sunday night with a new clip of Michael-Jordan-was-the-most-competitive-SOB-to-ever-walk-this-earth stories locked and loaded. This week, those tall tales centered around the Bulls' battles with (and eventual vanquishing of) the Bad Boy Pistons and, of course, Carmen Electra, but the most telling story of the week wasn't part of 'The Last Dance' at all. Instead it came by way of one Eminem, who recently appeared on Sway in the Morning with this gem about the time he once joked about dunking on Michael Jordan to Michael Jordan's face. First mistake, last mistake, as they say.
I don’t know Paul [Eminem's manager Paul Rosenberg], if you remember this. We were talking about doing some kind of shoe together… I was on the phone with him and everything was cool, he’s super cool, and everything was good until we get to the end of the phone call and I said, ‘Yo man, when are you gonna come to Detroit so I can dunk on you.’ And it was crickets. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but I think he just kinda like… [chuckles]… laughed. And I remember getting off the phone going, ‘Oh my God, I think I might have just blew it.'
Damn, tough crowd. But with murmurs of Jordan expressly barring Isaiah Thomas from the Dream Team all the way back in '92 flying around this morning, backing out of a shoe deal because some short, white kid from Detroit threatened to dunk on him suddenly seems not only plausible, but likely.
“It was one of those things that in my head just it would be so ridiculous, he has to know I am joking,” Eminem explained. “But when I got off the phone, I remember thinking, ‘I don’t think he knew I was joking.’"
Needless to say, the next time you bump into Jordan at the ol' CC, just say please and thank you and be on your merry way. And whatever you do, DON'T challenge him to a putting contest.