Harold Perkins had his flu game without knowing who Michael Jordan is

LSU linebacker Harold Perkins had a Michael Jordan-like “flu game” against Arkansas without even knowing about MJ or his epic performance.

Michael Jordan’s Flu Game is the stuff of sports legends. The Bulls great played Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals with the flu or some sort of food poisoning, still putting up 38 points while leading Chicago to a victory over Utah. Everybody knows that right? Right?

Apparently not.

LSU linebacker Harold Perkins didn’t when Tigers head coach Brian Kelly tried to encourage him by using MJ’s example after the freshman vomited before Saturday’s matchup with Arkansas

Harold Perkins didn’t get Brian Kelly’s Michael Jordan ‘Flu Game’ reference

“He got sick before the game. He threw up as we were going into our team meal, team meeting,” Kelly recounted after LSU’s victory. “I said, ‘hey, you know MJ threw up when he had his greatest game’ and he said, ‘Who’s MJ.'”

Kelly shook his head saying, “Man I am getting so old.”

Us too, Brian, us too. Entire generations of sports fans just put their hands over their faces in disbelief.

To be fair to Perkins, he was born six years after the Flu Game and a year after Jordan retired from the NBA for good. He grew up watching the heroics of Kobe Bryant and Steph Curry, not Jordan. Even if he knows who Michael Jordan is as far as great basketball players in history, he might not recognize the “MJ” nickname.

Either way, he did his best MJ impression against Arkansas. He was the best player on the field the way Jordan was always the best player on the court.

The scary thing is Perkins is a freshman. If he could have that kind of game while under the weather in his first season at the college level, what kind of performances could he deliver in the future?

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