Michael Jordan avoided 'traveling cocaine circus' Bulls during first years

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Chicago Bulls All-Star forward # 23 Michael Jordan file photos. (Tom Berg/WireImage / Getty Images)

CHICAGO - Before the Chicago Bulls selected Michael Jordan with the No. 3 pick of the 1984 NBA Draft, the team had struggled — it had made the playoffs only three times in the last 10 seasons.

Sunday’s first episode of “The Last Dance” brought up the notion that the Bulls were previously known as the “traveling cocaine circus” before the Jordan era began. Jordan was asked about whether he had joined in any of the extracurricular activities and told a story about how he walked in on a party.

“I think we were in Peoria, it was in a hotel, and I was trying to find my teammates,” Jordan said. “I start knocking on doors, I get to this one door, and I could hear someone say, shhh, someone’s outside. This deep voice says, ‘who is it?’ I say, it’s MJ, and they say, ah, 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 is in there. It was things I had never seen in my life as a young kid. You got your lines over here, you got your weed smokers over here, you got your women over here.”

Jordan said he was a bit startled when he walked into the room because he’d never seen anything like that before. He said he wasn’t even drinking at the time.

“The first thing I said is, 'I’m out.' Because all I can think about is if they come raid this place right now, I am just as guilty as everyone else in this room. From that point on, I was more or less on my own,” he said.

According to the documentary, Jordan was still in college-kid mode. He was living in a townhouse and was often visited by his mother. He said he would just hang out, play cards or watch movies during his downtime. He said he would make sure he got enough sleep then wake up and go play ball.

Sunday's episode of “The Last Dance” also featured Jordan’s breakout game, in which the team defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in a regular-season game in 84-85. Jordan finished with 37 points and the Bulls came back from being down nine points.