Meeting Michael

- Dad, can I come up and look for a treasure map?

It's not like "The Goonies" up here.

It's pretty tight.

But I've never been up there.

All right, come on up.

Whoa!

This is exactly like "The Goonies."

Whoa, are those CDs?

Nah, they're video tapes.

Whoa, is that a scrapbook?

Yeah, careful with it.

Careful, it's old.

Sorry.

- Yeah, we didn't have a lot of money when I was a kid.

But I got to go to one game and I made

a whole scrap book out of it.

What year was it?

May 15th, 1993.

But check this out, I was able to sneak down

and take that picture.

And I blew it up.

It's right there, see.

Well, why?

Because it looks amazing.

I took that, that's Michael Jordan.

Whoa, I didn't catch that.

- Yeah, I was able to sneak down and get that.

And then see that picture?

Uh-huh.

That picture was...

- Wait, that looks like the guy from the movie.

Monster Lulu's Trampalator.

Oh, Luther The Anger Translator.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, you're not supposed to have seen that but okay.

But look at this.

See, I blew it up.

I guess Michael Jordan did look like Luther

the Anger Translator.

I never thought about that.

Yeah, why do you have a towel?

Ah, that's very special.

This is Michael Jordan's towel.

Why do you have it?

Um, I was in the locker room

and he left it.

And I took it.

Why'd you take it?

Because it's Michael Jordan's.

It's like 25 years old.

Just, okay, it's a little weird.

I admit.

How'd you get into the locker room?

Are these CDs?

No, these are video tapes

and I was in radio and I got a press pass.

And these are the video I took when I met Jordan.

You met Jordan?

- Yeah. - Can we watch 'em?

Uh, yeah.

I guess it should still work.

The closest to being

a post up center have to be...

Why is this so shaky?

I was nervous.

That's Michael Jordan.

I had never used this camera before, man.

I bought it that morning.

So I didn't know how any of this stuff worked.

No idea?

I just bought it that morning.

Before there's me and that reporter,

and that other guy was Quinn Buckner.

We were just hanging out talking

like it was totally normal.

But I couldn't record that.

I actually shouldn't even been really recording this

but I did.

Oh wait, you should hear this.

Jordan's talking about Shaq.

The hot chip guy?

Yes, the hot chip guy.

The closest to being

a post-up center is Patrick Ewing.

Then Alonzo Mourning and Alonzo, he can stand

at the 3-point range shooting threes, so.

And Shaq.

Shaq and Patrick are these ones,

these centers that really remain dominant

in the center, in the middle.

Sure, and that's gonna work

because Scott, Anderson, Hardaway...

- Hardaway, all those guys that you can just move around.

Different pieces of the puzzle with Horace.

Are we good?

It's gonna work.

Why'd the color go away?

Uh, it was a setting on a camera.

And just turn it like this

and it could do black and white.

I thought black and white looked kinda cool.

I did some color stuff too.

I know you've been asked this before.

As far as next year and the balloon agreement

and all of that, it's gonna be

an incredible free agent market.

Sure.

- Can you envision playing anywhere else?

I mean, obviously they can offer you, how many...

No, I don't envision.

I don't really have.

I don't wanna play anywhere else.

I want to play in Chicago.

Will they step forward and see that I do that?

I don't have any reason to think that they wouldn't.

You know, quite honestly.

But you never say never.

They talk about the Lakers here.

The original Game Boy!

- There's gonna be like, eight teams next year

that have between seven and eight, you know,

at least seven million to sign.

If Shaq signs first,

seven and eight million, it's not gonna be enough.

You know, it's gonna be one guy that sets the market.

The Lakers are gonna have,

if they renounce Elden, which they'll do,

so they'll have another slot.

They'll have 9.3.

So will Miami.

That's just guys comin' out.

Miami's right there too.

Yeah.

Miami's right at 10.

Yep.

Right at 10 in free agency.

Dad, can I come up?

Yeah.

Hey Cam, look.

Pippen likes Gatorade too.

Who's Pippen?

I have failed you.

Wow.

Are these basketball cards?

- Yeah, I bought every single basketball card

I could afford when I was a kid.

Pretty, right?

Yeah.

- When you don't live in an NBA city

you gravitate towards anything

that can make you feel like you're there.

And when you're from Columbus, Ohio

there are Buckeye fans and only Buckeye fans.

'Cause we all just felt sorry for Cleveland.

So I adopted the Chicago Bulls when I was nine

simply because the Chicago Bears won

the Superbowl that year.

Which means I lucked into following Jordan

right as he began to explode.

I was also lucky enough to be taping

the night Jordan scored 69 and my father and I

edited a highlight reel using two VCRs

and ended up doing that for every game I could tape.

And magazines.

My goodness, the magazines covers.

I read them, cut out some pictures,

and I'd get an extra copy to save

like giant basketball cards.

We tend to forget that before HD broadcasts

and TVs the size of your wall, these types

of images were like gold.

You'd see magazine spreads on a game you had watched

and think, wow, that's what it would be like

if I was ever able to sit that close.

Knowing you surely would never get that access.

But for a few moments looking through those pages, you did.

And then when Jordan retired I was absolutely crushed.

Which made what came next even more spectacular.

The return.

Because now I was an adult.

I was out of the house.

So if I wanted to spend 300 dollars

for a pair of nose bleeds to see Jordan's return

to Cleveland in April of '95, no one could stop me.

And of course, it added to my scrap book.

And then two months later my life changed forever

when I became the youngest talk show host

ever hired at 610 WTVN.

- Weekend on the Giant with Adam Kontras.

Yes it's the sad truth, folks.

WTVN we've got an answer.

Yeah, are they animals toes