Flash owner defends Michael Jordan stunt


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OREM -- The greatest basketball player in history was not in Utah Monday night during the season opener of the NBA Development League team Utah Flash, but the Orem arena was sold-out with fans either hoping or believing Michael Jordan would be there. Now the owner of the Utah Flash is defending a halftime show that featured the Michael Jordan impersonator.

For months Flash owner, Brandt Andersen, promoted a one-on-one matchup between former Utah Jazz player Bryon Russell and Michael Jordan. Andersen offered the winner of the "proposed" match $100,000 to the charity of their choice.

"Michael Jordan will be here, and if he's not, we promise to make it entertaining," is what Andersen said he promised all along. "Understandably there were some tough feelings," he told Utah's Morning News on KSL Newsradio.

The Flash owner said he was prepared if Michael Jordan really showed up and had a $100,000 check ready, but he also knew he needed a backup plan for halftime if Jordan was a no-show. He came up with a skit he thought fans would find funny. His idea was meant to challenge Jordan's critical comments in September as he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

In the end, no one was laughing. He said, "I never said that Michael Jordan would definitely be here, but I think that people did assume that."

Fans booed when the real Bryon Russell announced during the halftime stunt that the Michael Jordan on the floor was an impersonator.

The Flash employees tried to cheer the crowd up by throwing out free T-shirts, but people continued to boo, and some people even threw the T-shirts back. Most of the people left after halftime.

"Nobody's going to be happy Michael is not here, and let's try to have some fun with this and hope people will also agree it's fun, and unfortunately there is a huge number of people who didn't feel it was fun," Andersen said.

What made it all worse, was this video posted by the Flash on YouTube, which showed the look-alike Jordan eating at an Orem restaurant.

Andersen says it was an idea to experiment with social media, but it ended up being reported online by the Provo Daily Herald, fueling speculation around town Jordan would really be at the game.

He said, "As social media goes, we tried an experiment through social media. It can also backfire on you very, very quickly."

Andersen is now apologizing and insisting it was about creating excitement in the community, not disappointing basketball fans. He said, "This circus that I obviously and unfortunately created, spiraled out of control, and I'm tremendously sorry for that."

After the game, Brandt Andersen wrote a blog explaining what was done and apologizing to anyone who was offended.

He also offered free tickets to another game for those who left the game disappointed.

In a statement released late Tuesday afternoon, NBA Development League President Dan Reed apologized for the promotion "that never should have happened."

"This promotion was clearly ill-conceived," Reed said, also stating Andersen had reached out to Michael Jordan to apologize. [CLICK HERE to read the entire statement]

It's still unclear if Michael Jordan ever even responded to Andersen's invitation to be here last night.

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Composed with contributions from Randall Jeppesen , Sam Penrod and Adam Thomas.

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