After making the first All-Star Game of his nine-year NBA career, Los Angeles Clippers center had to cancel a Hawaii trip with his mother. From Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated:
“They said, ‘We just got a text from the NBA,’ ” Jordan told The Undefeated. “They were like, ‘Yo, they think you’re going to make it.’ [I asked,] ‘They think I’m going to make it or I made it? What do you mean, ‘they think,’ because I’m about to buy this trip.’
“They said, ‘Well, officially you made it.’ And I was like, ‘Oh s—-.’ I was superexcited.”
…
After practice on Thursday, I had my trip to Hawaii ready to go. I was superexcited about it. I was waiting for this one last little thing [All-Star announcement]. I was leaving at 6 in the morning [of Feb. 16] and was ready to rock. Someone texted me and said, ‘Hey, you got to cancel that trip to Hawaii.’ I was like, ‘No, this is done. This is set. What’s up?’
I was thinking that they would have known at practice if I made it or not. They didn’t say nothing at practice, so I was like, ‘Cool, I didn’t make it. I’m about to set my trip up.’
…
I called my mom and said, ‘I’m not going to Hawaii.’ And she was like, ‘Why not? What’s going on?’ So I said, ‘I made the All-Star team.’ She said, ‘Oh, my God. For real? Don’t play with me, boy.’ I said, ‘For real.’ She said, ‘DeAndre, stop playing.’ I said, ‘This is what I was told,’ She said, ‘What they say? They better not be bulls—ing, you.’ I said, ‘Mom, I’m telling you what they told me.’ So she was superexcited.
I called my brothers and told them. They were superexcited. I told my son and he is only 13 months old. And he looked at me like, ‘All right. Whatever. I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ He wasn’t like, ‘Daddy made the All-Star team.’ He was just like, ‘OK, read me this book. I don’t care what you’re talking about.’ But I was superexcited. Nine years. Some years I thought I was going to make it. Some years I knew I wasn’t going to make it. This was pretty exciting.
While I personally picked Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert over Jordan, Jordan is an elite center, and it’s great that he finally made an All-Star team.
