About two years ago, I was on a business trip to Portland, OR.
If you are not aware, one of the many great things about Portland is that there is no sales tax, meaning if you want to buy lap tops, Louis Vuitton, or even throw back jerseys, you pay the price of the item and that's all you pay, no sales tax.
So being a huge Michael Jordan fan, as most of us non-haters are, I always wanted to get a nice Jordan throwback jersey while I was in Portland since there was no sales tax.
Now those of you who are sports jersey heads like myself, you know that the official authentic jerseys and more so the throwback jerseys can run you easily about a couple hundred dollars.
But hey, I was born and raised in Chicago and Jordan was just one of those legends that one must honor properly without money being an issue.
So I looked and looked, and then about three hours later I finally found it. It was the red 1984 rookie jersey with the vintage "Chicago" lettering in the front, just perfect to represent not only the greatest NBA player of all time, but the greatest city as well.
It was beautiful and powerful, I just did not realize how powerful the jersey was at the time. So in a heart beat I grabbed it and ran up to the cashier and was ready to pay hundreds of dollars for it.
The cashier rung it up and told me the damage (price), and I could not believe my ears.
He said, "$19.99 please."
I was like what? I told him are you sure? This is an authentic 1984 throw back Michael Jordan jersey, the greatest basketball player of all time!
He then replied with, "Yeah he's retired though so we don't charge as much for his jersey, he's old and not popular anymore".
I thought to myself umm OK, then here's a $20 dollar bill keep the change!
Part of me wanted to correct this guy and explain to him that he should charge a hell of a lot more for this throwback jersey, but then I thought of the saying: "ignorance is bliss" and the ignorance of this guy was actually blissful for me, so I failed to educate him and just left the store before he came to his senses.
So fast forward to six months later which was last August. I was visiting back home in my hometown of Chicago and I attended a music festival called Lollapalooza.
That year, they had Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, and another guy from Chicago named Kanye West headlining the music festival.
The second night Rage Against the Machine played and I decided to rock the Jordan jersey and did not think anything of it.
I met up with some friends and my brother and just felt good to be back home at such an amazing event taking place in Grant Park.
Thousands and thousands of people filled up Grant Park. You can probably argue that this Lollapalooza event is the "Woodstock" of our generation just to put things in prospective.
There were even big rumors going around that the presidential candidate (at the time) from Chicago—a man by the name of Barrack Obama—would take the stage to introduce Kanye West to the crowd.
I thought to myself and said: Wow this is history right here happening right now.
I felt generous as I often am when I am surrounded by my good people, so I decided to buy some drinks and even food for everyone, cause anyone who knows me knows that is how I roll.
So I walked up to the food tents and beer and wine garden area and then it happened. All of a sudden something very strange yet mysteriously positive began to unravel a little by little.
For some reason, every where I went to buy food or drinks no one would allow me to pay. They said your money is no good here.
I got slices of pizza, Italian beefs, beer, and wine all for free. Finally, at the wine garden I had to ask the guy why aren't you charging me for this wine?
He replied, "You are wearing the MJ jersey, MJ was my hero and he represented my city to the world."
So then it began to all make sense. I then realized why random people kept coming up to me all night giving me high fives and shaking my hand—it was because of the Jordan jersey I was wearing.
You see this really proves just how great Jordan was. No other player was so great that just by wearing his jersey alone it would enable you to be loved by a whole city, and eat and drink for free for as long as you had his jersey on.
Really think about that for a second. That is beyond greatness!
So I thought to myself: OK, let's see just how great Jordan really was.
I then decided to go up to only the hottest chicks there and just start talking to them just to see what happens.





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