<\/p>\n
We’re curious to see what you think of this\u2014funny, or messed up? <\/span>There’s certainly no middle ground in the practical joke (or scam) that Long Beach State alum Bryon Russell helped Utah Flash D-League owner Brandt Anderson play on Provo fans yesterday. <\/span>Anderson (with Russell’s assistance) had been circulating rumors for a few months that Russell and Michael Jordan would be playing a one-on-one game at halftime of the Flash’s home opener. <\/span>Russell and Jordan of course have a history, with Jordan making the final shot of his career, to win the 1998 NBA championship, a short second after pushing off of Russell. <\/span>In Jordan’s recent Hall of Fame speech, he took some shots at Russell, prompting immediate hype about the possibility of a one-on-one game between the two proud competitors.<\/p>\n Anderson saw an opportunity, and went for it, for better or worse. <\/span>He pledged a $100,000 donation to the charity of the winner’s choice, and then, after getting Russell on board, immediately began fueling speculation that it would happen\u2026at his D-League team’s home opener, of all places. <\/span>The rumor picked up enough steam that a mid-November headline on NBA.com read “Russell-Jordan Showdown Rolling Along As Planned.” <\/span>Seriously.<\/p>\n Not to move the punchline up too far here, but: obviously, this was all made up. Jordan is unlikely to ever “stoop” to accepting a challenge, and if he did play Russell, it would obviously be on his terms, in a much flashier (or more private) arena than in front of a Utah D-League crowd. <\/span>Nonetheless, Anderson built hype by hiring an MJ impersonator and sending him around Provo before the game, accompanied by a sizable entourage\u2014the videos went viral, and a franchise-record 7,500+ fans packed the Flash’s opener.<\/p>\n When halftime rolled around, the impostor strolled out, and Russell reportedly announced, “This is embarrassing right now. This is not good.” <\/span>(Numerous reports do state that he was aware it was a hoax). Then, according to the AP, fans “started booing, then leaving.” Anderson has of course rattled off a quick apology claiming the event he spent three months planning was a mistake: “This was done in fun. If you did not see it as fun or you feel we went over the top I am sorry,” he wrote in a posting on his blog. We leave it to you in the comments below to answer the question: was this funny, or a ripoff? Anderson says as an apology, tickets from Monday’s “hoax game” will be honored at any other Flash game this season. Fans attend two D-League Flash games in one season? Now that’s <\/em>funny. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In one of the funniest practical jokes ever played, or an example of minor league sports’ hucksterism at its worst, Bryon Russell helped a Utah D-League owner trick fans into thinking Russell would play Jordan one-on-one on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2598"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2598"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}