Most people may remember Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame speech back in September in which he made some negative remarks about Byron Russell, the former Utah Jazz forward. Following Jordan's speech, Russell challenged him to a one-on-one battle. Very excited by Russell's proposition, Andersen promises $100,000 to the winner of the match to go to the charity of their choice. Andersen ultimately went to the lengths of hiring a "look-a-like" Michael Jordan to walk around Provo leading fans to believe that a legitimate one-on-one match would occur later that night between Jordan and Russell. At the time of the match, Russell walks onto the court expecting to see Jordan. The Jordan impostor walks onto the court surrounded by body guards, followed by Andersen taking the microphone and admitting to fans filling the arena that the "Michael Jordan" they'd just seen was a fake. The crowd responded with harsh boos.
Needless to say, Andersen's initial joke backfired into becoming a huge mistake. Instead of retiring from the arena upon the embarrassment he'd fallen victim to, he immediately responded with the overdone quick fix: throw out free stuff to the crowd. Tickets for a future flash game accompanied his apology. In my opinion, this is a weak PR attempt at fixing something that resulted in many angry, dissatisfied Michael Jordan fans. Does free stuff heal the wounds? Will these disgruntled fans still care enough about the Flash to want to see them play again after this stunt, or will they be to angry to continue to support a team that would stage such a foolish act? Well, the one true thing about all of this is that Anderson and the Flash are going to have to implement some truly effective PR to wipe the slate clean, that is, if a clean slate is even possible after this event.
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