Reeling Rare Air

This week Michael Jordan’s 80-foot Viking yacht “Catch 23” is in Morehead City, North Carolina, so he can compete in the high dollar Big Rock Fishing Tournament. The top prize is over $500k, with a total purse over $3 million, and I’m sure that the Calcuttas and side bets exceed that by a substantial amount, although that’s pocket change for MJ. To put it bluntly, his $8 million boat cost a hundred times more than your new metalflake pocket rocket, and he didn’t even break a sweat when he wrote the check.

It’s not his first foray into tournament fishing — last year he was in Ocean City, Maryland, for the White Marlin Open.

Plenty of basketball players, both current and retired, like to fish. I remember that another former Tar Heel named Eric Montross attended one of the Bassmaster Classics in Greensboro. Brad Sellers had a special bass boat made to accommodate his 7-foot frame. Los Angeles Clipper Paul George has fished with Jacob Wheeler. Finally, I recently interviewed Top 50 Hall of Famer Rick Barry about his love of fly fishing in Alaska.

Clearly either Jordan or his crew have some clue what they’re doing. Early in the tournament they landed a 442 pound blue marlin, fifth best overall, 52 pounds behind the leader. Still, I can only wonder what would happen if the famously hypercompetitive Jordan were to get seriously into fishing. Unlike basketball, where he could hone his genetic physical gifts (“you can’t teach height”) through hard work, there’s no reason to believe that he could just exert himself through force of will to rise up the leaderboard. I’m not doubting him, because that’s a good way to end up on his trash-talk list, just saying that we don’t yet have any evidence that he’s the second coming of Zane Grey, Kevin VanDam or Jose Wejebe.

Nevertheless, I can’t help but wonder if he turns his obsessiveness onto some aspect of our sport. Will we end up with a “Last Cast” documentary in 20 years with episodes centered on: the flu tournament or a two year side trip into fly fishing purgatory after winning his first three Classics? Does Dennis Rodman show up in some episodes, and if so what color is his tournament jersey? Does Jordan stick his tongue out when he reels in a big’un? With other sports effectively on hold and pro fishing starting up again this week, we might as well get a little bit of air in our sail while we can.