A follow up documentary to the 10 part ESPN and Netflix joint effort has reached post-production. Entitled Save it For Me, this 20 part film will tell the story of the woman behind the legend Michael Jordan, his ex-wife Juanita Vanoy. Married in 1989 as Jordan himself was on the verge of becoming an international celebrity, Juanita and this new documentary prove that behind every great man is a woman.
There is no exact date of when this documentary will air or who it will be distributed by, but my source, Juanita herself, ensured me it is almost complete and that it will be illuminating. She has also allowed me to share some of the details of her chronicles.
“Michael never even really liked basketball. Sure he played since he was a boy and was a fine collegiate athlete and even enjoyed some time with the Bulls before we met, but it was not until then that he really thrived. It is no coincidence that his championship years did not occur until we married. I made him fall in love with the game. I believe he loved me so much that there was simply too much to give me so he channeled the excess into his little game and the result was six championships.”
Juanita describes her contribution to Jordan’s career as “essential” and “irreplaceable”. “One day when we were home in the off season I asked Michael to hand me the salt. I was sitting on one end of the table and he the other. It was a large dining room table and in order for most men to reach me they would have to get up and hand it to me, not my Michael though. He stayed planted in his seat, grabbed the salt and reached farther than anyone I had ever seen. The year before he dunked from the free throw line, but if I never asked for the salt, it is likely he never would have thought he could do something like that again. I was always doing things like this. Not in the form of running drills or calisthenics, but I always knew exactly which household chores would make him a better ballplayer. Twisting lightbulbs were good for stealing, painting was good for free throws, asking him together my purse because I forgot it upstairs was great for the legs”.
In another instance Juanita speaks on how she would motivate her husband. “The word nag gets thrown around a lot and it has become embedded into the stereotypical description of a wife. I would agree with that, most wives nag, but what I accomplished was unprecedented. I would never bother my husband with any type of complaint. Instead, I would tell him ‘No Michael, for the thousandth time, these throw pillows are meant to be set vertically, if you can’t do that how on Earth do you expect to win against the Pistons tonight?’ This would give him the motivation he needed to drop 60 on a team without hesitation. It was an unspoken agreement that we had. To the laymen it would seem as if I would boss him around and he would score in spite of me, but that simply isn’t true. He knew that when I would yell at him for keeping the toilet seat up I was only giving him the inspiration he needed to become an olympic gild medalist.
In the final episodes of her docu-series Juanita discusses the terms of her divorce. “Of course we eventually divorced but when I look back on it I regret nothing. I knew some other young NBA hotshot would need me sometime in the future and it would have been selfish of me to stay with Michael after I already allowed him to accomplish so much.”
I for one cannot wait until this series is released. I was never a fan of Michael Jodan’s because of his arrogance and how he exposed a glaring fault in competitive team sport, that one man can create a championship dynasty on his own without the help and support of a team. That is exactly why I refused to watch The Last Dance. Juanita perfectly personifies the expression that behind every great man there is a woman. Therefore it is her duty to write, direct and produce her own documentary to prove how great she is. Even though if anyone deserves a break, it is her.
In related news, it has been rumored that Michael’s current wife Yvette Prieto is considering creating her own special. The two recited their vows in 2013 but it seems 23’s wife is looking to persuade the people that the reason Michael is thriving in his post career life, is due to to her.
