MICHAEL JORDAN trained like a “vampire” while making Space Jam with gruelling days filming and working out for a return to basketball.
The NBA legend was kicking off his return to the hardwood following an ill-fated attempt to break into the world of baseball while filming the iconic movie.
And fellow basketball superstar Reggie Miller has recalled just how hard MJ worked to both film and get ready for his NBA return.
Speaking on hit Netflix show The Last Dance, Miller revealed Jordan’s outrageous daily schedule.
Warner Bros built a basketball court on the set of Space Jam just for MJ.
Jordan would wake up at 7am, film the movie all day and play pickup basketball games with his NBA pals in the evening before hitting the weights at 10pm and doing it all again the next day.
Fellow NBA legend Reggie Miller revealed: “I don’t know how he did it.
“I don’t know he filmed all day and then still had the energy to play three hours.
“We would play until nine or 10 at night – and he still had to get weight-lifting in.
“Then his call time was at six or seven in the morning. I don’t know how [he did it].
“This dude was like a vampire, for real.”
GET MY TALENT BACK
But Jordan himself admitted it was a necessity – to get his body back to one befitting an NBA superstar.
MJ claimed:”I had spent 15 months turning my body into a baseball body.
“Basketball is it a little bit more shoulders, chest – so I had to reconstruct my whole body, which was hard.
“Then when we finished [filming], which was usually around 7pm, we would invite people over and we would play pick-up games.
“Playing against the young players, they were full of energy – and I had to help excel my talent; to get my talent back.”
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Those matches, played in what became known as the “Jordan Dome”, included the likes of NBA legends Dennis Rodman, Patrick Ewing – who also starred in Space Jam – and Miller.
And the pickup games helped, as Jordan won the NBA title the first season back with the Chicago Bulls, in 1996… in the same year Space Jam shot to the top of the box office charts.
Jordan would go on to win a ring in both 1997 and 1998, taking his career tally to six before retiring, only to return to basketball with the Washington Wizards three years later.