In a brilliant feat of cinematic splicing, the Huffington Post's Ryan Grim and Ben Craw have drawn an unexpected parallel between basketball legend Michael Jordan and first-term Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown. On Monday, Brown gave a 24-minute speech to his colleagues. He was feeling under the weather, he claimed when he took the podium--and reiterated constantly throughout his speech, which at times veered into existential territory: 

"I'll do my best to muscle through it," the Massachusetts Republican said. "I'm battling... If I faint, Mr. President, will you save me?" ...

Washington, said Brown, is a perplexing place. "Am I on a different planet or something?" he wondered. "Ever since we got back in July, it's like we don't talk anymore."

"What's the point? Why even bother getting out of bed?" he wondered. "Why do you get out of bed to turn on the lights? Are you kidding me?"

Grim and Craw compare Brown's speech to an infamous game Michael Jordan played in 1997, while suffering from what commentators called "flu-like symptoms." The performance became known as the "flu game":

"It's all about desire," Jordan said after the game. "You've just got to come out here and do what you've got to do. You've just got to want it real bad. And for me as a leader, I had to come out and do my best, and I somehow found the energy to stay strong."

Below, a video mash-up of the two speeches:

Read the full story at the Huffington Post.