Once a gritty Greek kid from Chicago's South Side, Chelios is a member of the Malibu Mob...and is expected to leverage his A-list celebrity connections to add bling when the Blackhawks retire his No. 7 on Sunday.
Chris Chelios fancies star-studded parties, and it looks like the Hall-of-Fame and former Chicago Blackhawks defenseman has cooked up a doozy when the team retires his No. 7 on Sunday.
Chelios told a Chicago radio station that NBA legend Michael Jordan will headline the guest list at a United Center ceremony that starts nearly two hours before the Blackhawks game against the Detroit Red Wings.
Jordan, a six-time NBA champion with the Chicago Bulls, can stroll into the United Center whenever he'd like. After all, there's a famous statue of the 14-time All-Star in the atrium of the arena... and that larger-than-life sculpture still draws gawkers from around the world.
Jordan Was At Chelios' Hall-Of-Fame Induction
Jordan, the NBA's all-time points-per-game leader (30.1), chooses to rarely make public appearances at the United Center. But Chelios said the former hoops mega-star will be on hand for his jersey retirement, as he was when Chelios was inducted into the Hall-of-Fame in Toronto in 2013.
"I'm gonna try to bring everybody I possibly can that had an impact on me," Chelios told 670 The Score. "Obviously [Michael Jordan] was a big part of my '90s. Michael was there since '83 and I got there in '91. I met him that spring at a White Sox game with George Koehler, his assistant."
Chelios joined the Blackhawks in a 1990 trade for Denis Savard, also a Hall of Famer whose number was retired by the team. See following story.
"Like, I said, I got a pretty good Rolodex over the span of my career," Chelios said on the air. "So I'm loading up. This is the last hurrah. I'm going to make it a good one."
Chelios said the Blackhawks' retirement of this number is even a bigger honor for him than entering the Hall of Fame. See following story.
Stars from Chelios' "Malibu Mob"
The announcement of Chelios' jersey retirement was made on stage by Pearl Jam leadman Eddie Vedder at a United Center concert in September.
Expect Vedder to be at the UC again. So should be some of the celebs who came to Chelios' Hall-of-Fame bash in Toronto. That group includes John McEnroe, John McGinley, John Cusack, D.B. Sweeney, Cuba Gooding, Cindy Crawford and...
Tony Danza....? Maybe a little long in the tooth at age 72, but the TV star was responsible for introducing Chelios to another exclusive club, the "Malibu Mob."
After a game in Los Angeles in the 1990s, Danza reportedly sold Chelios on Malibu, the idyllic Pacific coastal community favored by the utlra rich and famous. Chelios bought a beachfront home there for $6 million and became the de facto boss of a star-studded Malibu Mob, living there in summer.
Chelios put the property on the market last year for $75 million. He recently lowered the price to $67.5 million, according to the Wall Street Journal and real estate websites.
Chelios is the ninth player Blackhawks history to have his number retired. The other are Glenn Hall (No. 1), Keith Magnuson (No. 3), Pierre Pilote (No. 3), Bobby Hull (No. 9), Savard (No. 18), Stan Mikita (No. 21), Tony Esposito (No. 35) and Marian Hossa (No. 81).
Chelios spent nine of his 26 NHL seasons in Chicago, where he won two Norris Trophies and recorded 92 goals and 487 points in 664 regular-season games. He's team's all-time penalty minutes leader with 1,495.