Here are five key points from episodes 7 and 8 of “The Last Dance,” a documentary series focusing on Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 championship season of the Chicago Bulls:
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1. So that’s why he was a jerk
This wasn’t just a scoop, instead, it delved deep into Jordan’s psychology and drive. When he pushed his Bulls teammates beyond what even the toughest Marine drill instructors would do to new recruits, it was for his own sake. He aimed to confirm that the Jordanaires were capable of securing championships.
However, it was also meant for them. We witnessed some of the harshest forms of “tough love” imaginable in Jordan’s requirements, ridicule, and clashes with his fellow players from Chicago.
Finally, we have Jordan pulling back the curtain on it.
“Winning comes with a cost,” Jordan stated in his recent interactions with the documentary crew. “So does leadership.”
“Once you become part of the team, you are expected to live up to the standards that I set when I played the game. I will not accept anything less.”
Bill Wennington, the center who joined the Bulls during Jordan’s initial retirement, experienced a straightforward welcome upon the boss’s return. According to Wennington, Jordan instructed him, “I want you to jump on the cape. However, you must hold on.”
This could mean resorting to extreme measures such as physically assaulting teammates like Will Perdue and Steve Kerr, verbally harassing Scott Burrell, or even making Dennis Hopson shed tears (which happened in 1990-91, not mentioned in the documentary).
“B.J. Armstrong stated, “His mentality was such that he couldn’t be a nice guy.”
As popular podcast host Adam Carolla often states, with Jordan, it wasn’t about you doing your best, but rather you meeting his standards. He was clear about never asking a teammate to do something that he himself wouldn’t do.
He got very emotional too.
“Desiring victory for myself, I also yearned for their involvement in the triumph,” voiced Jordan, his speech becoming dense. “Should you not wish to participate in this manner, then refrain from it.”
He paused at that point and said, “Break,” effectively calling his own “cut” to the scene.
2. James Jordan never left his side
We were bound to be led through the summer of 1993, the time when Jordan’s father James was tragically killed in a random assault on a Carolina highway. However, Episode 7 revealed that Michael’s decision to retire was not a direct result of his father’s unfortunate demise – he had been contemplating ending his career after the 1993 championship, maybe even as early as fall 1992.
His venture into baseball was largely inspired by his father.
Michael's No. 1 fan from the beginning.#TheLastDance pic.twitter.com/nW4YeC1p7Y
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) May 11, 2020
Before his basketball career took off, Jordan was a passionate baseball player. He admired dual-sport athletes like Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders who had managed successful careers in two sports. However, it was his family’s support for baseball and his father’s advice to pursue what made him happy that led him to make a bold move. Despite the skeptical sports community, he went to Birmingham, Alabama to play for the Class AA Barons in the Chicago White Sox system.
At his 1993 retirement press conference, which happened 10 weeks after the murder of his father, Jordan made two comments that stood out. He first said, “The word ‘retire’ means you can do anything you want.” His second comment was, “He saw my last basketball game.”
As the documentary moved fluidly through time, it was clear that James Jordan was a constant presence by his son’s side, rivaling Scottie Pippen as a wingman. This remained true up until Game 6 of the 1996 Finals against Seattle. Those of us reporting on that championship series, where Chicago took an initial 3-0 lead only to lose Games 4 and 5, forcing the series back to United Center, retrospectively questioned if some unseen force was crafting poetry: The decisive game took place on Father’s Day, marking Jordan and the Bulls’ first championship win without Michael’s father present.
We’ve witnessed NBA stars shed tears and express their emotions when the reality of championship victory sinks in. However, the sight of Jordan lying on the trainer’s room floor, weeping as he held the basketball and attempting to avoid the cameras instead of playing up to them, was an entirely new level of authenticity.
3. Pippen’s star turn, minus 1.8 seconds
At the time of Jordan’s first retirement, he was working in Minneapolis where the Timberwolves were set to host the 1994 NBA All-Star Game in February. This marked their rise to prominence after a rough first four years. The cruel irony of this situation was instantly apparent.
And now, it was getting an All-Star Game without Michael Jordan, which was a daunting prospect.
Of course, that was a narrow-minded perspective. Consider the feelings of Bulls fans when the best player in the game retired while still at his peak. Both groups were pleasantly taken aback.
Pippen experienced the best individual season of his career, guiding Chicago to an unexpected 55-27 season, especially since they had lost Michael Jordan just before training camp. He came third in the MVP voting, trailing behind Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson. Additionally, he catered to the Twin Cities basketball fans by filling Jordan’s shoes as the ultimate star, even winning the All-Star MVP trophy.
Pippen, unlike Jordan, had a different style and personality, which resonated with his teammates. However, we’ve been so fixated on Jordan’s aggressive and obsessive way of pushing his teammates, that some of those Bulls seemed somewhat lenient for embracing the change.
In any case, the entire team dynamic shifted in a mere 1.8 seconds when Pippen declined to participate at the end of the third game in the East semifinals series against New York. Coach Phil Jackson had designed the play for Toni Kukoc to take the final shot, without even using Pippen on the court as a diversion. Instead, he had Pippen, the team’s top passer, inbounding the ball.
After years of playing second fiddle to Jordan and eventually advancing in the hierarchy, Pippen felt he was once again relegated to a supporting role, this time to rookie Kukoc. Kukoc was a European discovery of GM Jerry Krause, who was already a thorn in Pippen’s side.
Despite how correct his reasons may seem now, he was completely mistaken. It was captivating to watch the footage from ’94 and the reflections of various Bulls players on Sunday night, observing how adult men responded to the feeling of betrayal from within their ranks. Notably, this occurred after Kukoc successfully scored the buzzer beater, temporarily holding off the Knicks.
“Steve Kerr said, ‘He quit on us. It was devastating.'”
Bill Cartwright, the center, was so upset that he cried when he called out Pippen in the locker room.
Pippen immediately apologized and according to Kerr, the team accepted it. Despite the Bulls being eliminated, Pippen displayed ferocity in the last three games of the series.
Pippen’s legacy is firmly established. He has been inducted into the Hall of Fame, was recognised as one of the Top 50 players in NBA history in 1997, even though he still had seven seasons left in his career, and is largely regarded as the most significant second-best player in any NBA team.
Even now, there are replica jerseys in Chicago that display “Pippen 1.8” instead of his usual number 33.
4. Comparing Jordan’s ‘bodies’ of work
The NBA’s top player transitioned to minor league baseball for a season and may have continued if not for the prolonged labor dispute in sports that extended into spring 1995.
Jordan’s appearance was different with his bat swinging at curveballs instead of his tongue flicking out on dunks. However, he still resembled his old self, reflecting on that deviation and reviewing the footage on Sunday.
However, he wasn’t. He had exchanged his basketball-optimized physique for one more appropriate for baseball, and… Was there much talk about this at the time?
Back then, it appeared that the brief stretch of the season and postseason from March 1995 until the Bulls’ loss to Orlando, was primarily remarkable for Jordan’s impressive performances during his comeback. This included his temporary use of number 45 instead of his iconic 23 on his Bulls jersey. However, as it turned out, Jordan was not merely rusty or a new addition, but was rather reintegrating himself into the reformed Chicago team.
Jordan had undergone training to become a baseball player instead of a basketball player. However, he had to physically revert back to his original form.
Good Guys Wear Black (& Red) #TheLastDance pic.twitter.com/gi6LnaJL3W
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 11, 2020
“Reflecting on it, I didn’t have ample time to condition my body back into basketball shape,” said Jordan.
This isn’t meant to offend young Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway or ex-Bull Horace Grant, however, it might be challenging to make Jordan admit this.
Tim Grover, Jordan’s personal trainer, and Chip Schaefer of the Bulls, supported this explanation. The reflexes, strength, and agility needed for one sport were significantly different from the other. Although it may not have been as obvious as transforming Yankees’ slugger Aaron Judge, who stands at 6-foot-7 and weighs 280 pounds, into a serviceable NBA power forward, it was a tangible change.
This section of the document depicted Jordan embracing his role in “Space Jam” in the summer of 1995 and his determination to regain his peak form. He insisted on having a full-scale court and gym, the “Jordan Dome,” built on the movie studio’s premises for his daily two-hour workout. Furthermore, in the evenings, he orchestrated high-level pickup games with NBA players to refine his skills and scrutinize theirs.
5. Don’t look, talk or even breathe at Jordan
If you aim to stand a chance against him, then not. Jordan’s knack for turning real or imagined slights into intense motivation was thoroughly demonstrated on Sunday.
It’s often said in sports that players and teams can occasionally tap into their hidden depths of talent at appropriate times, and even extend their moments of intense focus, commonly known as “the zone”. However, what they are not expected to do is to suddenly amplify their performance like one would by hitting the nitrous oxide in a drag race.
Apparently, Jordan was the exception. He not only transformed immediate grudges into impressive performances, but he also discovered methods to summon them. It was as if he was Bruce Banner morphing into the Hulk.
The LaBradford Smith story was early legend. That’s when Jordan got so incensed by the Washington guard’s big scoring night against him in Chicago that he torched Smith the very next night of a back-to-back. But the kicker was Smith’s alleged remark (“Nice game, Mike”) after the first game never happened. Somehow, Jordan convinced himself that it had and got his revenge.
The kind of incidents that caused a rift between Isiah Thomas and Jordan were abundant on Sunday. One notable example was Nick Anderson’s comment following the Magic’s victory in Game 1 of their 1995 playoff series, stating that “45 isn’t 23.”
Seattle coach George Karl encountered a lose-lose situation with his failed attempt to stop by Jordan’s table at a restaurant to pay his respects. Jordan, however, was indifferent to Carolina guys.
“All I needed was that,” he declared. “It turned into something personal for me.”
Finally, we revisit Jordan’s response from earlier in the series to a remark from Thomas, as he watched a video on a tablet handed to him. This time, it was Gary Payton speculating that the outcome of the ’96 Finals might have been different if Karl had assigned him to defend Jordan before Game 4.
Gary Payton thought he found a way to get to MJ … Mike wasn't sweating the Glove #TheLastDance pic.twitter.com/Z8NG7qN5hW
— ESPN (@espn) May 11, 2020
“Continuously striking and battering him really wore Mike down,” Payton admitted. “That’s when the series took a turn.”
Ignore Jordan’s cackling. The main event was his patronizing way of saying Payton’s nickname, “The Glove,” as he returned the tablet.
However, the cackling was also quite impressive.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.
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