I want to apologize to my loyal readers for taking a hiatus on sports writing. I usually write a ton on the NFL Draft which is happening virtually, and it was a good departure from the reality of the COVID-19 mess we are all living in.
However, I have to write about the coolest ESPN documentary to date. The Last Dance, which primarily is about the final Bulls Championship season during the 1997-98 season.
My Bulls Fandom
For those of you that read my posts, I like to lay out my biases before I get into things. I am unequivocally a Bulls fan, but even more so a Michael Jordan fan. I grew up in the Chicagoland area, and my life really lined up with the emergence of Jordan and the Bulls.
The first game I ever saw Michael Jordan play was Game 2 of the 1986 first round playoff series against the Boston Celtics, which is featured in Episode 1 of The Last Dance. To put this into context, I was in 6th grade. It was MJ’s 2nd year of his career with the Bulls. You have to understand that in 1986, the Bulls were not the powerhouse they would become in the coming years. As the documentary outlines, the Chicago Sting, an indoor soccer team was more popular before MJ. So, I literally could not even watch MJ play on television. My parents did not have cable (I wouldn’t get cable until I got to college), and the Bulls only played on Sportsvision, which was a local sports cable network. I only got to watch the game of the week on Sunday afternoon, which was almost always the Boston Celtics.
As a young guy who loved sports, I loved the Celtics. I rooted for them against the Showtime Lakers in their back to back Finals appearances in 1984 and 1985 – probably because of the Eastern Conference. Yet, as I said, the NBA was not what we see today on multiple networks and not even a quarter as popular as it is today. Baseball and football were way more popular than the NBA.
Going back to that April day in 1986, my parents were separated at the time. We would spend our spring break at my dad’s in Omaha, NE which is just over a 7 hour car ride down I-80 from Chicago, where I lived with my mom. Yet, my mom really didn’t like to make the entire drive in one stretch. We would always stop in Coralville, IA – mile marker 242, outside of Iowa City and stay at the Motel 6 for the night. Thank God, we did.
That April 20th night, I saw the Bulls were playing the Celtics, and my fandom was born. Spoiler alert: Jordan scored 63 points in a losing effort in Double OT in that Game 2 to the eventual NBA Champion Celtics. This guy made every shot in the book, and he was the most athletic person I had ever seen. I was hooked. I was now a Jordan fan for life.
After that day in future seasons, I still couldn’t watch a lot of games until the NBA went to NBC, and the Bulls were on all the time. I would listen to the games in my basement on the radio. Jim Durham was the announcer along with Johnny Red Kerr, and I would track how many points Jordan would score in every game. Like every Chicago Bulls fan of the 80s and all of my friends, we all tried to dunk like Jordan on our nerf hoops and adjustable outdoor rims. I made the 7th grade hoops team the next year, and luckily a lot of my buddies actually had cable, so I would watch more games with them. We would play our junior high games and on Friday nights we would first watch our game tape at Andy Nowak’s house, and then the Bulls game while eating pizza.
Like most Chicago kids of the era, we lived and died with the Bulls in the late 80s. We hated the Pistons. We all had Jordan shirts, jerseys and shoes (I never could afford Air Jordans). We were extremely lucky to get to see the greatest player in the NBA. By the time the Bulls were winning titles, I was in high school, and the whole world was a Jordan fan.
The Last Dance
Now, let’s get into this documentary. Whether you were a Jordan fan like me from my formative years or lived in another city loving or hating him or even are just now getting to see his greatness, by the way, he is called His Airness, the documentary gets you up to speed. Originally, I thought it would get very myopic on the last season and the drama that surrounded it. However, the documentarian, Jason Hehir, who has already captivated us with the 85 Bears and Fab 5 30 for 30s, took his time. He has 10 one hour episodes to tell this story.
The Last Dance goes back to the beginning. The start of the Jordan era with his time in high school and at University of North Carolina. I’m a huge fan, as I’ve said, and I still hadn’t heard some of the stories. So far, the doc does a masterful job of going between the last championship season (97-98) and the history of the players who got them there. It appears that the doc is using a structure of focusing on one piece at a time. MJ, the most important piece, was Episode 1. Then in Episode 2, Scottie Pippen’s story, and how his under appreciation via his shameful contract led to a rocky start to the final season.
This week I believe it will focus on two other key features – Coach Phil Jackson aka the Zen Master that got the team to play as a team over simply the “Jordanaires” as they were described and the wild card known as Dennis Rodman. They will also cover the epic battles and failures against the Bad Boy Pistons. Man, I hated the Pistons.
Beyond the games on the floor, the doc has already done a great job showing what happened behind the scenes with this team. The tensions between the players, Jackson and management. The “Architect” of this team, General Manager Jerry Kruse, for those not familiar, is a polarizing figure in Bulls history. He did not draft Jordan, but he did put all the pieces around him, including hiring Jackson, which the doc will go in detail Sunday night.
Honestly, I can’t wait to see the next 2 episodes on content alone. I understand The Last Dance was supposed to air several months from now, but the ESPN brass made the deft decision to air it early in the void created by the Corona virus. I think that given all that is happening with the virus, us sports fans, really needed something. I understand that first 2 episodes were the highest rated, non-live sports programming on ESPN ever. So, it wasn’t just me along with 3 of my high school friends which we all watched together at the same time via Zoom that enjoyed this one.
The Last Dance is airing on ESPN on Sunday nights at 9 PM Eastern/8 PM Central with back to back episodes over 5 weeks. They are going to re-air Episodes 1 and 2 again on Sunday prior to Episodes 3 and 4.
Putting The Debate to Rest
I will say this once, and please debate me, if you’d like: Jordan is the best player of all time. I think the documentary will remind us of it. I think Kobe was a great player, and the league really hasn’t seen a player as well rounded as Lebron James. I respect Bill Russell, and I think that Magic and Kareem are right there. However, Jordan was the best amongst a golden era of the league, and he won. The East at that time was the best conference. That is why it took so long for the Bulls to get to the Finals. Once MJ and the Bulls won titles, they really didn’t lose. It took a retirement to take those middle titles away. Magic and Bird made the league legit, but Jordan made the league popular. Not to mention, that MJ took the league to the world stage and a marketing machine – you’re welcome, Nike.
Now, I think as this doc goes on, you will continue to see that MJ is a total jerk. Unapologetically, so. He was not Walter Payton, my other childhood hero. Payton was Sweetness, and the NFL Man of the Year trophy is named after him. That’s not Jordan. But make no mistake about it, Jordan was both assassin and ultimately skilled. The NBA had to change to stop him – physical, ugly basketball of the 90s happened for one reason – to stop Jordan. When MJ left the league, the game was so rough and ugly that they had to change the rules so the game was watchable again.
Last comment and it’s not a get off my lawn comment, in today’s NBA, Jordan would average 40 a game. The freedom of movement would have allowed MJ to do what he did in the 80s but against less defensive minded teams. The Last Dance is not a referendum on whether Jordan was the greatest or not. However, in watching the first 2 episodes, my feelings have been completely reinforced.
I highly recommend The Last Dance. Check it out, and I invite your comments on the doc.
Wegs