Michael Jordan’s Last Dance- What You Need to Know Before Sunday
From Pregames to “Pre-Docs”, no one expected a documentary to be this important to American society. It will pull a huge number on ESPN for Sundays to come, it will give us the in depth look at Michael that we’ve craved since his retirement, and the nostalgia of those Jordan teams gets to be relived. We pleaded for this doc to be released early in an earlier post on March 27th. To fill the sports void that is in our hearts, on March 31st, ESPN announced it will be released two months ahead of its expected June release date. To prepare for the doc that starts this Sunday and continues for several Sundays after, these are storylines that you MUST KNOW going into the Docuseries about the great Bulls team.
Jordan Had a Homicidal Attitude Towards Winning
Everyone has had that boss, that parent, that relative who you cannot please. Even if you’re right, you are wrong and when you are wrong you hear about it. Well Jordan was that guy taken to a new level. In 1991, Sam Smith wrote the inside story of the 1991 Bulls season but his need to win did not start nor end there. He said in the earlier part of his career, “They’ve got no idea what it’s all about. The white guys, they work hard, but they don’t have the talent. And the rest of them? Who knows what to expect? They’re not good for much of anything.” Jordan referred these guys as his “supporting cast” to demean them. He wanted the other guys to feel worthless and if you could withstand his test you stuck around and he respected you, if not, good riddance he didn’t want you anyway.
As explained after an altercation with Jordan, Steve Kerr stood up to Jordan at a particularly heated practice that turned into a physical bout between the two guards. “You gotta protect yourself and defend yourself and Steve did just that”- Bill Wennington said to ESPN. In a later interview with Kerr as coach of the Warriors, “It was a totally different relationship from that point on.” In order to gain his respect, you have to show him you have no fear of him because if you have no fear of him, you will have no fear of hitting the big shot late in a game.
Jordan developed a kill or be killed attitude that was feverishly depicted in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. The odd comparison is not to compare what they did for living but the high pressure work places they created and thrived in. “A real wolf-pit, which is exactly how I liked it” Belfort explains. Belfort’s scheme took place around the same time as Jordan’s Bulls were taking over the sports landscape, So why won’t we hate MJ’s treatment of his peers like Jordan Belfort’s? Belfort’s obvious criminal activity notwithstanding, their wolf like mentality is alike. Why isn’t Paramount Pictures working on, “The Wolf of the Basketball Court.” Perhaps this will be our version of the movie, maybe we can rename it, “The Goat of the Basketball Court”.
Jason Hehir director of The Last Dance, spoke to The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch about the exact topic of hate for Michael Jordan’s mentality,
”When people see this footage I’m not sure they’re going to be able to understand why I was so intense, why I did the things I did, why I acted the way I acted, and why I said the things I said,” Hehir recalls of a conversation he had with Jordan about the docuseries in 2017.
Jerry Krause Hit Piece?
Jerry Krause was the General Manager of the Bulls from 1985–2003. He was the architect, the mastermind that pulled Phil Jackson back into basketball and while he did not pick Jordan in 1985, he did draft crucial players guys like Scottie Pippen and Toni Kukoc. For all of these wonderful achievements that led to 6 championships, he was also the man that dissolved the dynasty, perhaps too soon.
Coming into the final season, he offered Phil Jackson one more year in Chicago and in a recent interview with ABC Jordan says, “Jerry had told Phil Jackson before the season that he could 82–0 and he still wouldn’t be back. I married myself to Phil so if he was gone I was going to be gone.” It is unclear if the late Jerry Krause will be given his due respect for putting the dynasty together but it is clear that Krause and the team were not working well together at the time of the filming.
In a shot at Jerry Krause after the 1996 season Jordan famously says to reporters,
“We are entitled to defend what we have until we lose it. If we lose it, then you look at it and you say, ‘OK, let’s change.’ Rebuilding? No one is guaranteeing rebuilding is going to be two or three or four or five years. The Cubs have been rebuilding for 42 years,” Jordan said emphatically that night. “If you wanna look at this thing as a business thing? Have a sense of respect for the people who have laid the groundwork so that you can be a profitable organization.”
Jordan’s greatness will be reaffirmed with the younger fan that did not watch Jordan play. They grew up watching LeBron James play for the Heat, now we will watch Jordan’s last season, as if they were playing before our eyes. Grab your Frosties, get a good seat on the couch, and get ready to watch Jordan’s Bulls, one Last Time.
