A Last Spin on The Last Dance
All good things come to an end, and ESPN’s The Last Dance did just that this past Sunday. As the final episode wound down, I couldn’t contain the bittersweet feeling, because as much as I was enjoying the inside look on the final moments of the Chicago Bulls’ dynasty in the 1990s, you knew it was coming to an end just like their era of dominance. The sentiment that Bulls’ fans must’ve felt after that 6th championship in 1998 is the same one those who tuned in each Sunday to watch this series are currently feeling: that we want more. But as Porky Pig always said, “That’s All Folks!”
When you get into sports as a kid, you always have that one athlete you look up to and have this perfect view of them that they can do no wrong. That’s usually why we call them our heroes. While Michael Jordan appeared to fly like a superhero whenever he attacked the basket, we got a reminder throughout this series that he’s a human being. That was most evident to me when he first retired in 1993. Jordan was notorious for trash talking and arrogantly reminding even his friends off the court about the times he beat them. Yet, that wasn’t the person you saw in that press conference when he announced his retirement, or even now when he reflects on why he left the game mentioning that burnout and his father’s murder pushed him toward that decision.
As we now know, Jordan came back in 1995 and losing that year to the Orlando Magic in the playoffs pushed and motivated him to get back to the level he had reached when the Bulls pulled off the 3-peat in the early 1990s. This was possible thanks primarily to Jordan, but also due to a great supporting cast which included head coach Phil Jackson and teammates Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr, and Toni Kukoc. Aside from Jordan being the driving force with this team, the other reason for their success was Phil Jackson. People will point to his implementing of assistant coach Tex Winter’s triangle offense and rightly so, but I say it’s due to his managing of egos.
This was most evident with Dennis Rodman’s episodes off the court where he told them he needed a vacation and would do things like go to Las Vegas in between games or join Hulk Hogan in a wrestling event causing him to miss practice and arrive close to game time. As it was stated during the airing, can you imagine if this happened now? TMZ and every sports morning show would be all over this. Guys like Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith would be calling Rodman selfish and a terrible teammate. Yet, Phil Jackson knew this was best way to get the best out of Rodman because he was on the court, he was ready to play which included locking down whoever he guarded and bringing down every rebound possible.
The other impressive feat about this is how Michael Jordan cooperated, albeit reluctantly from what it seems, with Phil Jackson with letting Dennis be Dennis. It astonishes me because Jordan always got on his teammates and that was never more evident than when he did things like curse out Ron Harper or punch Steve Kerr in the face during practice. Jordan said he pushed his teammates because he wanted to get the best out of them since didn’t want the Bulls to regress to the level they were when he arrived there. Jordan, at times, came off as a big jerk and if I were his teammate, I probably would want to punch him back and it would likely take me a while to get over an incident like that. However, situations like this didn’t get in the way of the Bulls success on the court.
Jordan will point out all this success as to the reason he pushed his teammates the way he did and the same can be said for Jackson as to why he allowed certain things to happen with his players. As much drama as there was on and off the court, Jackson was the perfect fit as coach, and Jordan was the perfect fit as the leader. While Jordan gets all the accolades, credit needs to be given when it is due to Scottie Pippen. There’s a reason they won 6 titles together and none while they were apart because they complemented each other perfectly. Seeing Pippen in a Portland uniform and Jordan in a Washington uniform when they faced each other in the early 2000s just didn’t seem right because they seemed perfect together with the Chicago Bulls.
The drama they dealt with can be attributed partly to the media wanting to dissect anything they did on and off the court, but also due to executive Jerry Krause. Unfortunately, Krause passed away so we never got to hear his side of the story in this series which I feel is the only thing that leaves it slightly incomplete. The fact that Jordan’s nemesis Isiah Thomas participated was surprising considering how much they resent each other and there doesn’t seem to be any way to establish some sort of amicable relationship. Krause deserves credit for buildings the Bulls and putting the right pieces around Jordan, but that was also part of his downfall along with that of this team. It appears he wanted too much credit which no one seemed interested in giving him especially Jordan and Pippen and we got a glimpse of the way they would flat out insult him in front of everyone. Of course, any other work setting wouldn’t permit a boss to be insulted that way, but Michael Jordan wasn’t the typical employee you could get rid of due to disrespecting his superiors.
I do feel that even if Krause didn’t contribute to this team breaking up, it would’ve happened eventually. Factors like the salary cap, old age, injuries, and in their specific case, the lockout, sped this process along and as was mentioned, Krause didn’t want the Bulls to end up like the Celtics in the early 90s who had to rely on their aging, injured stars. Krause got a chance to rebuild from the ground up, but the slight success didn’t come until after he left Chicago in 2003 and I can’t help but think that Jordan and Pippen enjoyed that fact especially because his replacement was their former teammate John Paxson.
The Last Dance was a breath of fresh air in a world without something new in sports and just as the Chicago Bulls dynasty of the 90s, those who tuned in to watch, enjoyed it. I almost feel like there could be another episode covering the break up of this team but that would be more appropriate if it was titled something like The Aftermath of The Last Dance. Someone joked they looked forward to next episodes which featured Michael Jordan in a Wizards’ uniform. While that would be interesting to watch, it wouldn’t have the same punch as this series due to the supporting cast. Just as they were a perfect cast on the court to achieve success, they were a perfect cast to watch a series since each member of the Bulls added something to the mix. So, to those Bulls, I say thanks for the memories and entertaining us when we needed it the most.
