Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Daniel /Allsport
Episodes 7 and 8 of “The Last Dance” may have been the best ones yet, giving us an intimate look at Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
Given Michael Jordan‘s involvement with the creation of The Last Dance, it was only natural to expect some things to be glossed over. However, it’s also been surprisingly thorough, warts and all, about many of the most controversial aspects of the Chicago Bulls legend’s life.
From the gambling controversies to his lack of political activism to his incredibly harsh attitude as a teammate, Episodes 5-6 shed a lot of light on the other sides of Jordan. Episodes 7-8, on a similar note, gave us the docuseries’ most personal look at MJ yet, including Jordan’s baseball sabbatical, his father’s tragic death, his ego, his return to the NBA and the trial by fire he subjected his teammates to.
We’ve already covered the best quotes from this week, as well as five new things we learned, but in case you missed any of this must-see TV event, or in case you just feel like reliving the latest two hours of it, here’s the recap and reactions for Episodes 7 and 8 of The Last Dance.
Episode 7
Heading into the 1998 NBA Playoffs, everyone in the Bulls organization looked worn out. Episode 7 begins with a media rant from an irritable Jerry Krause and the Bulls barely winning Game 1 of their first-round series against the New Jersey Nets in overtime.
“Watching this team as they embarked on the playoffs, you just had the feeling that Michael Jordan was mentally, emotionally exhausted,” Hannah Storm said. “He kind of looked like the Michael Jordan of 1993.”
Flashing back to that summer after the Bulls’ first three-peat, the tragic death of Jordan’s father, James Jordan, takes center stage. MJ’s mentor, hero and closest friend had gone missing in late July after taking a nap on the side of the road during a long drive. He was shot in the chest, and his body wasn’t found until mid-August.
Because of Jordan’s connections to gambling, people speculated his father’s murder was somehow related.
“When his dad was murdered, all the articles and the speculation that came out, it was not journalism’s finest hour,” said Brian McIntyre, former NBA senior VP of PR.
“There isn’t a thimble’s worth of evidence to connect that horrible incident to Michael Jordan’s gambling or any other aspect of Michael Jordan’s behavior,” Bob Costas agreed.
Jordan chose to retire that summer, and in a jam-packed press conference that served as a seismic “where were you when it happened?” sports moment, he announced that we was stepping away from basketball. People couldn’t understand why he was retiring in his prime, which only fueled further speculation that his gambling prompted a secret suspension from commissioner David Stern.
“You’re telling me that David Stern, the ultimate capitalist, takes his No. 1 player on his No. 1 franchise and unilaterally decides to lower the value of the rest of the league’s franchises by taking him out and the Bulls out, effectively, for some secret penalty … and no one ever finds out about it?” asked author Mark Vancil, who spoke with Jordan about possibly retiring in the summer of 1992.
McIntyre was a little more direct: “How can I phrase this delicately? Total bulls**t.”
A 31-year-old Jordan hadn’t played baseball since he was 17, but because the media accommodations weren’t big enough at the lower levels, he went straight to the Chicago White Sox’s double-A affiliate.
“It was kind of fashionable to roll your eyes at him playing baseball,” Terry Francona said. “After I met him, I realized quickly how much he respected what we were doing.”
Despite the media criticism, Jordan’s work ethic began to shine through, and being “one of the guys” helped him get over the death of his father. He only hit .202, but drove in 51 runs. Francona believed he would’ve made it to the majors if he had kept at it.
Flash forward to April 1998, Jordan’s competitive fire and the bullish way he’d challenge teammates becomes the focus.
“My mentality was to go out and win at any cost,” he said. “If you don’t want to live that regimen or mentality, then you don’t need to be alongside of me, ’cause I’m gonna ridicule you until you get on the same level as me. And if you don’t get on the same level, then it’s gonna be hell for you.”
Jordan would constantly trash talk his teammates in practice to make sure they were prepared for the pressure of playing in actual games.
“Let’s not get it wrong, he was an asshole, he was a jerk, he crossed the line numerous times,” center Will Perdue said. “But as time goes on and you think back about what he was actually trying to accomplish, you’re like, ‘Yeah, he was a hell of a teammate.’”
Because Jordan was willing to put in the same kind of effort that he asked of everyone else, that unorthodox brand of motivation actually worked for the Bulls, especially for Scottie Pippen, who said he needed someone to be “the bad guy.”
Flash back to the start of the 1993-94 season, and the Bulls are playing well without Jordan. Pippen has come into his own as an MVP-caliber player, Phil Jackson did his best coaching that year, Toni Kukoc had a great rookie season and the rest of the Bulls have learned to share the ball.
After sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs, the Bulls fell down 2-0 to the New York Knicks. In a tied Game 3 with 1.8 seconds left, Jackson drew up a play for Kukoc to attempt the game-winner, but Pippen took it as an insult and refused to re-enter the game for the final play.
“When Pip refused to go in that game, it was like a Twilight Zone moment,” Horace Grant recalled. “Like what the hell is going on?”
Kukoc hit the game-winner, but it was a major blow to the Bulls’ chemistry and Pippen’s reputation.
“We don’t know how to act, ’cause Scottie’s one of our favorite teammates, one of our favorite people in the world,” Steve Kerr said. “He quit on us. And we couldn’t believe that happened. It was devastating.”
Bill Cartwright‘s heartfelt speech in the locker room showed Pippen the error of his ways. He apologized to the team and had a great rest of the series, but the Bulls still lost in seven games.
Flash forward to 1998 again and the Bulls have advanced to face the Charlotte Hornets in the second round after sweeping the Nets, punctuated by big Game 3 performances from Jordan and Scott Burrell — someone who was always under the gun from Jordan in practice but would smile and dish it right back.
“Winning has a price,” Jordan said. “And leadership has a price. So I pulled people along when they didn’t want to be pulled. I challenged people when they didn’t want to be challenged, and I earned that right because my teammates who came after me didn’t endure all the things that I endured. Once you joined the team, you lived at a certain standard that I played the game, and I wasn’t gonna take anything less. Now if that meant I had to go in there and get in your ass a little bit, then I did that.
“You ask all my teammates, ‘the one thing about Michael Jordan was he never asked me to do something that he didn’t f**king do.’ When people see this, they’re gonna say, ‘Well, he wasn’t really a nice guy, he may have been a tyrant.’ Well, that’s you. Because you never won anything. I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win and be a part of that as well.”
Episode 8
After taking Game 1 against the Hornets in 1998, B.J. Armstrong — who was now playing for Charlotte — used his familiarity with the Bulls system and a late dagger to lead the Hornets to a tight Game 2 victory over his former team. His trash talk after the shot, however, proved to be a mistake.
“When you play as long as [Jordan] did, at the level he did, he constructed reasons why to play hard that night,” Vancil explained. “These little slights were deep indignations to him. That’s all he needs. That’s like throwing meat to a tiger.”
From that point on, Jordan hounded Armstrong and led the Bulls to three quick victories to move on to the Eastern Conference Finals, where the Indiana Pacers awaited.
Flash back to March 1995 and Jordan starts practicing with the Bulls again because MLB is on strike and he refused to play in replacement games. What started with Armstrong — still on the Bulls at the time — talking trash about Jordan not being able to play anymore quickly spiraled into an infamous fax sent out on March 18, 1995: “I’m back.”
Chicago was struggling that season at 34-31, but Jordan — now donning No. 45 — gave them a second wind, hitting a game-winner just six days after his return from a 21-month sabbatical. Ten days after his return, he dropped 55 on the Knicks.
“Being away from the game that long and just how much the body had changed, I was very unsure that he could perform at the level that he’s accustomed to performing on a regular basis,” said his trainer, Tim Grover. “That just added more pressure to him to prove he’s still Michael Jordan, and that was part of his greatness was never being satisfied.”
In the conference semis, the Bulls faced a great Orlando Magic team that had Shaquille O’Neal, Penny Hardaway and former Bull, Horace Grant. However, Jordan wasn’t in peak condition yet. After being stripped by Nick Anderson in Game 1, leading to the go-ahead bucket for Orlando, Jordan and the Bulls suddenly looked mortal.
Jordan switched back to No. 23 went off in Game 2 after Anderson said “45 isn’t 23,” but his legs wore out on him as the series progressed, eventually leading to a six-game defeat. After the series, Jordan made immediate plans with Grover to get his body ready for the next season, despite the fact that he’d be filming Space Jam over the summer.
Between filming, weight training and pickup games at the Warner Bros. facility that was built so MJ could continue to lift and play basketball, that summer was all about getting physically and mentally ready for the upcoming season.
“I don’t know how he did it,” Reggie Miller said. “I don’t know how he filmed all day and then still had the energy to play three hours. We would play until 9 or 10 at night, and he’d still have to get weightlifting in, and then his call time was at like 6 or 7 in the morning, so I don’t know how. This dude was like a vampire.”
Jordan was ready to come out with a vengeance, but Pippen was the only player still on the Bulls roster from when he last played. The initiation process in practice was brutal for the new guys.
“By the time camp started, he was in incredible shape, but he was also, like, frothing at the mouth,” Steve Kerr said. “That’s how angry he was from losing. So every day in training camp was just a war. Every day was a battle, and he talked a lot of s**t.”
In one incident, Jordan got upset when Jackson started calling ticky-tack fouls on him while he was guarding Kerr. Jordan fouled him hard and said, “Now that’s a f**king foul,” which prompted Kerr to hit him in the chest. Jordan hauled off and punched him in the eye, which forced Jackson to kick him out of practice.
Jordan said he felt like a jerk for the incident and called Kerr that day to apologize, and from then on, there was a mutual level of respect there. The Bulls hit the ground running with Dennis Rodman and the new supporting cast, starting off 23-2 and eventually winning an NBA-record 72 games. In the conference finals, they had the chance to exact revenge on the Magic. Chicago swept them in four games, with Jordan dropping 45 points in Game 4.
The Seattle SuperSonics met them in the Finals, and though they were seen as underdogs — especially after going down 3-0 in the series — they were able to make things more interesting after putting Defensive Player of the Year Gary Payton on Jordan for Games 4 and 5. “The Glove” undoubtedly made life hell for Jordan, but MJ said he had other things on his mind.
On Father’s Day, the Bulls were able to win the championship in Game 6, bringing Jordan’s emotional journey away from basketball and back full circle.
Flash forward to the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals, where the hungry Pacers were ready to dethrone a dynasty.
“They were considered the best at that time, but we felt, I feel to this day, that we were the better team,” Reggie Miller said. “The whole thing is, there were whispers that this was gonna be Mike’s last year. So I think a perfect storm was brewing and in my mind, I was thinking, ‘All right this is it, you’re gonna retire, Michael Jordan.’”
Episodes 9 and 10 of The Last Dance will premiere on ESPN next Sunday.