10 Things Learned Watching 'The Last Dance'

by Julian Spivey

Photo Art by Preston Tolliver

---

ESPN’s 10-part docuseries “The Last Dance” on Michael Jordan and the final championship season of the Chicago Bulls wrapped on Sunday, May 17. Though “The Last Dance” garnered rave reviews for itself and the network there wasn’t a whole lot knew for many basketball fans to learn, which has been my predominant issue with ESPN documentaries in the past. They’re often entertaining, but not as informative as I’d like. The fact that we didn’t get too much new knowledge from “The Last Dance” kind of makes it hard to do a piece called “10 Things I Learned from ‘The Last Dance’,” but I’m going to give it a shot anyway.

1. I didn’t realize that this was more so a Michael Jordan documentary than a documentary on the ’97-’98 Chicago Bulls. I think it’s the biggest issue facing the documentary, as well. The advertising ESPN had put out for the documentary made it seem like it was going to focus on that ‘last dance’ championship, but it mostly does so through the lens of Jordan, and the reason why is that Jordan is the one who owns the footage from that final Bulls championship season. It wasn’t until maybe about halfway through the second episode, that begins with Scottie Pippen’s story, that we realize “oh, this is mostly about Jordan and, just like it might have been on the real-life Bulls roster, these other guys are just supporting characters.” Listen, I knew we weren’t going to get an entire episode on Dickey Simpkins, but this didn’t seem to be exactly what it was billed to be. Most folks don’t really seem perturbed by that though. 

2. Anybody who was an adult at the time of the ’97-’98 Bulls likely remembers this, but I was only 10-years old at the time and have no recollection about Bulls general manager Jerry Krause, who was certainly billed as a villain in “The Last Dance,” wanting to break up this time after its fifth championship (and ultimately did after the team’s sixth). I just can’t understand why anyone would willing bring a dynasty to an end, but as the docuseries points out (and this series is mostly told from Jordan’s point of view and Krause died in 2017 and can’t defend himself) Krause was jealous of the credit everybody else was getting for the team’s success – a team that he worked so hard to build around Jordan. 

3. The biggest jaw-dropping moment of “The Last Dance” for me came in just the beginning of its second episode that began by focusing on Scottie Pippen when I found out that the future hall of famer was only the sixth highest paid player on his team and unbelievably only the 122nd highest paid player in the league. That’s outrageous. He took an extremely team friendly deal early on in his career and truly got screwed. 

4. I didn’t realize that the Chicago Bulls put a minutes restriction on Michael Jordan after he came back from a broken foot late in his second season in the league. Not only did the team put M.J. on a minutes restriction, which many felt was a strategic move to stay out of a the postseason and receive a lottery pick (which seems the case as the team removed this restriction in the playoffs), but it completely soured his trust toward management for the remainder of his career, because not trying to win goes against everything Jordan believed in. 

5. I’m not surprised the Chicago Bulls didn’t like the Detroit Pistons. It doesn’t seem there was anybody within the league that did because of the “Bad Boy” style of their play, but I didn’t realize they hated them to the point of still hating them to this day almost 30 years later. The biggest reason is the Pistons walked off the court without congratulating the Bulls (or even letting the clock expire), which is something that certainly wouldn’t fly today, but wasn’t unusual back in the day (as was proven by video of the Boston Celtics doing the exact same thing to the Pistons). Sure, it was horrible sportsmanship, but worthy of a three decade grudge? 

6. I had no clue that the New York Knicks had the two-time defending NBA champion Bulls down 2-0 in the ’93 Eastern Conference Finals. It seemed like the best chance during the Bulls dynasty run for a team to knock off the champs and they just couldn’t hold them off. The Knicks of the Patrick Ewing era, of course, would not win a title and were eliminated from the postseason by the Bulls four times (Ewing is the hall of famer most knocked out of contention by Jordan). 

7. Everyone knows that when Michael Jordan un-retired he came back with jersey No. 45, the number he wore as a kid growing up and during his minor league baseball stint with the Birmingham Barons of the Chicago White Sox organization, instead of his iconic No. 23. But I didn’t realize just how short-lived No. 45 was – it didn’t even last the remainder of the season. After struggling against the Orlando Magic in the second round of the 1995 NBA Playoffs, Nick Anderson remarked to the press, “No. 45 doesn’t explode like No. 23 used to. No. 45 is not No. 23.” Jordan came out for the next game in his old No. 23 jersey and lit up Anderson. The Magic would still win the series but would be swept out of the playoffs the next season by No. 23 and his Bulls. 

8. I didn’t realize as a kid, I would’ve been only nine at the time, how stupid it was that Seattle SuperSonics coach George Karl didn’t want the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year Gary Payton guarding Michael Jordan for the ’96 NBA Finals because he wanted “The Glove,” as Payton was called for his defensive pickpocketing skills, to focus on scoring because Karl though they’d need him as a scorer to beat the Bulls. That was the 72-10 Bulls, so even with Payton on Jordan it might not have mattered, but once Payton over-rode his coach’s decision in game four of the series the Sonics began winning – it was far too late though. Karl should’ve known to “let ‘The Glove’ be ‘The Glove’.” 

9. I knew Michael Jordan had the personality of a jerk, based on articles I’ve read, interviews he’s given and his egotistical Hall of Fame speech. I also knew he was a bit of a bully to his teammates – I’d heard the stories of him punching Will Perdue and Steve Kerr before. But I never truly knew the extent of what an absolute asshole he could be before “The Last Dance” – it’s really the one thing other than his dominance on the basketball court that runs through the entire series. I don’t know how guys who used to play with him have anything to do with him anymore. I realize he said something to the effect of winning comes with a price, but I’ve never heard any thing like this about other legends of the sport, or really any other sport. 
​
10. I didn’t realize that Michael Jordan needed to believe he’d been slighted so badly that he’d almost become delusional about it. I understand taking slights like the previously mentioned Nick Anderson quote to heart and wanting to shove the ball down a team’s throat as a response, but there were multiple times in this series where it just seemed he was creating stuff to piss him off, like SuperSonics coach George Karl not acknowledging him at a restaurant or the admission from M.J. himself that he faked a quote from LaBradford Smith, who had lit him up the night before in a career performance, just so he could feel enough anger to torch him in the next game. That just doesn’t seem mentally healthy.