RECAP – Ep 5 & 6: Five Takeaways from The Last Dance
After another fascinating 2 episodes of The Last Dance, here are the 5 biggest takeaways.
Photo: Vincent LaForet
Little Brother
It’s no secret that Kobe Bryant looked up to and modeled his game after Michael Jordan. It’s also pretty clear that MJ understood the passing of the torch. Many feel Magic Johnson passed the torch to MJ, when the Bulls beat the LA Lakers in the 1991 NBA Finals, to claim their 1st championship. In 1998, MJ was the veteran that knew all of the tricks of the game, tricks that he never discussed with anybody, except for Kobe.
During a Bulls/Lakers game, Kobe asked MJ, “how do you feel your defender when you shoot your fade-aways?”
To Kobe’s surprised, MJ gave him a very detailed answer, and told the young Laker, if he needed anything to give him a call. Kobe would take MJ up on his offer and call Michael constantly, many a time, late at night, to pick the brain of the greatest player to ever play the game. It was clear that Michael had picked his own heir to the throne, and Kobe was easily the closest thing we would ever see to Jordan on an NBA court.
Off the court, MJ and Kobe’s friendship would develop into more of a family bond, as Kobe viewed MJ as his big brother. It’s a sentiment the rang through at Kobe’s funeral after his untimely death, due to a plane crash. During his eulogy, Jordan bid a tearful goodbye to his “little brother”.
Photo: Manny Millan
Back-2-Back
After finally overcoming the Bad Boy Pistons, and capturing the 1990-91 NBA Championship, Jordan and the Bulls showed no sign of slowing down. MJ would continue to dominate the NBA, leading the Bulls back to the finals for the second straight season. The Bulls would meet the Portland Trailblazers, and their star guard Clyde Drexler.
All season long Jordan heard the comparisons between himself and Drexler. MJ was ready to show the world, there were no comparisons at all. MJ played cards with Magic Johnson, the night before game 1 of the finals, knowing that Magic would be calling the game at the broadcast table, MJ told Magic, his intentions of lighting up Drexler and the Blazers.
Game 1 saw Jordan who wasn’t known for shooting 3 pointers, set a then NBA Finals record for most 3’s in a half, by knocking down 6. After his sixth 3 pointer, Jordan looked over at Magic and simply gave him a shrug, as if to say “I told you so”. The Bulls would go on to win the series 4-2 and capture back to back NBA Championships.
Photo: Keith Torrie
It’s Gotta Be the Shoes
Jordan’s popularity was at an all-time high! Millions of people around the world, wore Hanes underwear, ate Wheaties cereal and drunk Gatorade. Everybody wanted to “be like Mike”, and to be like Mike, you had to have the shoes. Air Jordans by Nike, Jordan’s signature line of kicks, that he wore on the hardwood nightly. The shoes that would revolutionize the sneaker culture.
When Jordan was a rookie, basketball shoes were just for playing baseball, and basketball players, were not given signature lines, because basketball is a team sport. Signature lines were reserved for individual sports stars like tennis players.
It was Jordan’s agent, David Falk that had the idea that MJ should be treated more like a tennis star, and give his own shoe line. Nike was the only company willing to meet those demands, however Michael didn’t want to even meet with Nike, because he wanted to sign with Adidas. Thankfully MJ’s mother, made her son attend the meeting with Nike, and his father, told MJ, that “he would be a fool to turn that deal down.” Thus the Air Jordan’s were born. The original Air Jordan 1’s flew off shelves in 1985. Spike Lee would not only direct and co-star with MJ in Nike’s commercials for the Air Jordans, but he would also prominently feature MJ’s kicks in his big-screen films. Air Jordan would transcend pop culture and urban culture. No longer were basketball sneakers just for basketball, but the Air Jordan’s became a status symbol of success.
To commemorate his last game in MSG as a Bull. Michael would go back to the beginning for the end, as he would lace up and original pair of Air Jordan 1’s. Michael’s feet had grown from his rookie year from a 13 to a 13.5, but knowing the game would be special MJ would squeeze his feet into the too-small shoes. Michael’s socks would be soaked with blood after the game from his feet bleeding, but he still managed to lead the Bulls to victory as he dropped 42 on the Knicks.
Dream Team a Nightmare for Kukoc
When the Olympic committee gave the green light for USA Basketball to be able to add NBA players to their roster, the greatest collection of basketball players were assembled to form the Dream Team. This team was headlined by Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan. The team was put together with one goal, bring back a gold medal to the United States. The Dream Teams practices are the stuff of legends, it was in those scrimmages of Magic’s team and Michael’s team, it’s then that Magic knew that Jordan had taken the torch and was the king of the NBA.
Photo: Neil Leifer
The Dream Team’s biggest competition of the Olympic tournament was the Croatia National team. A member of the Croatia team was Toni Kukoc. Kukco was drafted by the Bulls and touted as the future of the Bulls by GM Jerry Krause. Krause who as the Bulls were celebrating their second title, tried to take credit for the Bulls win, by saying how great the organization was, slighting the players. When the USA played Croatia, Jordan and Pippen saw an opportunity to make Krause look bad, by shutting down his touted draft pick. Mike told his teammates to leave Kukoc to him and Scottie. Jordan and Pippen took turns guarding Kukoc, hounding him all game. Kukoc would finish the game with 4 points and the Dream Team would win the game by 32 points.
Kukoc would earn Jordan and Pippen’s respect as a member of the Bulls. It was never anything personal towards Toni, Jordan and Pippen weren’t playing against Kukoc, they were playing against Krause.
Uneasy Path to a 3-Peat
MJ and the Bulls would enter the ’93 season in search of a third straight championship. Winning two in a row was hard enough as it is, but three in a row was almost unheard of. The fact that Magic and Bird had never accomplished a 3-peat, was all the motivation that Jordan needed. MJ would need every bit of motivation to make it to a third straight Finals, because the media that had built Michael up, now suddenly sought to tear him down.
Photo: Andrew D. Bernstein
Reports started circulating about MJ’s love for gambling. Because of the large amounts of money he was losing and some questionable characters he was gambling with, the media looked to spin Michael’s gambling as an addiction, to tear down his once squeaky clean image. They questioned if Jordan was betting on himself, and if he could possibly be throwing games. The NBA would launch an investigation into MJ and his gambling. The league would rule that Jordan had done no wrongdoing, and would take no action against Michael. But after falling behind 2 games to 0 to the Knicks, a report would come out of Michael taking a gambling trip to Atlantic City, before game 2 of the series.
The media now question if Jordan was too concerned about his gambling, then the playoffs and if the Bulls lost because Jordan was too tired from his night at the casino before game 2. Jordan and the Bulls would respond by winning the next 4 games, defeating the Knicks 4 games to 2. This would earn the Bulls a trip to the finals to face off against Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns.
Jordan would average 41 points per game, as he leads the Bulls to 4 games to 2 victory over the Suns, as the Bulls accomplish the 3-peat. Cementing his legacy as the GOAT, MJ was mentally exhausted from the road to winning 3 straight championships, and tired of the bright lights and the fame. He would find himself in the same place in 98, as he looked for a 2nd 3-peat.
There are just 4 more episodes left.
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