The Last Dance: In Praise of One Lone Gold Hoop Earring

iirc at the time the headline was just "jordan retiring" like the behind the scenes stuff wasnt widely known

even if its def gonna leave u with an over paid old team eventually u still do it for a shot at another ring thats what its all about baby

otm. It's like ppl have placed more value on "building a championship team" than like actually having a championship team and maintaining it.

hey everyone checkout my new Ferrari isn't it great.
"eh it's gonna break down in a couple years"
hey everyone I've chopped up my Ferrari and sold it for parts so I can hopefully have a chance to put together a brand new Ferrari in a couple years when that old Ferrari would've broken down

cut to 25 years later...

this was great to watch but im so sick of mike vs lebron debates and this has basically made the internet and sports talk more insufferable than normal.

Got to the point where my stance was MJ is my guy but LeBron is undeniably great and I'm not going to say it's wrong to argue he's as good as MJ if not better. But then heard LeBron himself thinks he's now surpassed MJ's legacy and so I'm back to "fuck that dude, MJ wouldn't have lost to Dirk fucking Nowitzki with Wade & Bosh or quit on his team mid-game in a conf finals".

His relationship with general manager Jerry Krause soured because Krause and Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf limited his playing time to seven minutes per half when he finally returned, as not to endanger the franchise’s most valuable asset.

Ok now I remember this always being cited as the start of the MJ/Krause friction. Seems like an odd thing to be THAT upset with someone over. The nerve of this guy, trying to protect the team's superstar and not have him play big minutes in a meaningless season coming back from a major injury! Totally understandable for MJ to then loathe him for eternity amirite.

My earliest MJ memories are of him coming back and having that minutes restriction and it was SO FRUSTRATING as a lil dude who just wanted to see this spectacular basketball man do stuff.

the minutes-restriction thing is another thing that would get totally different coverage these days. imagine explaining "the process" to 22-year-old MJ lol

michael jordan became the dominant athlete of all time because his dad made fun of him for not knowing a lot about tools

— john wilmes (@johnwilmeswords) April 20, 2020

granny, they show the specific "7 minute per half" game that got the bulls into the playoffs where jordan gets sat on the last shot and michael is STILL pissed about it

i found that oakley slapping pippen around sequence, trying to imagine reddick trying this shit on zion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSNno0nBxMI

rookie or not, no one would have slapped around Wilt

lol there is a slight size difference between jj and zion xp

charles oakley would def slap the shit out of zion in the present day if he felt like he needed to

oak was for real lol

https://nypost.com/2017/01/10/charles-oakleys-legendary-slap-of-charles-barkley-confirmed/

i can't make out who the color guy is in the clip at the bottom of that article but lol at him claiming oak was going for the ball as he did a full wrestling move on barkley

pals

Must see TV tonight — my friend THE #GOAT!!!! #TheLastDance — 9pm EDT on @espn. #jordan #michaeljordan pic.twitter.com/eat4IUtyi4

— Charles Oakley (@CharlesOakley34) April 20, 2020

They did end the minutes restriction as soon as the playoffs started, which is evidence they cared more about the draft pick than protecting MJ's health.

If the 97-98 Bulls were happening today there would be a large segment of NBA Twitter saying Krause was right to want to blow it up and trade Pippen for future assets and let Jordan walk for cap space.
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) April 20, 2020
i do think this is true and i bet there were even ppl at the time defending it on these grounds. it's not wrong to say that if the phil/MJ/pippen core had continued after they beat the jazz the second time they had max... 2 more years? that would have been pushing into beyond unprecedented territory basically. the end was definitely near one way or another and i agree in hindsight it's easy for there to be more uproar when the fatigue has long since dissipated

― J0rdan S., Monday, April 20, 2020 1:47 PM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

you dont break up a championship team nothin more to say about that

― lag∞n, Monday, April 20, 2020 2:59 PM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah agree with this. there would be some people defending krause (think about that in hindsight...) but I think history teaches us that it's really hard to climb that ladder from contender to champ, and if you're within sniffing distance you push your chips in.

this is really good btw and it's a legitimate crime against humanity that they're making me wait another week to watch 2 more episodes

this discussion is reminding me that the cavs wouldnt trade kevin love and the draft pick that became collin sexton for paul george lol

iirc at the time the headline was just "jordan retiring" like the behind the scenes stuff wasnt widely known

A painful irony that I think people forget is that Krause and MJ both passed on Pau Gasol and essentially doomed their careers as GMs.

really thought this would have more swearing but perhaps they're saving it for later episodes

yeah it ramps up with each episode. here's a sneak peak of the final episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBqdNhY3pf0

one can dream tbh

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EWN6oZ8WoAE80FX?format=jpg&name=900x900

sexi bois

so, uh, eps 3 to 8 leaked

oh???

finally caught up with 1 and 2
soooo good wow

that's cool but i'm perfectly happy to have a plan for sunday night for the next 3 weeks

where can I find it?

T0rr3ntz my friend

damn what is this 2006?

I won't see it til it comes to Netflix in July so please, no spoilers.

Turns out Dennis was the friends we met along the way

the bulls won the title man. congrats

First episode was great. There are all sorts of good Jordan stories coming out with this documentary.

I think the best two I heard that were new to me was John Calipari talking about a game early in his run with the Nets when Kerry Kittles as a rookie went for 15 in the first quarter against the championship Bulls. Jordan kept staring down Coach Cal in the break between quarters holding up a "o" with his hand over his eye. Pretty much they switched off with Jordan on Kittles for the rest of the game and he did not score a point for the remainder of the game.

The other one was that the Portland GM called Bobby Knight for his feelings on Michael Jordan stating they really need a center, Knight said draft Jordan and just play him at center as it did not matter, he was that good.

according to the latest issue of Time, episodes 9 and 10 are still being finished remotely.

yooooo this is great! and the music choices! Partyman for 1989 Jordan! Maestro for 98 Rodman! Jerry Krause doing the running man to Kool Moe Dee!

Contemporary Horace Grant calling the 91 Pistons "straight bitches" had me applauding in my living room.

FYI: if 1 is Jordan and 2 is Pip, 3 is Dennis and 4 is Phil. I expect episode 7 to be jud buechler's time to shine

my takeaway from this is that it takes 30 years before guys are willing to talk shit about each other on the record

jordan's derision for isiah is just awesome

Y’all be tweeting me mad at me like I was tryna hurt Jordan lol

— Isaiah Thomas (@isaiahthomas) April 27, 2020

Horace looks bigger than Malone

Ron Harper's "Fuck this bullshit" about putting Ehlo on MJ for the last shot was hysterical.

ehlo did "force" (i mean its only 3 seconds) him to hit a tuff shot & basically double clutch to get it up

ehlo was a perfectly reasonable choice to defend jordan he was long athletic moved well made jordan make a sick shot etc, harper wldve prob been a fine choice too, trapping him mightve been better all things considered, btw i remember where i was when "the shot" happened, it was at applebees

Bill Simmons: Dennis Rodman is NOT an interesting person. Never has been, never will be.

Also Bill Simmons: Please read my 12,000 world column about the one time me, J-Bug and Sully played the Addams Family slot machine at Vegas and talked about The White Shadow.

— CogginToboggan (@CogginToboggan) April 27, 2020

still made at rodman for saying bird has white privilege lol

on netflix now btw just in case anybody missed it.

also: https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-the-nba-has-changed-since-the-jordan-rules

Sam Smith: I got a call from the director, and he said, “Hey, could you sit down? We’re doing this.” Jordan has never said a word to me about “The Jordan Rules.” Never once, in thirty years. At the end of the interview, I said, “Hey, tell me something. Did you have to ask Michael permission to talk to me?” And the guy kind of stammered a little bit. And he said, “Well, we actually did ask him if it was O.K.” And I said, “Well, what’d he say?” He said, “I don’t give a fuck who you talk to.” The way I understood it is, he didn’t say whether they could or could not. They weren’t sure whether they should.

I thought the documentary was more “based on a true story.” I think there was a little bit of drama put into it. It was Michael’s story. It wasn’t a journalistic documentary, per se. And it shouldn’t be. He never told his story before. People never heard it from his standpoint, and that’s what it was.

Do you feel like you understand him better from it?

No.

I had extraordinary access that doesn’t exist anymore, in any form. You can develop relationships. Media guys still develop the relationships. But these men and women who do that now have to produce something, like, every two hours. I would make other calls. I would check on things. I would hang out with players. The Bulls practiced in a public health club. I joined it as a member. So when they would lift weights after practice, I would be next to them. I wouldn’t lift weights, but I would be sitting with them. Now everything is privacy. The locker room was just open.

For a 7 p.m. game, Jordan would come at, like, 3 p.m. or something, so I’d get there and just talk with him for three hours. Now you’ve got ten minutes with guys, if that. LeBron is celebrated for being one of the few in the whole league who comes out before the game and gives the media five minutes. Jordan gave everybody three hours.

After watching, I also feel like MJ is still a cipher. Maybe there's just no "there" there. "MJ" devoured "Mike Jordan".

Forgive the thread spam, but I wanted to note that this show's 2020 season is nominated in the 2020 ILX TV poll:

ILX's Best Television of 2020 Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD / Voting Ends After January 29, 2021

If you like this show and you'd like to see it have a good showing in the poll (running in February) all you need to do is submit a ballot including it and your other favorites (3 minimum, 25 maximum, ranked by your favorite to least favorite) to forksclovetofu at gmail. It'll take five minutes; get to it!

30 years ago today Bulls won 1st championship. I was 13 yrs old. Blows my mind that for a 13 yr old today the 1st 3 peat Bulls are as ancient as the Russell Celtics were to me.

Yeah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezxd6NXZW0w

!!

Lol

I got that cologne for Xmas lol. Don't remember that commercial at all tho.

same. dont think i ever finished the bottle

GO INSIDE

that always makes me think of this Snickers ad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojXMu6V7E5g

Muresan is fifty now which makes me feel crazy old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chbPp2tifWI

Great "and I took that personally" game. I can't find the details but Gerald Wilkins apparently told the media before series began that he would lock down MJ. "Tough night for the Jordan stopper" MJ said after the game.

1hr33min mark color commentator Jack Givens speaking on Wilkins waking the beast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US7VFL9cXTk

thanks. whoa @ scottie pippen going full walter white?!

that video is well worth the watch btw; Luc seems like a really decent guy

plus an unedited half hour with Michael talking about Longley!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q27fAO1emHM

a rare nice story
https://www.nba.com/news/a-brother-his-family-and-michael-jordan-reflecting-on-9-11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE04vlw90_s

He’s amazingly charismatic and sharp, just a natural.