We’re more than halfway done with the Michael Jordan Documentary “The Last Dance”. For reviews on the earlier episodes, please read the reviews of episodes 1 & 2, episodes 3 & 4, and episodes 5 & 6. This episode is going more into his life after he retired. This would put our timeline right after 1993.
Man, this episode is starting off somber. They don’t wait to reveal the death of Michael Jordan’s father, James Jordan. Investigators said that James Jordan was tired and pulled over to take a nap. He proceeded to be robbed and killed by 2 robbers. They also don’t shy away from the conspiracies around James Jordan death. Most conspiracies include Michael Jordan’s gambling habit. Most media in this documentary refute those reports with the lack of evidence between the two.
Shortly after, Michael Jordan retires. The media tries to turn the retirement into a secret suspension given out by David Stern, the NBA commissioner at the time, for his gambling habit. Those in this documentary cannot bash the idea of that conspiracy enough. Of course, after Jordan’s infamous retirement, we all know he went to go play Minor League baseball.
Now I am out of my league talking about baseball. But if I can deduce anything from context, he started out well, struggled with breaking balls, and then, naturally, worked on hitting breaking balls until he got better. He hit .202 for the season, which isn’t bad but not that good. But this is minor league baseball and the guy hasn’t played baseball for 14 years, that is an achievement in its own.
Michael Jordan was an asshole, almost all of his teammates attested to that. But they also said, they became better because of him. He pushed them, constantly. He would berate them and talk shit to them the whole time. If you were getting better, he would let off of you. If you didn’t he was going to make your life hell. Some of the shit he said was uncalled for, but as a viewer, it’s entertaining as hell. He called one guy a big bald-headed motherfucker and I about died.
They go into the 1994 playoff season. The Bulls had great success that season, many teammates said that it was a lot easier to be around. They sweep in the first round and then struggled with the Knicks. The Knicks were up 2 games. In game 3, the Bulls were down and Phil Jackson wrote a play for Toni Kukoc instead of Scottie Pippen. Scottie Pippen’s pussy hurt from that so he refused to go in for the rest of the game. Phil Jackson said “Fuck him” and they proceeded to win without Scottie. That was such a pussy move from Pippen. I wouldn’t be able to forgive him.
Michael Jordan Documentary Episode 8
They go more into the 1998 season in this one. Most of this was about the playoffs in 1998. They swept the Nets in the first round. They won the 1st game of the 2nd round. They lost in game 2 to former teammate BJ Armstrong and the Hornets. BJ proceeded to talk shit to the whole Bulls team and pissed off MJ.
They bounce back to the 1994-1995 season. There was speculation about him coming back to the NBA when he went to the Bulls’ facility to see the Bulls players. It was a slippery slope from there and it wasn’t long till Michael Jordan finally said: “I’m back.” The Bulls 1995 season wasn’t their best. They had a 34-31 record, they lost Horace Grant, it just wasn’t looking good for them. However, they just got back Michael Jordan, everything will be right for them, right? Well, not exactly.
Michael Jordan is out of shape, well basketball shape. He was in baseball shape, but basketball is obviously a more tiring game in the sense of cardio. He just didn’t have the legs under him. The Magic were good with Horace Grant, Shaq, and Penny Hardaway. They won the series 4-2. This was only of Jordan’s lowest points, he lost this series and his dad wasn’t there, it just stings. But he felt like he had an obligation to himself, the Bulls, and the fans to recover from this.
He started to film Space Jam. What is wild is that from Monday-Saturday he filmed from 7 am-7 pm with a two-hour break, which he used to workout. Then afterward, he and other elite NBA players would play pickup games for 3 hours. He would wake up and repeat this process. This helped him assess the new talent and see how far NBA players have gotten better and get a sense of their game. It was one the best thing for Jordan before training camp.
Michael Jordan always went into training camp with a war mentality and that always rubbed teammates the wrong way. Michael Jordan was pushing Steve Kerr, Phil Jackson tried to tone down Michael Jordan with ticky tacky fouls and he got mad and gave a hard foul to Steve Kerr. Kerr went right after Jordan and punched him in the chest and MJ proceeded to punch Kerr. Jordan felt terrible after that and made amends with Kerr. Their relationship proceeded to improve dramatically after that.
In the 1995-1996 season, the Bulls were arguably the best team ever to play basketball. They went 72-10, the best record ever. The humbled themselves by saying, “It don’t mean a thing without a ring.” They swept a team in the first round and had their rematch with the Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Magic stood no chance as the Bulls swept them too. The Bulls would face the Seattle SuperSonics in the NBA finals. The Bulls handled the Sonics the first 3 games. But for games 4 and 5, Gary Payton switched onto Jordan and did his best to limit Jordan. The Sonics won those games. On game 6, the day of Father’s day, history couldn’t have written this any better. The Bulls won the championship on Father’s day, the first full season that he returns to the NBA after his father died. Literal chills. After the win, he infamously went to the locker room and cried his eyes out.
