The wait is finally over! Everybody and their baby’s momma has been waiting for “The Last Dance” to debut on ESPN. Unless you’ve been living under a rock the documentary about how the Bulls built a dynasty around Michael Jordan airs tonight! Well…episodes 1 and 2 air tonight as the rest of it airs all week. For the first time in over a month there will be something on TV that folks actually want to watch. I’m like every sports junkie in the world sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to see it. In my Bart Scott voice, “Can’t Wait!!”
It should be great! I grew up in Gary, Indiana just 10 minutes off of the south side of Chicago and was a junior in high school when Jordan was drafted in 1984. The Bulls were HORRIBLE at the time. So I can remember when they were a punch line in the city. There was no expectation for Jordan to save the franchise or bring them a winner not to even mention a championship. Boyz just wanted something to watch that wasn’t horrible.
It was great to see the evolution of the team from 1984 to 1991 when they won their first title under Phil Jackson with the supporting cast they built around the kid that could score.
What’s funny to me is all the hype being written about how people are going to finally see the real Michael Jordan when this documentary comes out. I even heard Mike himself say that he was worried about how people were going to react to who he was after watching this.
I’m sitting back like really? Anybody that’s watched Mike at any point of his career during his playing days and after has known who Mike was. He’s one of the greatest basketball players to EVER walk the face of the earth that’s had the biggest influence on the game of basketball globally and in terms of fashion with the Jordan Brand. He’s also one of the biggest jerks the game has ever seen too. Watching this documentary shouldn’t open anyone’s eyes to him being a jerk even if you weren’t old enough to see him play.
He’s done enough in the past 10 years to tell you who he is. You didn’t have to see him beat up teammates to know he was a jerk. All you had to do was watch 2 minutes of his Hall of Fame speech to figure that out. C’mon bruh! He was going in on folks that were literally irrelevant because it was his day. That speech, in and of itself, should have told you who he was.
Think about all of the times Mike has gone out of his way to bring the attention back to himself when he’s the man anyway. Every time someone mentions something great about young players today he has to remind folks that he’s Jordan. Remember when the dun was bragging about beating OJ Mayo in a game of one on one? Remember when he was telling folks he could beat XYZ players today in his prime? Remember he tried to tell folks that Steph Curry wasn’t a Hall of Famer? Those are just things off of top of the dome that stick out that folks don’t need to be reminded of because you’re Michael Jordan. He’s the G.O.A.T. in terms of influence on this game.
Again, I can’t wait the see it because those Bulls were some of the best TEAMS ever assembled. It wasn’t just because of Jordan because he got there in 1984 and could hoop!!! He was scoring like crazy on everybody in the league at will. However, they weren’t winning.
As a matter of fact, they only won one playoff game in his first three years in the league getting swept in the first round twice. One of those years, 1985-86, they made the freakin’ playoffs after winning only 30 games.
However, boyz today will tell you that the East is weak like it wasn’t TERRIBLE back in the ’80’s. Nobody is making the playoffs winning 30 games now. I’m just sayin’! Those are the facts.
Scottie Pippen was the critical piece in addition to Jordan that made the Bulls the juggarnaut that it eventually became. Let’s not forget how important he was to the puzzle.
The Bulls became a complete team! It wasn’t just a one man show. I know that boyz want to believe that to keep the Legend of Bigfoot going but they had a COMPLETE squad winning those six championships.
They always had 3-point shooters when they needed them with cats like John Paxton, Steve Kerr, BJ Armstrong and Craig Hodges at any given time. Pippen was the best two-way player in the league. They signed the best international player in the world in Toni Kukoc. The eventually signed already NBA champion and the best rebounder in the game Dennis Rodman and they had the best coach in the league that has turned out to have the best staff in the history of the game. And please don’t forget how critical a piece Horace Grant was to those first champions. He wasn’t a great player but he was great for the Bulls.
Although we’re celebrating Jordan, he had the best supporting cast in the game along with him being the best scorer we’ve EVER seen. That’s a hard combination to beat. They were the best TEAM in the league for the 6 years they won those titles by far. It wasn’t even close. Not even close to close. They were favored in every Finals they played in because of the TEAM that the Bulls assembled around Jordan. It should be fun to watch.