Takeaways from the Episodes 1 and 2 of the Last Dance Documentary

Episodes 1 and 2 of the Last Dance was every bit as good as I was anticipating it to be.
(Photo: Clutch Points, via Paulo Songco's article.)

Watching Michael Jordan score 63 points in Game 2 of the 1986 NBA playoffs to the tune of “I’m Bad” by L.L. Cool J was phenomenal.  Even more impressive was that he came back to the 1985-86 season after having broken his foot months earlier to get the Chicago Bulls to the postseason, and just seeing Jordan display his tremendous mid-range game was surreal to watch.  That was one of many legendary performances he put forth throughout his career.   Watching that performance cements that Jordan was the greatest mid-range shooter in NBA history, and to me, he'll always be the greatest ever to have played the game.  If only if he could have had Scottie Pippen, better players around him, and Phil as the head coach, the Bulls would’ve won that game.  But since the 1986 Boston Celtics are also a legendary team, the Bulls just didn’t quite have enough to get the win in overtime.

Whoever was Scottie Pippen’s agent should have absolutely have told him to refuse the deal, and Scottie Pippen should’ve been told that something called “opt-outs” exist.  I know that Pippen wanted to be financially secure, and signing a 7-year deal sounds like the right thing to do, but inflation kicks in, and suddenly his contract no longer is as much years later compared to what the rest of the players were earning in the league.  From what I’ve read and heard, it seems that just about everyone around him, including his agent, Jimmy Sexton, and the owner Jerry Reinsdort advised him not to sign the deal, but he did, which seemed to make sense in 1991, but no longer seemed to be that feasible for him in 1997, especially since he ended up being on a far below, market-value deal.

Pippen was arguably the 2^nd best player in the entire NBA, and it was ridiculous that he was the 122^nd highest-paid player in the 1997-98 season.  Of course, the Jerrys (Krause and Reinsdorf) weren’t willing to re-negotiate, and Pippen almost torpedoed the magical 1998 season by waiting until the start of the regular season to begin his rehab, and that he demanded a trade.  Thankfully, the Bulls found a way to get him back to the fold later on, as they would win their 6^th and final championship, but it’s no doubt that the contract that Pippen was forced to stay on combined with the Jerrys’ refusal to renegotiate made it an absolute certainty that he would leave to hit free agency after the 1997-98 season.

It was really interesting to watch the tales of how Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen grew up, as they both experienced hardship, from Jordan being cut from his high school team, to Pippen’s dad and brother being paralyzed and unable to walk, there were some real gut-wrenching moments in seeing what they went through. 

Jerry Krause is going to get hit HARD in this documentary.  The mercurial, misanthropic, reclusive former Chicago Bull executive is in the basketball Hall of Fame, but he's not exactly a people person.  He did not handle the personal situations very well, because he couldn't take his ego out of the equation.  His tremendous desire to get credit made it difficult for anyone to appreciate his role in building a historically great team, and his unfortunate desire to want to rebuild left a bad taste in many people's mouths (including my own), and the fact that he was so willing to break up arguably the greatest team ever made it tough to ever let go of what he did.  

The team's breakup seriously impaired basketball overall, because we were deprived of the possibility of a team that could have perhaps risen to one day overtake the Bulls.  Therefore, after the 1998 season, the Bulls just sort of abdicated the throne because Krause wanted his rebuilding project.  As a result of this, Jordan and the Bulls were deprived of a chance to defend their 1998 title and were basically forced to walk away.  

Watching the 1990s Chicago Bulls was one of the greatest joys of my childhood, and seeing them break up sent me spiraling into a state of depression, and there was a time where I hated watching the NBA as a result, because I was angry at the Bulls' management for breaking up such a great team.  Watching the 1991-98 Chicago Bulls were great times, and I wanted the times to last forever.  My love for the NBA has grown back to where it was, and I've more or less gotten over the breakup, especially since it has already happened and you can't change the past.  But to this day, I have not forgiven Krause for breaking up such a historical and monumental team, but I still respect his ability to build teams.

There was not enough Dennis Rodman or Toni Kukoc.  I’ve been told we will see more of Dennis Rodman, who was the best rebounder in the NBA, and is a Hall of Famer, and Kukoc was an uber-versatile 6^th man that like Pippen and Jordan, could do everything on the court.

The soundtrack for the first two episodes was amazing, job well done by the music department.  I also loved hearing Eric B & Rakim’s “I Ain’t No Joke.”  Finally, the soundbite of the night had to be from Boston Celtics’ legendary forward, Larry Bird when talking about Jordan’s tremendous, 63-point performance, in which he gave tremendous praise when he remarked that it was “God disguised as Michael Jordan.”

Anyways, hope you liked reading my thoughts on the first two episodes of this documentary.  I will be eagerly anticipating the next episodes, as the third and fourth episodes will air on Sunday, April 26th.

Thank you and thanks for reading.  You can follow me on Twitter @AlanLuSTL.