Good afternoon, everyone. Like a lot of people, I watched the 10-part documentary on the Chicago Bulls’ championship dynasty of the 1990s. It was called “The Last Dance”, and it was directed by Jason Hehir. Hehir has done a few documentary features for ESPN before, including “The Fab Five” and “The ’85 Bears.” “The Last Dance” covers not only the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls season, but it goes back in time for in-depth segments about Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, and Head Coach Phil Jackson, to name a few. Personally, it was great to see all of the vintage Jordan/Bulls highlights again. A total of 106 people were interviewed for this documentary. The original score was done by Thomas Caffey, who did a great job with the music in the film.
The backstory behind “The Last Dance” is very intriguing. Michael Jordan and the Bulls gave a film crew at NBA Entertainment permission to film the team from training camp all the way to the NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz. This footage was owned by Jordan, who did not want to do the documentary for the longest time. It was not until 2016 that he agreed to do the film. Coincidentally, it was after LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA title against the 73-9 Golden State Warriors. Knowing how competitive he still is, I am sure that he wanted to give everyone a reminder of what he did. This film was originally going to be shown in June, to coincide with the NBA Finals. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the team behind the film were pressured to give it to the public a couple of months early. All of the expletive stuff was kept in the footage for the documentary, giving it a raw feel. A censored version was available on ESPN2, but I watched the whole thing uncensored. I will try my best to leave the curses out of my posts. For those who have not seen it yet, I will have a “Spoilers” disclaimer in the title of every post that I do about this documentary.
The way that I will do this is the following: 1 post about each episode (10 total). I will go over the key points that were discussed in each episode of the documentary. Without any further delay, it is time to start talking about “The Last Dance.”
The first shot that we see is Michael Jordan sitting down with a cigar in his hand, wearing Air Jordan sneakers. The way that they shot him looked great in the introduction. Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, and Jackson were introduced in the opening montage that included the 5 titles won by Chicago before “The Last Dance.” In the summer of 1997 (after the Bulls won the 5th title), there were questions regarding whether or not the Bulls would come back for another season. The front office, which was led by owner Jerry Reinsdorf and general manager Jerry Krause, was interested in rebuilding the franchise. Jordan wanted to keep winning with Phil Jackson as the head coach. He wanted no part in the rebuilding process. In the offseason, Krause was quoted in saying “Organizations win championships”. He said that he was misquoted by the press and he believed that the organization as a whole wins titles. Krause was interested in bringing in Tim Floyd, who was the head basketball coach at Iowa State University. During this, he was made fun of by Jordan and Pippen for his height and weight. Ultimately, Phil Jackson was resigned for 1 year and $6 million on July 23, 1997. Krause told Jackson that 1997-98 will be his last year as coach regardless of how the Bulls did that season.
Before the regular season started, the Bulls went to Paris, France for an international exhibition tournament. In Paris, the team was mobbed by media and fans who wanted a glimpse of them (Jordan, especially). The documentary then flashes back to 1980, before Jordan was drafted by the Bulls. At that time, the Bulls were mediocre and not drawing a lot of attention in the city of Chicago. An indoor soccer team, the Sting, drew more attention than the Bulls back then. It then focused on Michael Jordan in his college years at North Carolina, where he played under head coach Dean Smith. There was a funny moment where Jordan’s mother, Deloris, reads a letter from his college days asking for more money and food stamps. In Jordan’s freshman year for the Tar Heels, he made the game-winning shot against Georgetown (led by Patrick Ewing) to give North Carolina the national championship in 1982. That shot gave Jordan more confidence, which became very useful throughout the rest of his playing career.
After Jordan’s junior season, coach Dean Smith recommended that he would go professional. Following that, he declared for the 1984 NBA Draft, where he was selected 3rd overall by the Chicago Bulls. Before his rookie season, he won a gold medal for Team USA at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. In the preseason, there was this crazy moment in a hotel where Jordan found his teammates doing cocaine, smoking weed, and other shenanigans. Jordan opted out of that chaos because he did not want to get in trouble. He just wanted to play basketball at that time. In the third game of his rookie season, Jordan led the Bulls to a comeback win over the Milwaukee Bucks in Chicago. After that win (and during his rookie year), Jordan helped bring more interest in the Bulls with his play. He was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in the 1984-85 season.
The film then flashes forward to October 1997, when the Bulls won the exhibition tournament in Paris (without Pippen and Rodman). Even in those games, Jordan played hard for all of the fans watching. He wanted to put on a show every night on the court. After the Bulls got back home, they started preparing for the regular season. In the first meeting, Phil Jackson gave every player a handbook with “The Last Dance” on the cover. He told the team to enjoy the season and get through it because it could be the last season together. The episode ends with the ring ceremony and “Sirius” by Alan Parsons playing in the credits.
With these documentaries, there is always a chance to learn something that was not known before. For me, it was a couple of things: the letter that Jordan wrote to his mom in college (which his mom read in the episode), and the incident in the hotel room with cocaine and weed (plus women) that Jordan wanted no part of. It’s also great to see Jordan and everyone else talk honestly about all of these different topics (this goes for all of the episodes).
Stay tuned for my thoughts on the second episode. Have a great day, everyone.
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