Good afternoon, everyone. I am here to give you my thoughts on Episode 6 of “The Last Dance”, the documentary about the Chicago Bulls’ championship dynasty of the 1990s. Without further delay, let’s get right into it.
The episode begins with a glimpse into Michael’s crazy schedule. The only time that he can relax and get away from the noise is in the hotel room. Everywhere else he goes, people want to say hi or get his autograph. He is occasionally scheduled to be with terminally ill children for a few minutes. On top of all of that, he has to perform on the court every single game. After the intro, we see a game of Quarters being played by Jordan and James Michael Wozniak, one of his security guards (who unfortunately passed away in January of 2020). Wozniak won against Jordan twice in a row, shrugging after the second win. During this, Will Perdue talked about playing blackjack for just $1 a hand with a couple of other players. In the back, Michael and Ron Harper were playing cards for thousands of dollars. It did not matter how much money was being get on for Michael. He had a competition addiction and he wanted to win at everything, even about which luggage comes out first. On April 11, the Bulls won their 60th game of the season over the Orlando Magic. They celebrated in the locker room with cigars and beer. During this, Michael had a funny comment about teammates having beer (plus smoking cigarettes) at halftime years before.
The episode then flashes back to November 1992, when the Bulls were starting their quest for a three-peat. Around that time, Jordan was a worldwide icon. Before it focuses on the season, there was a segment about the controversial “Jordan Rules” book by Sam Smith, which covers the first championship season of the Bulls. In the book, there were alleged confrontations with Jordan and his teammates, including punching Will Perdue during practice. Phil Jackson was brought into Jerry Krause’s office, in which Krause read 25 quotations from the book to Jackson. Ultimately, the Bulls moved on from letting that book get into their psyche and played ball. The Bulls finished the 1992-93 season with a 57-25 record, good for second in the East behind the Knicks (who won 60 games that season). After getting past the Hawks and Cavs in the first 2 rounds, the Bulls faced those Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals. The first 2 games of that series was at Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks won both games. Game 2 was highlighted by John Starks’ dunk on Jordan and Horace Grant.
Before Game 2, Jordan and his father went gambling in Atlantic City to get away from the noise of “The Big Apple”. After the game, the media found out about this and put out a whole bunch of articles to create some controversy. The backstory was that in ’91, Jordan skipped the White House in favor to go gambling on golf with James “Slim” Bouler, who was later in court (and sent to prison) for money laundering and conspiracy charges. Michael admitted to paying back a gambling debt with a check that totaled $57,000 in Bouler’s name. Additionally, there was a book called “Michael & Me: Our Gambling Addiction”, in which Jordan and Richard Esquinas were gambling on golf. In the book, Esquinas claims that Jordan owed him more than $1.2 million dollars from golf bets. Michael said in the episode that he only gambled on golf, not on basketball games. In my opinion, he did not do anything wrong that would have gotten him suspended. The gambling story messed up Michael’s reputation as a good guy, and the media asked him many times about it. Eventually, he boycotted the media for a couple of weeks. Jordan and the Bulls went on to win the next 4 games against the Knicks, including a 54-point performance by MJ in Game 4 and the “Charles Smith stopped” game in Game 5. The Bulls moved on to the NBA Finals after a Game 6 victory over the Knicks in Chicago.
For a brief moment, the episode goes to April 1998 for footage of an off day for the team. The players were given a day to relax, play golf, and other activities. After that little excursion, the episode then goes back to 1993 (June, to be exact). The Phoenix Suns (led my MVP Charles Barkley) were the Bulls’ opponent in the 1993 NBA Finals. Before Game 1, Michael broke his media silence after a couple of weeks. He wanted to be interviewed by Ahmad Rashad only, and he had sunglasses on for the whole interview. In the interview, Jordan told Rashad that he does not have a gambling problem and that the ’93 Finals could be his final games in the NBA. The Bulls won the first 2 games in Phoenix, giving them a prime opportunity to clinch the NBA title in front of their home crowd. The Suns wanted to keep that from happening and prove that they are legitimate foes. Chicago lost Game 3 in triple overtime to Phoenix 129-121, setting up a Game 4 that the Suns could win to tie the series up at 2-2. Jordan scored 55 points in Game 4 to lead the Bulls to a 111-105 victory and a 3-1 lead in the series. Unfortunately, the Bulls did not clinch the title in Chicago as they lost Game 5 to the Suns by a score of 108-98. In Game 6, the Bulls trailed by a score of 98-94 late in the 4th quarter. After Jordan got a quick layup and the defense stopped the Suns from scoring, the Bulls had a chance to win the game. John Paxson was left wide open for a three-pointer that was made with 3.9 seconds left. That shot was the only points scored by anybody other than Jordan in the 4th quarter of Game 6. Kevin Johnson’s shot was blocked by Horace Grant at the buzzer, sealing the 99-98 win and the Bulls’ third straight NBA title. Charles Barkley compared sports to a gunfight, saying that they “lost to the fastest gun.”
After the Bulls won the title, there was more relief than joy for Michael, as he was physically and mentally exhausted after the season. He needed a few minutes to relax and call his wife while he was celebrating the championship with teammates and family. The episode concludes with Jordan driving with Ahmad Rashad before the first game of the 1998 playoffs against the New Jersey Nets, which will be in the start of Episode 7.
In this episode, I knew a lot of the things covered, including parts of the gambling scandal and the Bulls’ third title. As always, it is fun looking at the footage of the ’97-’98 season not seen before. I did not know about Charles Barkley talking about the fans in Chicago celebrating before Game 5 and saying to them to take the signs off of their windows. In my opinion, there was nothing that Michael did wrong with his gambling habits. He did not bet on basketball games; only on golf and cards. I also think that he did not have a gambling problem. If he did, then he would have lost his wife and kids (back when he was married with Claudia). I understood why he wanted a break from the media for a couple of weeks. It was because of the onslaught of questions about the night in Atlantic City.
There are four more episodes left of this documentary to go over. Stay tuned for my thoughts on the seventh episode. Have a great day, everyone.
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