Good afternoon, everyone. I am here to give you my thoughts on Episode 9 of “The Last Dance”, the documentary about the Chicago Bulls’ championship dynasty of the 1990s. This is the last episode with flashbacks of any kind. Without any further delay, let’s get right into it.
The episode begins with a flashback to February 10, 1993. On this day, the Bulls and Indiana Pacers played against each other in Indianapolis. After Reggie Miller tipped in a missed shot, he pushed Michael Jordan. After that, the two players went at each other with other players and refs trying to break it up. Reggie Miller was ejected, but Jordan was not that night. Miller said that he did not fear Jordan, and he told a story about facing Jordan during his rookie season (1987-88). While telling the story, he said that he remembers Jordan not shooting well in the first half. After Reggie trash-talked Jordan, he was outscored by a whole bunch of points in the second half. Reggie was then told to “never talk trash to Black Jesus again.” From that point on, Reggie called Jordan either “Black Jesus” or “that Black Cat.”
After the intro, the episode focuses on the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals, which was the first time that the Bulls and Pacers played against each other in a playoff series. The Bulls won Games 1 and 2 in Chicago, with Jordan being presented his fifth NBA MVP trophy before the Game 2 victory. The series changed when it went to Market Square Arena for Games 3 and 4. The Pacers won Game 3 by s score of 107-105, led by Reggie Miller’s 28 points (13 in the final 4 minutes and 11 seconds). Game 4 went back and forth all the way to the final seconds. Scottie Pippen stole an inbounds pass and was fouled with 4.7 seconds left. He missed both free throws with the Bulls up by just 1 point, 94-93. That gave Indiana another opportunity to win the game. Reggie Miller got the ball after pushing Jordan aside and made the three-pointer with 0.7 seconds left on the clock. Everyone in the arena went crazy after Miller’s shot, except for coach Larry Bird. Bird knew that there was time left for Jordan to shock everyone with a game-winner of his own. Jordan had to double-clutch on his 3-pointer that beat the buzzer. The ball almost went in the basket, as rimmed in and out after hitting the backboard. The 96-94 win by Indiana tied the series up at 2-2.
The episode then flashes back to June 1997. The Bulls went 69-13 in the 1996-97 regular season, almost winning 70 games for a second straight season. They swept the Washington Bullets in 3 games in Round 1, got past the Atlanta Hawks in 5 games, and beat the Miami Heat in 5 games on their way to the NBA Finals. The Utah Jazz, led by John Stockton and Karl Malone (coached by Jerry Sloan), were the opponent in the 1997 Finals. The Jazz were making their first appearance ever in the Finals. Jordan’s motivating factor was that Karl Malone won the MVP trophy instead of him in 1996-97. Game 1 went back and forth, with the Jazz actually having a chance to win in Chicago. Karl Malone missed both free throws with the game tied at 82-82, giving Jordan an opportunity to win the game. He crossed over Bryon Russell and made the shot at the buzzer, giving the Bulls the 84-82 win in Game 1. Game 2 was not close, with the Bulls winning over the Jazz by a score of 97-85. That win gave the Bulls a 2-0 advantage in the series going into Salt Lake City, Utah. The Jazz were on a mission to make it a series in front of their home crowd at the Delta Center. They won Game 3 by a score of 104-93, setting up a chance to tie the series up in Game 4. With the Bulls up by a score of 73-72 with less than a minute left in the fourth quarter, Jordan missed a jumper. After getting the rebound, John Stockton made a full-court pass to Malone for an easy layup that gave Utah the lead for good. The Jazz won Game 4 by a final score of 78-73, tying the series up at 2 wins apiece.
The night before Game 5 (“The Flu Game”), Jordan was in a hotel room with his personal trainer Tim Grover and a few other guys, including security. Even though it was 10 to 10:30, Jordan was hungry for something. His guys found one pizza place open and they ordered a pizza for him, which he ate by himself. Around 2 AM on June 11, Jordan told his trainer that he was in a fetal position and sweating a lot. Jordan said in the episode that it was food poisoning that got him sick for Game 5. Regardless of how he got sick in the first place, he was sleeping all day and got to the arena just in time for the tip off at 7 PM local time. Early on in the game, Jordan did not have that much energy. The Jazz jumped to a 16 point lead in the second quarter to take advantage of Jordan’s lack of energy. Jordan scored 17 points in the second quarter alone to help the Bulls decrease Utah’s lead to 4 by halftime (53-49). In the third quarter, the Jazz got their lead back up to 8 points while Jordan was on the bench. In the fourth quarter, Jordan came up big with the game tied at 85-85. After he missed a free throw, Toni Kukoc got the offensive rebound. That gave the Bulls a chance to take the lead. With 25 seconds left, Pippen passed to Jordan, who made the 3 that gave the Bulls the lead for good. The episode shows the classic shot of Jordan collapsing into Pippen’s arms as he went to the bench. Chicago won the game by a score of 90-88 after Stockton missed the first free throw with less than 1 second left.
Before the episode goes to Game 6 of the Finals, it focuses on Steve Kerr. He came to the Bulls in 1993 and was taken under the wing of John Paxson. Paxson helped Kerr with advice and how to understand Jordan’s intense mentality. Kerr and Jordan never discussed their fathers with each other. The episode then flashes back to when Kerr was a kid in 1971. His father Malcolm supported Steve and his basketball playing. He and Steve’s brother played with him to teach him. During this time, Malcolm was a professor at UCLA, which meant that Steve was able to watch the basketball games when the Bruins were coached by John Wooden. Steve got very little attention from college scouts, but he was offered a scholarship at the University of Arizona. While he was at college, his family went to Beirut. Malcolm became the president of the American University of Beirut in 1982, during a civil war in Lebanon. He was tragically shot in the head two years later by 2 guys posing as students. Steve responded to this by being more immersed in playing basketball. Steve said in the episode that the national anthem has more importance to him since his father’s death.
As it goes back to June 1997, that song is sung before Game 6 in Chicago. Jordan was better health-wise after Game 5 in Utah, but not fully healthy. The Bulls struggled in the first half, as they only made 9 out of 27 shots for only 37 points. Early in the 4th quarter, the Bulls were down by 9 points to the Jazz. They went on a 10-0 run to take the lead in the 4th. After that, the 2 teams went back and forth until the final seconds. Bryon Russell tied the game at 86-86 after making a three-pointer with 1:44 left. Both teams then missed opportunities to score points over the next minute. With 28 seconds left, Shandon Anderson missed a layup that was rebounded by Dennis Rodman. During the timeout, Jordan told Steve to be ready for a potential game-winner. With 5 seconds left, Jordan passed to Kerr, who made a 17-foot jumper to give Chicago a 2-point lead. A stolen inbounds pass by Pippen and a dunk by Kukoc sealed the 90-86 win and the Bulls’ 5th title in 7 years. At the championship rally, Steve had a funny speech about the shot against the Jazz.
The episode then goes back to June 1998, during the Eastern Conference Finals against the Pacers. The Bulls won Game 5 in Chicago by a score of 106-87, while the Pacers forced a Game 7 after a 92-89 Game 6 win in Indianapolis. This would mark only the second time that Jordan and the Bulls played a Game 7 during their championship runs. In a press conference after Game 6, Jordan guaranteed a Bulls win in Game 7. Before it focuses on the game, there was a piece on Gus Lett, the main security guy and Jordan’s bodyguard. After Jordan’s father was killed, Gus became a father figure for him.
Early on, the Bulls were down by as much as 13. They crawled their way back to take a 3-point lead at halftime. They thought that the game was going to be theirs from there, but the Pacers retook the lead in the fourth quarter. With less than 7 minutes left (and the Pacers up by 3), Jordan had a scuffle with Rik Smits (Indiana’s 7’4” center) and a jump ball was called. The tip was touched by Smith but was hauled in by Pippen, who found Kerr for a 3 that tied the game. From there, the Bulls took over and won the game by a score of 88-83 to move on to the NBA Finals for the 6th time in 8 years. The episode ends with a funny exchange between Jordan and Bird that I won’t repeat here. In the credits, there was a memoriam for Gus Lett, Clarence Travis, and John Michael Wozniak. These 3 people were Jordan’s security guards at the arena. They all passed away before the documentary premiered.
At this point, I knew most of the stuff that happened in this episode. I did not know, however, about the pizza that Jordan ate by himself before “The Flu Game.” I am not sure if the pizza alone made him sick before that game. It might have been a hangover or something else besides the pizza. Personally, I will still call that game “The Flu Game” despite Jordan saying that it was food poisoning. It was emotional seeing the part of the episode that focused on Steve Kerr and his father. The way that Steve’s father died was very tragic, in my opinion. I liked that Steve talked about how he got more immersed in basketball after Malcolm’s death. I am not a fan of the Pacers, but I give them credit for taking the Bulls all the way to 7 games in that Eastern Conference Finals.
The last episode will have no flashbacks of any kind. It will focus on the 1998 Finals and how the Bulls broke up after that series. Stay tuned for my thoughts on the final episode. Have a great day, everyone.
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