'The Last Dance': Looking at Episode 4

MANILA, Philippines — I have seen some comments online about how the 10-part Chicago Bulls documentary "The Last Dance" can get convoluted due to the constant jumping back and forth. I agree to a certain point, but I do not think this was done for Generation X, but today’s generation, who may not know all the back stories so this is for them. So let’s be clear about that.

I know it was originally planned to be a 12-part series that has been trimmed down to 10. Obviously, they are cramming a lot of backstory so you wonder what is left of the 1997-98 season? And they have not delved into the backstories of Toni Kukoc, Steve Kerr and Luc Longley. They haven’t even featured Tex Winter and the other coaches on that team from Jim Cleamons to Frank Hamblen and to Jimmy Rodgers who previously coached Boston.

I always wondered why the popular Johnny Bach did not return to Chicago after the first three-peat. He was the architect of that team’s defense. A former US Marine, Bach was a dashing fellow who like to use literary and military quotes for his talks. It might have been the opposite of the more pacifist Phil Jackson. I do not recall or even have seen any reports of a falling out. Yet, I still wonder…

As Kerr said, if you could withstand Michael Jordan’s wrath, you would do well on the team. If not, that’s it. And Jordan’s ruthlessness left many a player broken — Brad Sellers and Dennis Hopson come to mind.

Having said that, the producers of "The Last Dance" have been kind to Jordan.

When Jordan talks about being eaten up by the failures, his desire to win took a toll on his teammates. He absolutely destroyed Brad Sellers’ confidence to the point where he didn’t do much. I am sure we will get to the point where he punched Steve Kerr, but the abuse did not abate even when they won the final of the six NBA trophies. In a previous review of the series, I underscored how he tore at Joe Klein as being a lucky bystander on the team. That is uncalled for. 

And it wasn’t all rosy between Michael and Scottie Pippen. During Pippen's infamous migraine game against Detroit in 1990, Jordan told his teammates in the huddle they would have to do it without Scottie, and he left some choice expletives in there.

What many do not know is that Horace Grant was the source for a lot of Sam Smith’s stories in his book, "The Jordan Rules". And that book drove a wedge between Jordan and Pippen and Grant. 

During the first three-peat, aside from Jordan, the only other All-Star was Pippen. When MJ left in 1994 to play baseball, Pip turned Grant and BJ Armstrong into All-Stars.

I think you have to look into those aspects and how it changed the dynamics of the team.

As I previously said, many players had to subvert their games. In the first wave, they had Darrell Walker, Trent Tucker and  Hopson. When they won that first title in 1991, Hopson was crying in the locker room. Not tears of joy, but tears of sadness and frustration. He was a semi-star star in New Jersey before coming to Chicago where he was a scrub. Imagine that. Like I said, a kind word here and there could have changed a lot of things.

You can clearly see how the relationships between the key personnel — Jordan, Pippen and Jackson on one side and general manager Jerry Krause on one side degenerated. When the Bulls won their first title, Krause was caught on video dancing with the players. As gradually as their fame and popularity grew, so did their egos.

We may not know everything, but maybe a few kind words here and there; a willingness to be the bigger man… it might have changed the whole situation for them. Had they kept this team together for the lockout-shortened 1999 season, no doubt, Chicago would have won again.

But the one player who was cut a lot of slack was Dennis Rodman. He was dating Madonna and Carmen Electra. As popular as Jordan was, Dennis brought in a lot of casual basketball fans into the game because of his Hollywood profile. And remember, he was real pals with Pearl Jam and was wrestling with Hulk Hogan in the WCW.

And so the Bulls were a circus all right, a media magnet even before social media.

No matter if Dennis needed his time to escape when the game whistle blew, he was “on point” as Jordan said. After all, the rebel in Rodman was something Phil Jackson could empathize with. That doesn’t take away anything from Jackson, who was an incredible coach. It is easy to say that he coaches stars. Not exactly. He did a lot of coaching too.

In the last few minutes of Episode Four, we see the Bulls wrap up their first title in 1991 against the Los Angeles Lakers of Magic Johnson. The scene where Jackson tells Jordan to pass the ball to an open John Paxson has well… been sanitized of the f-word that the coach directed to MJ. And Pax explains that as a key moment in the evolution of the Bulls.

Now backtracking to Chicago putting away the Detroit Pistons… you can see that there is no love lost to this day between Jordan and Isiah Thomas. The bickering and sniping continues in The Last Dance. No doubt, this documentary opened a can of worms. And Jordan with the video evidence showing the sportsmanship his team exuded in the playoff losses to Detroit allows him to come up aces once more. And it makes Thomas look like a fool all the more. He should have just said sorry and that would have been the end of it. A desire to explain it further only looks foolish.

The animosity between Jordan and Thomas is something that will never go away. 

If anything, it reminds me of a totally different time in the NBA. While I enjoy today’s NBA game or even worldwide hoops, it was different in those days. The physicality, the roughness, and intense rivalries between Boston and Los Angeles, Boston and Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit, Washington and Seattle, and so on.

Am not saying that today’s game is bad. I enjoy it. I think that yesteryears’ rivalries and games are more compelling.

Back to Detroit… for sure, Chuck Daly got a pass when he instituted “The Jordan Rules”and you have to wonder why. He along with assistants Brendan Malone and Ron Rothstein planned it. But the lightning rod is directed more to Isiah because of his part in the freeze out of Jordan during the 1985 All-Star Game, and Jordan supposedly supplanting Chicago-born Thomas as the star in the Windy City.

I think having watched those games back then — on the American Far East Network — the other factor in helping Chicago win that series was a key switch. Pippen went to guard Bill Laimbeer in the perimeter while the taller Bulls center Bill Cartwright handled Rodman. That was massive. Bill couldn’t shoot from the outside and Dennis had a tough game against Bill, who could swat those undergoal shots.

In dispatching Detroit, the documentary showed Jordan’s personal trainer in Tim Grover. And I think it is imperative that the producer show The Breakfast Club that comprised of Jordan, Pippen, Ron Harper and Scott Burrell.

Episode Five cannot come soon enough.