Takeaways from Episode 5 of 'The Last Dance'
MANILA, Philippines – Kobe Bryant was sure special, huh? I recall during his season where then head coach Del Harris put the ball in his hands for a final shot against the San Antonio Spurs and Bryant fired up an air ball and the Los Angeles Lakers lost. As Bryant walked off dejected (I understand Nick Van Exel walked off upset because he should have taken that shot), television color commentator, Chick Hearn, said, “Don’t worry, young man, you’ll be making many more of that.”
True enough, he was the heir to Michael Jordan.
When Jordan released the coffee table book “For the Love of the Game” right before Christmas in 1998 after the Chicago Bulls won their sixth NBA title, there was one page where he featured Bryant. Other than Jordan’s teammates on the Bulls, Bryant was the only other player to get some love. That said something about his relationship with Jordan.
And it is no surprise that Episode Five was dedicated to Bryant, who most recently died in a tragic helicopter accident. And the love that Bryant gave Jordan during his spiel in “The Last Dance”… is there anything better?
“What you get from me is what you get from him. I don’t get five championships here without him because he guided me so much and he gave me so much great advice.”
After this Monday, I am a bit disappointed that they have gone through a lot of backstory and eschewed a lot of the 1997-98 season. Jason Hehir, it is “The Last Dance”. Can we have more stories on that season? I understand you are writing this for a modern audience but with four episodes left, you are now in the playoffs. We haven’t seen much of Ron Harper, Toni Kukoc and Steve Kerr. And where is Luc Longley? Jud Buechler and Bill Wennington were also huge.
I thought that they skipped the mollifying 111-87 loss to the Lakers that came right before the All-Star Game. Chicago suffered a meltdown in the third quarter, and the Lakers blew them away, scoring 34 points to their 11. Kobe came off the bench to score 20 while former Bull Corie Blount, who suited up in 1993-95, stepped into the Lakers starting unit and scored seven points while outplaying Dennis Rodman.
Hence, Jordan talking about Bryant during the All-Star Game. Hehir featured the Jazz game loss right before the All-Star break, but he also missed out on the shocking trade of Jason Caffey on February 20 and while Chicago was in the midst of a win-streak.
As I said before, they got it wrong when they said it was smooth-sailing with Dennis Rodman after his Las Vegas getaway. In the midst of this post-All-Star Game win streak, Rodman checked out against Toronto, was demoted to the bench versus Atlanta and he was bad. This was a stretch where Kukoc was reinserted into the starting unit, and he did reasonably well. By the time the Bulls played Toronto a second time during this stretch in Canada, Caffey was gone. The trade was designed to give more playing time to Kukoc and provide Rodman more responsibility. But “The Worm” was shocked because Caffey spelled him off the bench. He took a swipe at Krause as he reminisced about the days in Detroit when his own title team was torn apart.
I thought that this sub-plot is crucial to “The Last Dance”. I wonder why it has been left out so far.
Furthermore, they showed Chicago clinching home court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs with the win in Orlando. Yet, Hehir skipped the last two games of the regular season, which were losses to Indiana that gave them each a 2-2 head-to-head match-up for the season, and to Grant Hill’s Detroit Pistons. Indiana’s win validated their first season victory against the Bulls and gave the Pacers confidence during their Eastern Conference Finals meeting.
Another significant part of Episode Five was Jordan’s real or perceived “grudges” against certain players. I wished Hehir had the key players talk about that time when Jordan had his former foes — Rodman, John Salley, James Edwards, Harper and Kerr – line up in the opposite Bulls scrimmage team. That would have been something to talk about.
As a last word on that Bulls-Detroit Pistons rivalry, the former took affront when players like Edwards took shots at Chicago during their championship parade in Detroit. I recall Edwards saying, “Chicago… you can’t touch this” while pointing to the Larry O’Brien trophy.
There was Jordan punishing Dan Majerle because Bulls General Manager Jerry Krause was a fan of his.
There was Clyde Drexler in the 1992 NBA Finals. After that series where the Bulls annexed their second straight title, Jordan, Pippen and Drexler joined the US Dream Team for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. During the Dream Team’s notorious scrimmages, Jordan tore once more at Drexler by saying, “Didn’t I just finish you off in the finals?” That elicited a sharp rebuke from his other Dream Team teammates.
As for Isiah Thomas… yes, he should have been on that Dream Team (at the expense of Christian Laettner, who was having a superb college career and was listed as a concession to the college coaches). Dominique Wilkins should have been there as well.
And I thought that it would have made a better touch had they ended the Olympic sequence with Kukoc when Jordan told the Croatian that he looked forward to seeing him in Chicago. And Toni had a very good career in the Windy City where he hit four game-winners for the Bulls. They should give Toni his props. No Kukoc, no three-peat.
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