NBA
The Best in Sports: Michael Jordan Ep. 5-6
Highlighting the best things to know from the Michael Jordan "Last Dance" documentary Episodes 5-6 including his 1st 3-peat, the Dream Team, & his gambling issue
Stadium/YouTube
‘The Best in Sports’ is a daily PSO original series showcasing the best highlights, facts, and stories going on in the NFL, NBA, & MLB every day (temporarily suspended). This is a special Michael Jordan Edition for Episodes 5-6 of “The Last Dance’ released on May 3, 2020. Check out the best things to know from Episodes 1-2 and 3-4.
Below are the best things to know about Michael Jordan & the Chicago Bulls from Episodes 5-6:
During Michael Jordan’s final All-Star Game as a Bulls player in 1998, there was a new Shooting Guard that was garnering mainstream attention. His name was Kobe Bryant. 19-year old Kobe was the youngest All-Star in NBA history as a second-year player coming off the bench. The “Black Mamba” joked that he was known for air balls at the time but was starting to become a legend in his own right. He came out firing in his first All-Star Game but started 0-4 from the field and Jordan joked with his Eastern Conference teammates at halftime that he wouldn’t want to pass the ball to Kobe after a start like that.
Kobe admired Jordan growing up and wanted to be just ‘like Mike’. Kobe & MJ’s relationship continued to develop over the years to the point where Bryant said Jordan was “like my big brother.” MJ’s advice extended on and off the court, including a very detailed answer about his signature fadeaway that Kobe famously replicated into his own game. Jordan later stated that he saw his own game when watching Kobe play and told the young Bryant that if he “ever need[s] anything, give me a call.”
Ever since, Kobe hated 1v1 discussions about MJ because he freely admits “I don’t get 5 championships without Michael Jordan,” referring to all of Jordan’s courtship, advice, and overall influence on the future 5x Champion’s career. Of course, on that 1998 night in Madison Square Garden, Kobe couldn’t forget who the King still is on the court. The “All-Star of All-Stars” as NBA Commissioner David Stern called Jordan, showed that he still ran the league by winning ASG MVP. Nobody questioned Jordan’s greatness, they just couldn’t understand why he’d want to step away from the game in his prime. The only question people had was “how long can it last?”
After a spectacular showing during the All-Star Game in Madison Square Garden, Michael Jordan returned there again to play the Knicks about a month later. Jordan made it clear that Madison Square Garden was his favorite arena to play in. He wore a pair of Air Jordan 1’s as a rookie during his first game in New York and as a tribute, decided to wear an old pair of Jordan 1’s as his last shoe in NY.
Feeling a clear difference in the 1’s from the latest Jordan’s he was accustomed to, he pointed out how “innovation has taken a long turn.” Jordan of course, came out to a standing ovation and absolutely dominated to nobody’s surprise (42 PTS, 8 REB, 6 AST). What was surprising was that after the game, he couldn’t take the shoes off fast enough as his socks were soaked in blood. He even admitted “My feet are killing me” to a reporter in the postgame interview.
His last game at MSG was another reminder of how good Jordan and the Bulls still were. As he continued to evolve as a basketball player, others recognized Jordan’s game as knowing how to steer momentum, get guys going, and being just as good on both sides of the floor. His all-time HC Phil Jackson made the remark, “Your only a success at the time of performing the successful act” as a way to rally the troops and go win another one with this game in NY being one that fueled them down the stretch.
Clyde Drexler was a great player who was beginning to gain acclaim similar to Jordan as one of the top players in the NBA before their 1992 NBA Finals matchup. Jordan shared his thoughts on that by saying, “I’m not saying Clyde wasn’t a threat. But me being compared to him, I took offense to that.” As a commentator at the time, Magic Johnson said he played cards with Michael every night during those Finals and recalled MJ telling him “You know what’s going to happen, I’ma give it to this dude” … and that’s exactly what he did.
Jordan would go on to hit a NBA Finals Record 6 3PM in the first half and was looking at Magic at the announcer’s booth after every 3. After the 5th, he gave Magic (and the crowd) his famous “shrug” that has become immortalized. While some looked at Jordan and Clyde as 1A & 1B at the time, Jordan believed it wasn’t that close, so he attacked him every night en route to back-to-back NBA Championships.
David Stern ironically stated how achieving back-to-back championships “is almost impossible” despite each of the last three Champs being able to repeat as such (Lakers ’87-’88, Pistons ’89-’90, Bulls ’91-’92). After the Bulls repeated, GM Jerry Krause got himself on Jordan’s (and other players) bad side by preaching how it’s the organization that’s responsible for the Championships, not the players. MJ responded by making another short joke at Krause, jokingly telling him he can’t smoke a cigar because “it’ll stunt your growth” as they embraced during the post-game celebration. 1992 would go on to become the greatest year in any player’s career ever as Michael Jordan became the first player ever to win MVP, Finals MVP, a Championship, and an Olympic Gold medal in the same year.
The Dream Team was the greatest team ever assembled for the 1992 Summer Olympics. However, a major storyline during that time was if the team could’ve been better assembled with the addition of HOF Isaiah Thomas. His absence on the roster pointed many fingers at Jordan being responsible, however Jordan stated “I respect Isaiah Thomas. He’s the No. 2 Point Guard after Magic Johnson no matter how much I hate him.”
Jordan did admit “Isaiah would’ve made a different feeling” in the team’s camaraderie that became a staple to the team’s success. Isaiah’s history with not only Michael and Scottie in the Pistons-Bulls rivalry, but also his scuffles with about half of the entire Olympic team is what left him off the roster.
The passing of the torch from Magic to Michael became permanent during a scrimmage where Magic told Mike “If you don’t turn into Air Jordan, we will blow you out” which he later regretted saying as Jordan flipped the switch after that and completely torched the Magic-led Dream Team lineup he was facing.
Magic recalled Michael’s competitiveness off the floor as well when they would play card games. Whenever Magic would have the upper hand, Michael would “want to keep playing and then whenever he had a lead, he wanted to crush you.” Even though Larry Bird said “Magic always got under Michael’s skin for some reason,” their relationship always seemed to be on good terms. They were often messing around with each other, and Magic once joked that he “can’t get this close to Michael or I’ll foul out” during an Olympic photoshoot.
The Dream Team had it all: great passing, great shooting, great defense. Croatia stood out as the basketball powerhouse led by Tony Kukoc, who was just recently drafted by the Bulls. However, Jerry Krause’s affection for Kukoc rubbed MJ & Pippen the wrong way, so they attacked Kukoc in their Olympic battle, with Jordan telling his teammates “leave Kukoc for Scottie and me.” Scottie also stated “it wasn’t anything personal about Tony, but we’d do anything we could to make Jerry look bad” so they essentially embarrassed Kukoc with smothering defense throughout their game.
Kukoc played much better in their second meeting, the Gold medal game, and even somewhat impressed Jordan as being “tougher than we thought.” The USA still completely dominated every team in their path. Jordan was the face of the Dream Team and globally recognized as “the man” after that summer. The events of those Olympics shaped how the world felt about the NBA, helping bring sports into cultural relevance. It wasn’t just music and fashion that was cool anymore, it was now sports too, and MJ became the most recognizable cultural figure in the world as a global superstar.
Back in 1984 when Jordan made his NBA debut, Converse was the dominant shoe in the sneaker game with major names already a part of their NBA roster, including legends Magic Johnson & Larry Bird. They famously told Jordan “we can’t envision you being ahead of them” which might be the most freezing take ever. On the other hand, Nike was the startup company and MJ didn’t even want to be at Nike initially before his mom convinced him to get on a plane and listen to their pitch. At the time, Nike came out with air sole technology and from there, ‘Air Jordan’ began. The rest is history.
Nike wanted to sell 60 million Jordans during the first four years of their deal, and instead sold 126 million in just the first year alone. As a commodity, Jordan’s endorsement potential seemed endless considering deals with Wilson Sporting Goods, McDonald’s, Coke, etc. His signature shoe, “Jordans” became more than a status symbol, it was showing that “you knew this guy was the guy.” Jordans became the hottest shoe in the world with Justin Timberlake chiming in, “Everyone was like you GOT TO get a pair of Jordans.” Before Air Jordans, sneakers were just for playing basketball, but now they became fashion and culture.
Nike used Spike Lee to produce MJ commercials that brought urban culture to sports. With all the attention now on MJ, he always kept his head on straight – “My game was the biggest endorsement. My dedication to the game led to all of this stuff. My game did all my talking.” Jordan’s extreme loyalty to Nike even led him to covering up the Reebok logo on the USA team’s jackets while accepting the Gold medal by cleverly wearing an American flag.
MJ changed the game off the court in other ways as well, as he always needed 12-20 tickets per game (which is reasonable considering he’s a big part of selling out arenas on a nightly basis). Owners had to start limiting players tickets because of that though. Either way, celebrities started rolling in to see the spectacle that was Michael Jordan, whether it was on the road or at home. From superstar athletes like Jerry Rice and Wayne Gretzky, to musicians like Prince and TV stars like Jerry Senfield. “Everyone in the world knew Michael Jordan” during this time, especially after the “Be Like Mike” commercial that made him the most popular man on the planet. However, to the GOAT, “being recognized as the best team in the world was the ultimate goal.”
As a global phenomenon and highly influential individual, many people expected Jordan to voice his opinions about civil rights issues that were going on at the time. One major occurrence was Harvey Gant running to be the first African-American senator in the state of North Carolina, a historically conservative state. His political opponent was Jesse Helms who was a known racist, having blocked the African-American museum in North Carolina.
As a North Carolina-raised man, Michael Jordan became a target for those with a political agenda, hoping Jordan’s influence could be the difference-maker in the election. However, MJ refused to do a commercial for Gant which became a big deal. MJ respected Muhammad Ali for standing up for things he believed in, but Jordan never thought of himself as an activist, he saw himself as “a basketball player.” Despite not publicly supporting Gant, Jordan financially contributed to his campaign.
However, knowing what Helms stood for, the black community (including Barack Obama) at the time wanted to see MJ get more involved and thought he put a higher priority on his wealth than his beliefs, especially after his “Republicans wear sneakers too” remark. To this day though, Michael has peace with his decision to avoid politics as he said “It’s never going to be enough for everybody when it comes to how I go about my life.” For the most part, politics and sports don’t mix and MJ reaffirmed it by sticking to the game.
One of Michael Jordan’s biggest flaws in the public’s eye was his gambling addiction. Episodes 5-6 revealed how MJ would bet on ANYTHING like throwing a quarter at a wall with the arena security guards. His gambling fully came into the limelight with the publication “The Jordan Rules” by Sam Smith, detailing his excessive bets and unwillingness to allow teammates to shoot the ball in crunch time. With all these close to the vest comments, the team believed Horace Grant was telling Smith these details, since he felt slighted of being in the shadow during their 3-peat, but Grant denies the allegation saying “it could’ve been the coaches, owners, management, anyone.”
Everyone loved MJ before “Jordan Rules,” but now this carefully cultivated image of him being what everyone wanted him to be like was no longer existent. There was a backlash of seeing a side people had never seen before. His gambling activities resurfaced during the 1993 ECF when Jordan went to Atlantic City the night before a game (coming back at 12:30-1am), but MJ said it didn’t affect him, it just helped him take his mind off things (as the Bulls were down in the series). However, his gambling days started way before that.
After their first Championship in 1991, Jordan skipped the White House visit to “be with family,” but really it was to gamble with golf hustler ‘Slim’ Bouler, who later got brought up on drug and money laundering charges, which MJ had to say the debt he owed to him was a “loan,” but later admitted in court it was a gambling debt. The public made his gambling out to be some kind of problem and there were questions of if MJ would throw a game considering at times, he owed millions of dollars. However, the league determined no penalties were necessary since his gambling expenses didn’t compare to what he was making.
While this affected him off the court, he was still a dominant player between the lines. The damage from “Jordan Rules,” “Michael & Me: Our Gambling Problem,” or the Atlantic City controversy wasn’t to his game or popularity, but to his reputation, and mostly how tedious it became to answer all these questions relating to the reports. However, to Jordan he never had a gambling problem he had “a competition problem.”
Jordan’s gambling would have never become anything significant or altered his reputation much if it wasn’t for the media. A major storyline throughout these episodes was Jordan’s relationship with the media. During the climax of the gambling conversations during the 1993 ECF, Jordan became irate with the media’s continuous questions and refused to talk with them. His Dad opted to speak on his son’s behalf after it got to the point of Michael asking his father “how much is enough?”
The media became infatuated with building Jordan up, only to knock him off the pedestal. People warned the media they’re going to drive him out of the game with the large circus they’re causing on a regular basis (foreshadowing his first retirement in 1993). Jordan refused to be knocked off the pedestal from others as he stated “if I’m going to be knocked off, it’s because I did it, not someone else did.”
So many people were always around Jordan whenever he was in public that it got to the point where people didn’t want to be like Mike. Jordan said himself, “this isn’t one of those lifestyles you envy because you’re tired of being in the spotlight” and that’s when MJ knew he was ready to get rid of the media attention. Fame was good for him at the beginning, but now that he’s on a pedestal, it became a different story.
What was most interesting was when asked if he would change anything in retrospect, Jordan said “If i could do it over again, I would never want to be considered a role model, it’s like a game stacked against me.” With that being said, Jordan unsurprisingly stated in 1998 that he wouldn’t miss the game after he would retire a second time. While management, his father’s death in 1993, and other things played a role in Jordan’s retirements, it gets overlooked how much influence the media had on MJ’s decision and the constant burden it was during his career.
The Bad Boy Pistons were heavily discussed in last week’s episodes. After Chicago conquered the Pistons, their next foe in the Eastern Conference became the New York Knicks throughout the 1990s. Their rivalry became extremely physical with one player saying the theme was “it wasn’t really a foul until you drew blood,” and Patrick Ewing simply adding “we hated each other.” As Head Coach of the Knicks, Pat Riley told the team “you can’t let [Jordan] dunk on you!” which of course led to a highlight of MJ shaking the entire defense before slamming it right on Ewing and then again.
The two squads got into countless scuffles and Phil Jackson labeled them “tremendous battles” because of their physicality. In the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals, MJ shot 3-13 from the field in Game 1 before the physical intensity stepped up to an even higher level in Game 2. Keep in mind, MJ’s gambling reports were going on throughout this series with Jordan refusing to talk to the media for a two-week period. It didn’t help matters that John Starks had a big dunk on multiple Bulls including Jordan near the end of their Game 2 victory.
Down 2-0 in the series with countless media reporters discussing his off court gambling, Jordan answered by GOING OFF in Games 3-4 back in Chicago to tie the series. The series (and their potential 3-peat) came down to the last possession of a 1-point Game 5 where the Bulls played epic defense at the rim with multiple blocked shots to prevent NY from scoring the game-winner. That ended up ultimately deciding the series after Chicago easily closed it out at home in Game 6. The Bulls used the media attacking Michael during that time as motivation of wanting to win even more so. The Knicks were close, but were never able to get past the Bulls when Jordan was in town. During MJ’s hiatuses, Ewing led the Knicks to the Finals in 1994 and 1999 where they lost both times.
Before facing off in the 1993 NBA Finals, “The Last Dance” shows a scene of Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley gambling on golf (even after the gambling attention from Atlantic City a few weeks prior). MJ would break his media silence by speaking strictly to Ahmad Rashad in a famous interview with his shades on. When it came to the game, the Suns were the #1 team in the league that year and MJ was upset Barkley won MVP that season but said “you can have it, I’ll get this [Championship] instead.”
In Game 1, the Suns nerves became clear and Barkley didn’t have his team ready to play, similar to Jordan in his first Finals game in 1991. Game 2 was a different story as Barkley played as well as he could, finishing with 42 points & 13 rebounds. However, Jordan attacked Phoenix’s best defensive player Dan Majerle, who Jerry Krause had an affinity for, so Jordan forcefully abused his defense on the court in spite of Krause. Jordan matched Barkley’s 42 points with 12 rebounds and nine assists himself as he led Chicago to victory. For the first time ever, Charles Barkley “felt there was a better basketball player than me” when seeing MJ out-duel his A-game.
Game 3 was one of the best games in NBA history as the only triple OT game in NBA Finals history where Phoenix prevailed in Chicago. “I wasn’t going to let us lose,” said Barkley. Phoenix’s HC made it clear in the huddle “DO NOT LET MICHAEL BEAT US”, yet Jordan would still penetrate right past the double team and put in tough finishes near the rim. After the Suns got a big win in Game 5 to reduce a 3-1 series lead to 3-2, Jordan told the team he’s “only packing 1 suit to Phoenix, I’m not going there to play 2 games.” Jordan’s actions backed up his words as he led a 14-pt 4th quarter comeback with a clutch rebound and quick bucket in the final minute before orchestrating the final possession that led to John Paxson sinking a wide-open game-winning 3pt with less than five seconds.
Similar to the Knicks series that came down to a crucial last-second defensive possession in Game 5, this Finals came down to a last-second offensive possession for the Bulls in Game 6. With that victory, they became the third franchise to win three straight Championships and during this Finals, MJ became the third player to ever average over 40 PPG in the NBA Finals, joining Elgin Baylor and Rick Barry. This third championship was seen as the separator for Michael above Magic and Larry as it instantly put him on the Mt. Rushmore of all-time basketball players.
However, people noticed MJ had more relief than joy after claiming a third straight NBA title. Jordan was mentally exhausted and lost the hunger/edge for playing after winning three in a row, setting the stage for his first retirement. Jordan went through a lot that season, and capping it off with a historic third straight Championship “meant a lot” to the man who is now considered the GOAT, largely thanks to the 3-peat that put him on another level.
Like this article? Share with friends!
