My Thoughts on Jordan, the 90’s Bulls & The Last Dance

We have had a few weeks to come off the high of the 5-week media event of the year, ‘The Last Dance’ directed by Jason Hehir. I still can’t get enough of the baggy suits, the zillions of cigars Jordan smoked and Rodman’s midseason trip to Vegas (that would have created seismic shockwaves in 2020). The show had me sitting on the edge of our coffee table throughout (literally I could hardly sit down). Now that I have finally caught my breath, collected my thoughts and distanced myself from the wild 5-week ride, I thought I would share a few of my thoughts about the show, about those late 90’s Bulls teams and about Jordan.

1998 wasn’t that long ago. Being nearly 33 years old, I’m fortunate that I experienced the Bulls and have vivid memories of that 2nd 3-peat team (1996 – 1998). Memories for me truly begin to crystallize right when MJ retired (the first time) after the 1992-93 season. I remember my Dad commenting to our family at dinner how the Bulls had no shot without Jordan, even though that 1993-94 team pushed the Knicks to the brink in the 2nd round. Jordan inspired me during my formative years, growing up in Illinois and continuing to follow the Bulls closely when we moved to New Jersey just months after Jordan led the Bulls to their 1996 championship over the Seattle Supersonics (RIP).

As an avid student of the game and someone who is deeply aware of Jordan’s place in history, I wanted to share a few thoughts. I wanted to do this write-up weeks after the show aired (notice how I didn’t say documentary), to allow for emotions and the high to subside a bit.

Jordan’s the Greatest Winner We’ll Ever See (exception being Bill Russell)

Prior to The Last Dance, younger fans forget that Jordan didn’t win his first title until his 7th season, a season in which he turned 28 years old that February. Jordan’s path to his first title is similar to LeBron’s path, who didn’t capture his first championship until 2012, which was his 9th NBA season, and his age-27 season. The similarities of their respective careers differ quite a bit after their 2nd championship, respectively.

For sake of time and word count, I will say that it’s way too early to compare LeBron and Jordan as the greatest of all time. LeBron is still somehow in his extended prime (at 35 years old), which was the last great season of MJ’s career (the ’98 final championship season). LeBron has somehow ripped off 17-straight seasons, and has suffered no major injuries during this incredible run. LeBron’s longevity and durability is even more impressive when you consider the miles on his odometer. He’s clocked nearly 49K career minutes (regular season), which is 9th all-time. He’s going to leap-frog into the top 3 by the end of next season. Consider this: LeBron James is the all-time leader in career playoff minutes, with 10,049 (and counting). LeBron has 60K minutes on his odometer combined, regular season and postseason…unbelievable.

Michael Jordan combined totals (41,011 regular season minutes + 7,474 playoff minutes) of 48,485 falls short of just LeBron’s regular season minutes. This provides more context to the staggering durability and usage rate LeBron has shouldered throughout his magnificent career.

Jordan only submitted 11 quality seasons (when you account for 1985-86 when he only played 18 regular season games due to suffering a broken foot, and 1994-95, when he only played 17 regular season games). He obviously did not play in the 1993-94 season, when he was a member of the Chicago White Sox organization. I’ll get to Jordan’s two Wizards years in another post, but he obviously wasn’t peak Jordan in those years when he was 38 and 39 years old, respectively (he turned 40 during his final season with the Wizards). With that said, I would take Jordan in his late 30’s over any NBA star we have seen in history in their late 30’s (Karl Malone and Kareem may be the only exceptions). Think about it, which NBA player has been better than Jordan in his age 38 or 39 season than Jordan? I’ll give you Karl Malone and Kareem, and that’s it. That’s the list.

With all that said, Jordan is the greatest winner we will ever see, with the lone exception being Bill Russell, who won an incomprehensible 11 NBA championships. For those counting at home, Bill Russell won the same amount of championships as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant combined. Bill Russell was an all-star every season of his career, with the exception of his rookie year. LeBron has been the same way…an all-star every season with the exception of his rookie year. Jordan was an all-star in every season he played, even those two Wizards seasons. Bill Simmons’ The Book of Basketball 2.0 podcast is excellent. His March 2nd episode ‘The Genius of Bill Russell’ is required listening for NBA fans. Russell was the best, because he wanted to be the best player on the floor at all times. The reason he hung it up just after his 35th birthday, was because he privately believed he could no longer be the best player. Similar to Jordan (they both share birthdays in February), they each retired just a few months after their 35th birthdays (in Jordan’s case, he was not quite done).

With all of this being said, Jordan winning 6 NBA titles across 8 seasons is a one of sport’s crowning achievements. I know that the league’s depth and breadth of talent wasn’t as rich as it is now, and that the pace of play was nowhere near what it is today. When you look at the mid 90’s, we saw games average roughly 90 possessions. When you look at the last two seasons, we’re at 100 possessions or higher. It’s a different game, which makes comparing careers more difficult, particularly for those stars who have thrived in the pace and space style that has flourished since 2013 (think early Warriors defeating the Denver Nuggets as a 6th seed in the postseason, that informally kicked off this current era).

I lived through the late 90’s Bulls and have followed LeBron’s career since I was in high school. The unassailable fact is that you felt like the Bulls were always going to win with Jordan at the helm, and the game on the line. No matter what. In LeBron’s case, you can’t fault him entirely, but I didn’t feel that way in 2015 (when he lost both Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving to season-ending injuries in the playoffs), 2017 (when Kevin Durant outplayed him in a 5-game Finals) and 2018 (when LeBron literally carried the Cavs to the Finals with little help). Jordan never assumed underdog status in the Finals, as LeBron has done in 3 of his last 4 Finals appearances. LeBron also ran into quite possibly the best team in the history of the league (2017 Warriors), and one of the greatest dynasties in sports. There’s so many caveats when it comes to comparing the game’s two biggest stars’ careers, across 30 years.

What I know is that when I was a 9, 10 and 11 years old, I always felt secure in knowing that Jordan would get the Bulls over the top. Even at age 35, we always felt that as long as we had MJ, our beloved Bulls were the presumptive favorite to win that game.

It’s a Shame The Last Dance Came out Nearly 22 Years Later

I mainly felt this way because after 20+ years, people get old, get sick and pass away. 3 of Jordan’s security guards had passed away, including John Michael Wozniak, who just passed away in January 2020 at the age of 69. How much richer would the documentary have been if we had been able to hear from Wozniak? Jordan looked at Gus Lett as another father figure, and took care of his funeral expenses when he passed away in November 2000. Given his passing just 2.5 years after Jordan’s final season as a Bull, it’s unlikely that we would have ever heard from Lett in any documentary/show.

The other big voice that was not heard from in this documentary was Jerry Krause, who passed away just three years ago, in March 2017. We obviously had recordings of him from earlier years, but I thought his presence and perspective was deeply missed.

How about Tex Winter? Winter was the architect of the Triangle Offense and Phil Jackson’s trusted assistant. Heck, Winter arrived in Chicago in 1985, the same time Jordan arrived. Tex considered retiring in 1985. Yes, retiring. He passed away just 18 months ago, in October 2018, but he remained an assistant through the mid 2000’s (20 years later!). Frank Hamblen was another influential Jackson assistant who passed away in September 2017, at the age of 70. Hamblen and Winter were key assistants for Jackson on the Bulls and Lakers championship teams.

Even though Kobe Bryant was featured throughout The Last Dance, his tragic passing in late January is a reminder that life is fragile. How much richer could this documentary had been if it was filmed 5 years ago, 8 years ago, a dozen years ago? As great as it was, we’ll never know.

No word from Current Players

I was surprised that we heard next to nothing from current or recently retired stars, such as Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, Shaq and Tim Duncan. Wade had the same trainer as Jordan, in Tim Grover. I have read that this was a criticism of the show, and I’m in agreement that I would have loved to hear from the stars of the last 15-20 years, and more specifically how this Bulls team inspired them to pick up a basketball and motivate them to excel in the NBA.

I wrote in my tribute to Kobe Bryant that it was Jordan who inspired me to pick up a basketball at a very young age. I recognize that Jason Hehir has responded to this criticism by telling viewers that this ‘documentary’ was not a documentary about Jordan, but rather it was about the 1997-98 Bulls. I think that’s a fair point, but my only point is that I would have loved to hear from stars about how they viewed Michael Jordan, and even those stars who briefly overlapped with Jordan, such as Duncan, Kevin Garnett and Steve Nash.

Basketball is all about passing the baton, and taking the game to a different level. Including a few of these more recent stars would have been a nod to that precedent.

Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals is Still the Greatest Sporting Moment of my Lifetime

I was just shy of 11 years old when Jordan sunk that 16-foot jumper to put the Bulls ahead for good with 5.2 seconds remaining. My Mom and Dad were born and bred Chicagoans, having grown up and lived in and around Chicago for 33+ years. They moved our family to New Jersey in September 1996, when I was just 9 years old.

I sit here now, typing this post, at nearly 33 years old, and remember that game with absolute clarity. More than that, it’s a team that I loved deeply to my core. It’s a team that I grew up with and held onto closely. This team represented my youth and my unbridled passion for the team that I loved more than anything. I can’t say I have ever come close to loving another sports team as much as I did those 90’s Bulls teams. I’ll leave you with an excerpt from a post I wrote in September 2013, ‘My Top 5 Sports Moments of the Last 20 Years.’ It’s telling that this list has hardly changed in nearly 7 years.

Here’s the excerpt from that post:

I’ll never forget sitting in my porch with my father and our friend, Michael Madigan, watching the final minute of Game 6 on the edge of our seats. We were die-hard Bulls fans and saw the highs (5 titles in the previous 7 years) and the lows (early playoff exits in ’94 & ’95, sans Jordan in ’94 & with a rusty Jordan in ’95). This game had an air of finality to it and we knew that this was the Bulls’ last run as the team was currently constituted.

Every sports fan talks about the Game 6 winner, with Jordan crossing up Byron Russell and craftily pushing off Russell with his left hand (Russell slipped as well; it wasn’t all due to Jordan’s push-off). He absolutely buried the game-winner from 16-feet with 5.2 seconds left. The moments I’ll remember about that game are the minute leading up to the game-winner. With 41.8 seconds remaining, John Stockton buried an elbow-extended three pointer that put the Jazz up 3 and had the Bulls (and us) reeling. My Dad and I exchanged nervous looks and just hoped that the Bulls would have enough time to make up this 3-point deficit. What happened next was vintage Michael.

Jordan would catch the ball unmolested at the top of the three point arc, take three dribbles and finish with a runner off the glass. Who did he beat off the dribble…none other than Byron Russell (Jordan owned Russell in the ’97 & ’98 playoffs). Just like that, the Bulls were down only 1 with 37.1 seconds left and only 4.7 seconds had run off the clock with that play. The Jazz would push the ball down the court and get the ball into Karl Malone, their unquestioned leader and playoff choke artist. Jordan feigned trailing Hornacek into the corner and snuck behind Malone in the corner and stripped him. The rest is history…Jordan would dribble down and stick the 16-footer that would cement his legacy forever as the game’s all-time greatest closer.

I’ll never forget my Dad, Mike and I jumping off the couch in unison, screaming at the top of our lungs. Our yells were unintelligible and our passion unbridled. I remember us three embraced for the next few minutes while Bob Costas (our favorite announcer at the time) delivered a fitting tribute to Jordan…in a way that only Costas could have delivered the coda to Jordan’s career.

When I think about sports and how they have defined me during my 26+ years, this moment stands out as my most memorable as a sports fan. I’ll be telling my kids 20 years from now how lucky I was to watch Jordan and LeBron play in their primes. Every sports fan has their moment. The moment that they remember with absolute clarity. Mine was Jordan’s final minute as a Bull.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=8V_1ZxCN3nI&feature=emb_logo