"Eh, in my time", is usually the beginning of a sentence of our grandfathers and fathers, which would later introduce something and someone that today's generation would not be able to understand. These were always stronger people, better football players, better basketball players, physically and mentally more dominant than "these days".
Nostalgia is always a tricky thing, because often in our memories we manage to romanticize it almost to a poetic level, so much so that we blur the real truth that is hidden behind a memory.
"The Last Dance", a documentary about the final season of the mighty Chicago Bulls of the 90s, the last tango of Michael Jordan, Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen and the crew is a festival of nostalgic sighs.
And let's not lie, when we hear the opening bars of "Sirius" by Alan Parsons Project, we remember those lasers and the darkened hall, and Ray Clay's voice breaking through that intro keyboard "Aaaaand now, the starting lineup for your Chicago Bulls", we get chills .
Add to that those red-white-black jerseys with the number 23, and we can only guess how good the game would be if above the away dressing room in the "United Center" there was the inscription of Dante Alighieri "You who enter, leave all hope".
In the era of the coronavirus, and the halting of all sports on the planet, the opportunity to remember one of the best franchises in the history of sports seemed more than great.
However, after only watching two episodes, one could sense the direction in which the series would go, and all that romantic-nostalgic fog quickly dissipated.
ALL THE WORST ABOUT THE DECEASED
Every story, if it wants to be good and hold the attention of the viewers, must have a villain. In "The last dance", that role went to Bulls general manager Jerry Kraus.
In sports, there is often a simmering war between "suits" and "muscles". "Suits" are those people who make popular and not-so-popular decisions from the office", while "Muscles" fight on the field, like modern gladiators, and strive for victory and success.
The heart of every fan and sports fan is, naturally, with those who fight on the field, and in general such an attitude is completely understandable. However, modern sport has long since ceased to be just a mere "heart on the field", but it is precisely in the offices that the main setup of what we will see on the field takes place.
That imposed fight in the series between 2 meters high genetic perfection, and a diminutive, chubby man, looks like a more than unequal fight.
The truth is the following. Between Michael Jordan on one side and Jerry Kraus on the other, there should and must be an equal sign for the success of the Chicago Bulls.
Without Kraus, we might be talking about Jordan today as one of those basketball players who were phenomenal, but they wouldn't have a championship ring, or maybe they would have managed to nail one, which would again be far from the title of "best of all time".
It may sound like a statement with which the majority of the basketball audience would not agree, but it is enough to look at the history of basketball players with phenomenal numbers, who are mentioned today, but far from being on the lists of contenders for the throne of "the best of all time" (see only Elgin Baylot's season with 38 points per game and almost 19 rebounds from the position of "three").
Kraus has always shown that he has a phenomenal flair for talent. Either on the field or in the office. -His vision is still one of the best in the history of sports.
How else to explain that he managed to get Seattle to choose the Chicago Bulls from the 5th position in the 1987 draft of the totally anonymous Scottie Pippen in exchange for the center Alden Polins and additional picks. In the same year, the Bulls selected from the tenth position Horace Grant, a strong wing center who would become the introduction to the trade of Charles Oakley to the New York Knicks.
The Oakley trade is probably the situation that forever changed the relationship between Jordan and Kraus. As a young handball player, Jordan fell under the protection of Oakley upon his arrival and in that temperamental 80s, when a real boxing fight could break out on the field, Charles was someone who had MJ's back.
In exchange for him, center Bill Cartwright arrived. If we put Cartwright and Oakley on the scale, of course the vote would go to Mr. "hit first, ask questions later", but Cartwright was the center, and he brought what the Bulls needed to attack the title - excellent racket guarding.
Kraus's legacy is also the arrival of Phil Jackson on the Bulls bench. Back in the college days of his playing career, Jackson found himself on the radar of Kraus. His attempt to agitate for the Bullits team (where he worked as a scout) to draft him did not bear fruit, but during those playing days of the "Zen Master" Jerry and Phil built a friendship
Kraus pulled Jackson out of Puerto Rican basketball hell and brought him to the Bulls bench as an assistant.
A move that was deliberate, as then-Bulls coach Doug Collins did not want to comply with his desire to develop the famous "triangle offense" from experienced coach Tex Winter.
Jackson had no problem "absorbing knowledge" from his older colleague, and later became the most decorated coach in the history of the NBA with that triangle attack.
The replacement of Collins, whose philosophy at the time in the Bulls was "Give the ball to MJ", was again not accepted by Jordan from the beginning, although he would later tie himself to Phil Jackson. The relationship with Kraus has never been better (even after winning six titles).
The love between Kraus and Jackson broke right before that last season in "The Last Dance". Some sources say that the Bulls GM was upset about not being given credit for all the trophies, that is, that Jackson always forgot to mention his contribution in his speeches. On the other hand, other sources state that in the Kraus, Jackson, Jordan triangle, the general manager was eventually pushed out and that he felt betrayed by Jackson.
The merits of Kraus do not stop only in the 80s. During the 90s, he brought the best European basketball player Toni Kukoc to the Bulls, traded with the Spurs and brought the best NBA defender Denis Rodman, Ron Harper came as a free agent, traded with Minnesota and brought Luke Longley.
All this while balancing salaries and contracts in the designated caps space.
Kraus was the only one born in Chicago out of the complete set, both playing and coaching, as well as the ownership structure.
A man who gave a lot to his hometown, and in the series he took the title of villain. A man whose death was never once mentioned or given attention. In the end, the man who couldn't defend himself in the series, they give him a tablet with Jordan's recorded statement, and he also gives his verdict.
Security workers received more attention than Kraus. Jordan's vengeful spirit once again showed that he "doesn't forgive anyone".
After the definitive end of his playing career, Jordan himself took over the leadership of the Charlotte Hornets, as well as being the general manager. The result is almost the complete opposite of his playing skills. If he is perhaps the best basketball player of all time, he is very likely to be among the worst GMs the league has ever seen.
On the other hand, Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the Chicago Bulls, describes him as a funny, good person, who gives everyone attention.
In the last episode Scottie Pippen mentions him as "probably" the best unrealistic manager in the world.
JUSTICE FOR TONY
If you look at the poster of the announcement of the series, one of them especially catches the eye. There are four Bulls basketball players: Michael Jordan, Scotty Pippen, Dennis Rodman and... Steve Kerr!
There was no place on the poster for one of the best European basketball players ever, a man who was the third scorer for all three (championship) seasons in the Bulls, a man who was the best sixth player in the entire league, and someone who obeyed the team above all, Toni Kukoc.
Kerr himself, when he saw the poster, said that he had no place on the poster, at least not before Tony.
Kerr added that he understands that his success as a coach with the Golden State Warriors led to the poster, because it is probably more attractive for the producers of the series to hook someone who is still relevant in basketball.
The playmaker, who made history with a shot in the sixth game of the final series against Utah in 1997, belongs to the ranks of the better people in the world of basketball, a phenomenal coach, an excellent general manager, but not exactly as a non-series basketball player.
The three-point shot is fine, but Steve has never been able to use his style of play to become a starter or someone who will be more than a six-point-per-game episodic player, and that's perfectly fine.
Kukoc joined the Bulls the season Jordan first retired. He soon became a starter, playing in the wing center position. With Michael's return and the arrival of Dennis Rodman, he decided to accept the role of the sixth man, and he played it phenomenally. In any other club, he would have been a starter, and an almost certain all-star player, but he decided to obey the team.
One fan made a good point in his comment on reddit:
"Everyone is talking about Game 7 with the Pacers. Reggie Miller recalls some of Steve Kerr's shots, Steve Kerr talks about that game, and nobody mentions Tony"
Kerr had 11 points in that game, Toni 21, but the producers of the series were not interested in Tony's angle of that game.
Then the final series with Utah, in game number 5, Kukoc scored 30 points with an efficiency of 11 of 13 from the field. The last action, Jackson drew for Kukoc, but Jordan literally stole the ball, stood up for the shot and missed the entire basket for the win (which is normally not blamed on him, because it's Jordan after all)
This is how Carmen Elektra and Barak Obama got more space in the series than Kukoc.
A ROLE MODEL THAT WAS FAR FROM THAT
Mike Jordan can be the best basketball player of all time, it can be argued about that, but he was far from being an exemplary player.
Huge gambling addiction, enjoyment of cigarettes, unhealthy lifestyle, are simply not what rose to the level of idols for millions of kids around the world.
Nevertheless, the series shows well that side of a man on whom so much responsibility falls.
Michael himself said that if he could go back in time, he would never have taken that burden on himself, but again, on the other hand, he paid for that burden by earning a billion dollars from advertisements and contracts (outside of basketball).
We can see what was driving "His Air Highness", and then we hear that it is spite, and even hatred, which fits the profile of people who achieved top results with such a drive.
In one interview, after the end of his career, Thierry Henry said that he even had to create in his imagination some kind of hatred towards the opponent in order to give his best. They were usually the first stars of the opposing teams.
And Jordan shows us that it was what pushed him forward, the hatred for the Pistons, chasing Magic and Bird, Charles Barkley's MVP. But then the list just gets poorer.
In "Last dance", among others, Jordan mentions former teammate BJ Armstrong (who recorded under 4 points per game that season in Charlotte), Horace Grant (13 points), Dan Mayerle in Phoenix (a borderline all-star player with 4 seasons over 15 points average in his career), as a kind of engine that pulled him forward.
Throughout the series, he has repeatedly referred to it as a sort of blacklist of his own. However, these names somehow cannot be a parameter for such results that he was setting, so it turns out to be more of a kind of bad scenario of the series itself.
Gary Payton at one point, while reminiscing about the finals with the Bulls, says that he willingly took to guarding Jordan. Those games will go down as Michael's worst editions in the NBA Finals, where he averaged 23 points per game and shot just 36 percent.
Even today, Jordan did not acknowledge the famous "Glove", just as he did not forgive Aizea Thomas and the Pistons for leaving the court without shaking hands.
ECHOES OF THE SERIES AND DEFENSE OF THE THRONE
Love him or not, consider him the best basketball player of all time or claim that LeBron is, say, better, you cannot deny that MJ is the undisputed businessman among athletes, with a phenomenal sense of momentum.
Last Dance was recorded in 1998, but did not see the light of day, because it was Jordan who blocked its distribution and release to the public.
He kept it on hold for almost 20 years, and then during the parade in Cleveland, when LeBron James and the Cavs were celebrating their title, Jordan turned his agent, contacted the producers and gave the green light for the series to be filmed.
Even the whole situation surrounding the coronavirus worked out, so that people eager for basketball in isolation could get ten hours of stories about the best NBA team in the 90s of the last century.
After the show of the series, all prominent media houses immediately put up a poll to vote on who is better, Michael or LeBron, and in almost every one, Jordan won with at least 70 percent of the votes.
The series also caused a barrage of negative comments. First from Girdano's teammate during the Bulls' first three title campaign, Horace Grant, who said that at least 90 percent of the story is pure fiction.
Grant is accused of being an informant for the journalist Sam Smith who wrote "Jordan's Rules", which for the first time shows Michael in a not so great light (after the series, there will probably be numerous reprints of the same).
The former Bulls wing center also said that the series only shows Jordan's insolence towards his teammates, but not their responses to him.
Karl Malone and Bryon Russell refused to comment on the series, Isaiah Thomas once again expressed his disbelief that Michael is still angry, which probably cost the Detroit Pistons point guard a Dream Team appearance.
The latest news is that Scottie Pippen didn't like how he was portrayed in the documentary either
The disputed refereeing decisions from the series with the Indiana Pacers were also skipped, where we don't have a display of probably the strangest exclusion, and then the suspension of Jalen Rose, even though he did nothing.
During one scramble between Reggie Miller and Ron Harper, Rose literally got off the bench and had only one foot over the line. Enough with the suspension in Game 5 of the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals. The result in the series was then 2:2.
In the end, the series is a mix of nostalgia, fun, enjoying Rodman's craziness, Jordan's fight with external and internal demons, Pippen's rebellion against the team.
The feeling remains that the approach is too subjective, that everything is too much from Michael Jordan's perspective, that the other side of the story, the piquancy we remember from that time, is incredibly missing.
Jordan's jealousy of Pippen's success off the field, Pippen's silent jealousy of Toni Kukoc's attacking repertoire, Jordan's approach to games, in the era before Phil Dzekosno, when he would show up in a bathrobe and shorts when visiting Charlotte, and inform the club's management that he remains a couple. days in North Carolina.
"The Last Dance" still manages to round off the point, with an interview of the young Jordan from 1984, when, as a basketball player, he declares that he hopes to make the Chicago Bulls a respectable franchise like the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers...With footage from Jordan's character today, it's clear that he got his wish…and more.
Bonus video:
