The Last Dance Part I & II

One thing that anyone who knows me can tell you about me, is I love basketball. I love college basketball, foreign leagues, I've even stopped to watch people playing in a park before. But the core of my love of basketball, where it went from being just something I liked to do, to something I was downright obsessed with and that would be the Chicago Bulls.

The Chicago Bulls, a favorite of my uncle but more importantly it had my favorite player, and the favorite player of my entire world, Michael Jeffrey Jordan. I could tell you everything about Jordan, I studied his game, I studied his card, and would beg nonstop for my mom to rent copies of Air Time, Above and Beyond, Come Fly with Me and so many others. So you best believe, I was watching the long awaited documentary on the 1998 Championship squad.

I fancy myself as a guy who knows his fair share about the Chicago Bulls but even I found out some things that I didn't know about in the first two hours of this 10 hour basketball extravaganza So without further ado I give you five of the takeaways I took from this work of art.

*Michael Jordan actually showing human frustration with his minutes restriction 

These bums are trash!

I grew up with memories of Michael Jordan as a methodical and almost surgical technician of the art of basketball. But seeing footage of him as a frustrated second year player who just wanted to win while management was seemingly more focused on tanking for draft picks made him an almost sympathetic figure. It's this vulnerability that I never remember seeing growing up. Quite refreshing.

*Jerry Krause...was complex.
Jerry Krause was a very good general manager. But as pointed out (repeatedly) in the documentary is that he had to basically be the center of attention and get all the credit.

"So uh...you ever heard of Tim Floyd?"

So much so that he was ready to break up the greatest dynasty since the 60s Celtics just to rebuild and show he could do it again. So while I as a fan can admit I will never really get over that, I can also admit he made some amazing moves, that helped set this dynasty up. But uh yeah, you don't let Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen roll because you got a hunch about a fishing buddy.

*Charles Oakley is a damn savage.

I didn't really need this documentary to tell me this but it is good that the masses knows not to mess with Oak. This is more of a public service announcement than anything else.

*Scottie Pippen is a wildly more interesting person than I gave him credit for.

Scottie Pippen was wildly underpaid for his tenure with the Bulls. However, we all assumed it was because he had shitty advice or the Bulls somehow duped him. When they reveal the traumatic stroke suffered by his father coupled with the accident that paralyzed brother you understand why even against the advice of the owner of the team, he would choose the long term security over whether or not he would be fairly compensated because he couldn't risk his family security for anything.

*The Bulls Traveling Cocaine Circus

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The Bulls was wilding! Were they being run by Rick James?


Well folks I gotta say, rarely does something ever live up to the hype and dare I say exceeds it. Is it because I'm a Bulls fan? Probably. But even novice basketball fans can join in on the fun that this is, because let's be honest we don't have anything else to do.

Alright, ya'll be easy. Peace.