By Aditya Kulashekar
The year is 1997. Bill Clinton is President. Social media has yet to be introduced. The smartphone is just an idea. And Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls had just won their second consecutive NBA championship, entering the 1997-1998 season hoping to complete their second three-peat. Despite the five championships in seven years, not all was well in Chicago. The team was embroiled in a countless number of internal conflicts, most notably including Scottie Pippen’s deteriorating relationship with management over his contract and the rocky dynamic between head coach Phil Jackson and General Manager Jerry Krause. In the new documentary, “The Last Dance,” airing on ESPN, avid basketball fans are able to witness the workings of the team in-depth. The documentary features many clips from the season, from the practice facility to the locker room and even a preseason trip to Paris. Overall, the documentary does an excellent job of explaining how the Bulls overcame adversity and captured their sixth championship.
What interested me the most about the doc is how it was released. An ESPN article explained the procedure on how they procured the film and made the doc. The Bulls management and coaches agreed to the recordings in 1997; however, Michael Jordan wanted full control over when the film was released. Interestingly enough, the day that Jordan agreed to release the film was the day that LeBron James, the player that many compare to Jordan in the upper echelon of basketball greats, was celebrating his championship in a parade after bringing his Cleveland Cavaliers back from a 3-1 deficit against the Golden State Warriors, a team that many considered to be the best of all time. What this shows about Jordan is that even 20 years after his career ended, his competitive spirit and desire to win that fueled him has still not died out. Regardless, this documentary will shed new light on Jordan, and NBA fans around the world sit down every Sunday night to learn something new about the historically dominant Chicago Bulls.