Airs, No Graces
The Last Dance, the story of the 199798 Chicago Bulls season led by Michael Jordan, has captivated the world while it has been on lockdown. Such is the quality of the story it would likely have dominated conversation even if it was competing with live sport, though.
It has introduced a generation who did not see Jordan in full flight to his talent, and allowed the rest of us to reminisce of a time when the NBA was taken global by his achievements. While it has not told us anything new, it is no less quotable for it. Here are some of the best of them, in his own words.
“It’s maddening because I think we could’ve won seven. I really believe that. We may not have, but man, to not be able to try, that’s something that I just can’t accept. For whatever reason I just can’t accept it.”
Jordan is still unable to take the fact that it was the “last dance” for that team, which had been told that coach Phil Jackson was leaving even if he went 82-0 for the season. They won the finals for a sixth championship in eight years but it was the end of an era in Chicago.
“Why would I think about missing a shot I haven’t taken?”
Jordan’s mental strength is highlighted as one of his greatest assets, his ability to be present in the moment and not the let the possibility of the occasion get to him highlighted in this quote from a pre-game shootaround.
“There were so many times that Tex used to yell at me saying, ‘Move the ball, Move the ball! There is no ‘I’ in team.’ I said, ‘There’s an ‘I’ in win.’”
Jordan was not a fan of the triangle offense devised by Bulls assistant coach Tex Winter and had words with him to that effect. The Bulls would turn to the triangle offense when Jordan was retired from the NBA and trying out for the MLB. They did not win.
“I was a little but upset I didn’t get the MVP that year and they gave it to Charles Barkley. OK, you can have that I’m going to get this.”
Jordan’s ability to find motivation to take him to that next level was highlighted by this perceived slight in 1993. Barkley got the regular season MVP, Jordan took the Finals MVP and the championship.
“Clyde was a threat, I’m not saying he wasn’t a threat. But being compared to him? I took offence to that.”
The year before, Jordan’s motivation came from the comparisons to Clyde Drexler of the Portland Trail Blazers. Jordan respected Drexler but not the insinuation and went on to dominate the Blazers as the Bulls won a second ring.
“I knew that Jerry Krause loved Dan Majerle and just because Krause liked him was enough for me. You think he’s a great defensive player? OK, fine. I’m going to show you he’s not.”
As if Barkley getting the MVP was not enough, Jordan took exception to the Bulls GM Jerry Krause liking Phoenix’s Majerle. Jordan averaged 41 points in the 1993 NBA
Finals, which is still a record.
“He [George Karl] walked past me. And I look at Ahmad, I said, ‘Really? Oh, so that’s how you going to play it?’ I said, ‘It’s a crock of s**t.’ We went to Carolina. We know Dean Smith. I see him in the summer. We play golf. And you’re going to do this? OK, fine. That’s all I needed. It became personal.”
Jordan found motivation ahead of the 1998 NBA Finals from a perceived snub by Seattle Supersonics coach Karl.
“I didn’t want Bill Cartwright to have the ball with five seconds left. That’s not an equal opportunity offense. That’s f**king bulls**t.”
Jordan did not take to the triangle offense, it is fair to say. But he did warm to it and this was proved when the Bulls won their first NBA championship – Jordan kept dishing the ball to a wide open John Paxson in Game 5.
“I look at him and I say, ‘Depends how bad the [expletive] headache is.’”
Jordan had been injured in the 1985 season but was desperate to play. His response came to Bulls management asking, “If you had a terrible headache, and I gave you a bottle of pills, and nine of the pills would cure you, and one of the pills would kill you, would you take a pill?”
“Look, I don’t have to do this. I’m only doing it because it is who I am. That’s how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you don’t want to play that way, don’t play that way. Break.”
Jordan is close to tears explaining his mentality and why it meant holding his teammates to the same exacting standards he held for himself.
“My mentality was to go out and win at any cost. If you don’t want to live that regimented mentality, then you don’t need to be alongside of me.”
If there was one theme in the series then perhaps it would be that winning is everything to Michael Jordan and he would do anything to win. That meant some tough practice sessions for the team along the way.
“If I had to do it all over again there is no way I’d want to be considered a role model. It’s like a game that’s stacked against me. There’s no way I can win.”
Jordan on the pressure that he had when everyone wanted to be “Like Mike” and he was the biggest sporting superstar on the planet. He did win, though.
“You can show me whatever you want. There’s no way you can convince he wasn’t an a**hole.”
Time does not heal all wounds and Jordan still holds a grudge against Detroit Pistons’ Isiah Thomas. The Pistons walked off court without shaking hands after losing to Jordan’s Bulls in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals.