You don’t remember him
and asides on the practice floor, the locker-room and the team bus that really inform this story. That and the new interviews (106 of them, we are told) from the key characters who bring a different perspective now, more than two decades on, and provide the fresh thread that energises this captivating tale.
There is plenty of territory to cover in this story of the sixth, and final, championship run of the Bulls of Jordan and Scottie Pippen and the first two episodes plunge us head-first into several of those storylines.
Hated General Manager Jerry Krause is cast quickly into the villain’s role, we hear about the injustice of Pippen’s contract, the Bulls’ refusal to offer him a deal even approaching his worth, the reluctance to bring back the band intact for the ‘97-98 season, the discord between coach Phil Jackson and the front office and, of course, we are given the back story of the saviour of this ailing franchise, the freak of nature and indomitable force that is Jordan.
That backstory even involves a young Jordan, fresh out of the University of North Carolina, stumbling into the shambles that was the Bulls in the mid-80s, which included the now immortal ‘‘travelling cocaine circus’’. Of course, we all remember the six titles in eight years, but there were some hard and trying times in the leadup to that, including a period where the great one was limited to just 14 minutes a game on the way back from a broken foot, and still found a way to will the team into the playoffs.
There are early hints that this is not MJ through rose-tinted glasses, and no doubt a lot more is to come. Again, this is not new. Anyone who has read the excellent books on the Jordan era, such as The Jordan Rules by Sam Smith or David Halberstam’s Playing for Keeps (both highly recommended) would be well across how hard Jordan was on his team-mates, what a bully he could be at times, his gambling and golf addictions and his general alpha male demeanour.
You don’t become the greatest basketball player of all time (for me he will always hold that tag, never mind what LeBron James does in the twilight years of his career) without a few personality quirks – and it’s clear Jordan had a few.
That, of course, is the illuminating quality of this wonderful series. It is sport at its finest, and sometimes at its most ugly. It is beauty and the beast. The highs and the lows. The penthouse and the outhouse.
It is the essence of what we are missing right now with the sporting world in shutdown. And a vivid reminder of what we are all so desperate to get back to. Appointment viewing at the best of times. Can’t miss stuff right now.