From the sidelines
I suppose, if you’re going to be subjected to sporting thoughts, you have a right to know: why me?
If you’ve spoken to me for more than five minutes, I’ve probably crowbarred a nonchalant reference in that I have been a freelance sports writer for national publications such as The Herald, The Sunday Herald and Nutmeg.
When I’m not writing for the Lochaber Times, I film and edit football matches for the Highland and North Caledonian Leagues. Some of you will know me as the president of South Lochaber Thistle, or one of the women’s and juniors’ coaches. Others will have sat through the odd lesson delivered by me in my other role as a teacher.
I played rugby, before the hips crumbled, cricket and I still play football (badly). I’m a qualified rugby, football and basketball coach and I’ve been known to have the odd view on sport.
The Last Dance
It feels like just me – and the rest of the world – have been enjoying Netflix and ESPN Films’ 10-part documentary The Last Dance.
It is, of course, difficult to know exactly how many people are watching, courtesy of Netflix’s notoriously secretive metrics for success, but 2,310,000,000 Google results added to less quantitative social media hype, does tend to imply that the series is doing OK. Especially impressive is that, in the UK, basketball barely gets any coverage.
For those who don’t know, the programme follows the 1998 Chicago Bulls as they aim to win the NBA Championship for the third year in a row, and their sixth in eight years – the notorious and unprecedented ‘Three-peat’. It follows this journey intercutting with the backgrounds and stories of the disparate cast of characters which made up the playing, coaching and management staff at the Bulls in those days.
There is much to adore about the show: both personally and as a consumer. If, like me, you were playing basketball as a teenager in the 90s, the Bulls reigned supreme and Michael Jordan especially. However, Dennis Rodman and Scottie Pippen were hardly under the radar. I was never a good basketball player: too short, too tubby. But I could scrap like Rodman – even if I couldn’t pull off the hair.
Then there’s the merchandise: my Dad bought me a Jordan-sponsored Chicago Bulls black and red basketball which was constantly getting dribbled on the path outside the house. I only got rid of it when I moved my Mum out of that house a couple of years ago and, if I hadn’t been travelling on a plane, that ball would have made the trip back with me, smooth and ancient though it then was. It had to go in the skip. Now, both my father and the ball are gone and… What can you say: there’s the nostalgia.
However, in some ways, the thing I have enjoyed even more is the rabbit hole it’s sent me down. First, there was a podcast – The Dream Team Tapes with Jack McCallum which tells the story of the US Olympic basketball team from Barcelona 92. McCallum is a basketball Hall of Famer and has been with Sports illustrated for a very long time and his delivery and unravelling of the story behind this remarkable team is first class. Is it a shameless coattail ride on TLD? Yes, and for a book, The Dream Team, released in 2014, but now I have to read the damn thing. Oh, well sure I’ll cope.
Then there was this profile by Wright Thompson on ESPN from 2013 when Jordan turned 50. I got to it from The Ruffian, the newsletter of journalist and author Ian Leslie ian-leslie. com/about and it’s super. Top notch sports writing: revealing, emotional, inspiring – a little horrifying in places.
I know some people think that TLD is a puff piece but, if this is Jordan censored and touched up, then he may be an actual monster because I think the makers go for balance as much as possible. The scene where Jordan tearfully calls for a time out in an interview when he is asked if winning came at the expense of being a nice guy is heart-breaking and revealing.
I know it doesn’t address Craig Hodges, however, Jordan’s hesitancy to speak out over issues of race (‘Republicans buy sneakers too’) is addressed by no less an authority on these issues than former President Obama so, that’s not exactly ducking it.
I know it doesn’t address Horace Grant and the stories about Grant being denied food after bad games. But, Grant does appear in the show.
What this programme does over 10 episodes is look at what it takes to win – what the fire and fuel it takes to dominate in any profession, and it does it in a warts and all way.
There’s lots of rabbit holes to go down with wider context and that’s a form of nostalgia I can enjoy.