{"id":4352,"date":"2021-05-20T11:41:38","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T15:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sullyonsports.com\/?p=4352"},"modified":"2021-05-20T11:41:38","modified_gmt":"2021-05-20T15:41:38","slug":"last-dance-diaries-let-it-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sullyonsports.com\/?p=4352","title":{"rendered":"Last Dance Diaries: Let It Be"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NOTE: This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in May 2020.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMichael\u2019s a mystic. He was never anywhere else.\u201d \u2014 Mark Vancil, Author, \u201cRare Air\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These reviews, after each week\u2019s episodes of ESPN\u2019s \u201cThe Last Dance,\u201d have focused heavily \u2014 almost to the point of obsession \u2014 on Michael Jordan. The reason I did this is the same reason why this documentary told its story through his lens: Without him, the 1990s Bulls dynasty doesn\u2019t happen. And without him, \u201cThe Last Dance\u201d doesn\u2019t make it to our television screens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In episodes nine and 10, we see the difficulties of the Bulls\u2019 impending breakup, exacerbated by the fact that the team, though beaten and battered, is still highly functioning and on the doorstep of its sixth NBA title of the decade. When you have the game\u2019s best player (Jordan) and its best coach (Phil Jackson), how do you break that up? If you\u2019re owner Jerry Reinsdorf and general manager Jerry Krause, the answer is simple: your egos get in the way. Jackson and Jordan get most of the credit for the Bulls\u2019 run; Reinsdorf and Krause need it. This is how a great dynasty shatters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breakups are hard. By the end of the Beatles\u2019 run, John Lennon was strung out on heroin and barely recognizable<\/a>. Ringo Starr and George Harrison barely look like they want to be there. Paul McCartney puts on a brave face, but he, too, is fronting. The burden of being the biggest thing in the world got to them much in the same way it gets to the \u201990s Bulls. Jordan is emotionally exhausted. Scottie Pippen, Jordan\u2019s skillful sidekick, is hobbled by a back injury. And Dennis Rodman, the eccentric rebounding mastermind? Yeah, he\u2019s off to fight Hulk Hogan in World Championship Wrestling between Games 3 and 4 of the \u201998 Finals. You haven\u2019t lived until you\u2019ve seen Rodman take a folding chair to the back of Diamond Dallas Page. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the Bulls are worn out, which makes their last title all the more incredible. Chicago is taken to seven games in the conference finals by the Indiana Pacers, and Jordan pulls out a superstitious ace in the hole: his personal security man, Gus Lett, who is suffering from lung cancer. This is the hardest championship for the Bulls, though, because Krause has already said that no matter what, Jackson will be leaving the team after the season, and no matter what, Jordan won\u2019t play for another coach. As Bob Costas says in the documentary, if the Bulls flame out by losing to a superior opponent, there is closure. If someone in a suit \u2014 and it isn\u2019t difficult to figure out who that is \u2014 ends the Bulls, then that outcome is all the more difficult to accept. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That dumb egotism, contrasted with the Bulls\u2019 singular focus \u2014 Rodman be damned \u2014 on winning a championship, is what makes the conclusion of the 1997-98 season all the more fulfilling and haunting. Jordan\u2019s shot over Utah\u2019s Bryon Russell to clinch the Bulls\u2019 final title, complete with Russell\u2019s tumble to the floor and Jordan\u2019s held pose after his shot, could be a painting. The striking contrast between the two men, with 20,000 Jazz fans knowing disaster is about to strike, is the type of tension movie directors live for. In this case, though, it was real, and Jordan, with his occasionally godlike tendencies, had summoned the supernatural one last time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vancil\u2019s quote at the top of this article is extremely important when trying to understand Jordan\u2019s success. People spend their entire lives trying to be more present; Jordan was always there, wherever \u201cthere\u201d was. The greatest thing for him was the next practice, the next shot or the next game. The future didn\u2019t matter as much as the present. That\u2019s why he thrived so well off of insults and slights; he remembered everything that was said to him and wanted to make sure he capitalized on the opportunity to make that person pay the next time he saw him. To Jordan, that was as good as any of the Bulls\u2019 six titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, with everything, the Bulls broke up, and maybe too soon. At the team\u2019s championship parade, Jordan says that his heart is with the city of Chicago; Pippen, on the other hand, seems more resigned to the team\u2019s fate, thanking the fans for their support throughout the team\u2019s \u201clast dance.\u201d But eventually, everyone knows it\u2019s over. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while we\u2019re on the subject of Reinsdorf and Krause, the men who broke up the Bulls, it becomes very clear who the bigger villain is if you watch Sunday\u2019s episodes. While Krause had a big ego and wanted to build the team in his image, Reinsdorf hid behind financial constraints as an excuse for not keeping the team together. Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, Steve Kerr and Luc Longley were gone the next year. Krause\u2019s reasoning for the rebuild \u2014 that the team needed to do so instead of enduring a slow decline \u2014 was terrible, but at least understandable. But Krause was only the general manager until 2003; Reinsdorf is still the owner and the Bulls\u2019 organization is still screwing things up. Reinsdorf, ironically, fought for a salary cap in the NBA<\/a>, which rendered keeping the team together at its market value impossible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But egos aside, the Bulls have one last moment in the sun, and it\u2019s beautiful. Jackson, who we\u2019ve seen discuss zen practices and Middle Eastern religious philosophies with his players, calls a meeting after the season to tell him that he\u2019ll be stepping away as the team\u2019s coach, which was a virtually predetermined fate. Jackson, in characteristic fashion, talks about his wife, who has a degree in social work and participates in a ritual that helps people release grief. He ignites a fire and tells his players to write notes about what the Bulls meant to them; once they are done, they toss the notes into the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, Jordan\u2019s note garners the most attention in the documentary; we don\u2019t know its contents, which is a real shame. Jordan tosses it in the fire, and the poem, along with the Bulls\u2019 dynasty, is in ashes before either were meant to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Things\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n