By ARIEL GONZALEZ
Staff Writer
The Last Dance is what coach Phil Jackson dubbed his final season with the Chicago Bulls in 1998. For those who were a part of that team or lived in the city of Chicago a glimmer of hope always remained that the song being played would be endless, but it wasn’t. Starting this Sunday and for the next four weeks, basketball fans around the world will have a chance to have an inside look into that final season and how it all came crumbling down with ESPN’s documentary, “The Last Dance.”
To put into perspective how good the Chicago Bulls were during the Michael Jordan era from 1984 to 1998 just take into account Hall of Famers like Reggie Miller, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Gary Payton, Karl Malone, and John Stockton never won a championship for their respective teams mainly because Jordan and his teams prevented them from doing so by defeating them in the playoffs or in the NBA Finals.
Sure, Jordan and the Bulls didn’t always win championships in fact for his first seven years the Bulls struggled to put together a cohesive team around Jordan whom he could trust enough to beat the likes of the Boston Celtics or the Detroit Pistons. However, once the Bulls won their first championship in 1991 they never looked back winning two more in consecutive fashion and only when Jordan retired in 1993 and came back at the end of the 1995 season did the Bulls take a break from winning championships.
As soon as Jordan returned for a full season the following year the Bulls again won consecutive championships in the two years that followed. But, even to some success gets old and after winning the 1998 NBA Finals, General Manager Jerry Krause along with Owner Jerry Reinsdorf pulled the plug on a franchise which had won six titles in eight years. Feuds between management and the players and their coach had been brewing for years, however many believed that Krause who controlled basketball operations for the Bulls would never break up a team with this type of success but he did. Following the victory, coach Jackson retired vowing to never coach again, star players Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman were traded away, and Jordan who was and still is widely regarded as the greatest player ever, retired vowing to not be a part of a rebuilding process in the latter part of his career especially without his coach and his teammate Scottie Pippen.
The tumultuous end to the Chicago Bulls dynasty still angers many who covered the team and who played on the team, many, including Jordan, shared the sentiment that a team of that caliber should be dethroned by an opponent not sabotaged from the inside. After winning the team’s fifth championship, Jordan told reporters, “We are entitled to defend what we have until we lose it, if we lose it then you look at it and okay let’s change.” Others like Krause felt they had never received enough respect or credit for building a powerhouse and sustaining it. He was famously quoted and missquoted prior to the 1998 season: “Players and Coaches alone don’t win championships; organizations win championships.” It was later interpreted that Krause had said players and coaches don’t win championships leaving the key word “alone” out of the quote. Krause also seemed to suggest at training camp that even an undefeated season would not save Jackson’s job as coach causing further turmoil with his players and fans.
The Last Dance promises to answer many questions that fans have had for 22 years and give an inside look into how a team which dealt with so much publicity and turmoil managed to stay at the mountaintop for one last run. To not only have the stars of the team speak on what occurred but to have many rivals like Magic Johnson, Isaiah Thomas and celebrities like Carmen Electra, former President Barack Obama and so many more will give fans a unique perspective as to how the team impacted the NBA and society throughout the 1990’s.
For those tuning in on Sunday and the weeks that follow who lived through the Jordan years this will be a reminder of how great their hero was and be able to reminisce the glory years of their childhood. I also hope that for those of us who don’t remember Jordan and the Bulls last championship run, starting Sunday we can appreciate the greatness of the Bulls and Jordan in order to strengthen arguments used in future debates about who was better and who was not.