Monday’s release of the third and fourth episodes of The Last Dance has brought to the fore the intense rivalry between the Bulls and Pistons during the years spanning the late eighties and early nineties. While director Jason Hehir strives to show an unfiltered unveiling of the proceedings, there can be no mistaking the roles they play in the ESPN documentary series. And even from the vantage point of casual observers, the portrayals are to be expected. For one thing, principal protagonist Michael Jordan provides the clearest lens from which a significant part of the National Basketball Association’s history is seen. For another, the two sides have — through time, then as now — seen fit to embrace their predetermined colors.
Interestingly, the latest installments of The Last Dance shine the spotlight on Dennis Rodman, and how. He certainly cut a compelling figure, and not just because of his eccentricities. He proved vital — critical, to be more precise — to the Bulls’ second three-peat, but only after being integral to the hated Pistons en route to their first three-peat. That they accepted him despite their lingering bitterness towards what he hitherto represented speaks volumes of their singular commitment to success. Jordan even referred of him in glowing terms, arguing that he “is one of the smartest guys I played with. He understood defensive strategy with all the rotations, and he had no limits in terms of what he does.”
Which, in a nutshell, was why the Bulls put up with Rodman’s antics on and off the court. Among other things, The Last Dance documents his notorious “approved vacation” to Las Vegas in the middle of the 1997–98 season. Evidently, head coach Phil Jackson gave him the green light to succumb to his baser instincts for “48 hours.” Jordan, present in the meeting, expressed his reservations. “You let him go to Vegas, and we’re definitely not going to see him.” And, indeed, he went well over the time allotted, compelling the would-be regular season Most Valuable Player to pick him up from his apartment across the street from the United Center and compel him to finally report back to work.
Talk about load management. In any case, the time away did Rodman good. He picked up from where he left off, showing his commitment to the cause in his first practice back from his hiatus by taking Jackson’s “Indian drill” — a running workout in which players circle the gym, with the last in line getting to the front to dictate the pace, and so on — to extreme. Against Jordan‘s explicit wishes to “slow down to a f — in’ walk,” he proceeded to sprint, forcing the rest to follow. “It took us four laps to catch up.” For the record, the Bulls won the two games he was out of the lineup; they beat the Hornets at home by 31 and the Nets on the road by two.
Nonetheless, there can be no doubting who’s the star of The Last Dance. If there’s anything its third and fourth parts proved, it’s that Jordan has a very long memory. He remembers bits and pieces of information that give the series its singular sheen. And he’s especially biting when it comes to slights; for instance, he minces no words eviscerating the Pistons — and leader Isiah Thomas, in particular — for their unsportsmanlike decision to head straight to their locker room with still seven and change seconds left in the fourth and last game of the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals.
Considering Jordan’s famed competitiveness, his framing of the Pistons as figurative and literal “Bad Boys” is far from a surprise. And, conveniently, he forgot that he painted them as such on the eve of the fateful walkout. He called them “undeserving champions” and “bad for the game of basketball,” and his statements no doubt fueled their desire to deny him a formal passing of the torch. In any case, they paid for it with the backlash they received; only recently has the impact of their run of success been assessed with a more sympathetic eye. Meanwhile, Thomas lost out on a well-deserved spot on the Dream Team.
There is still more to come from The Last Dance, and, needless to say, from the Bulls-Pistons dynamic. Minds have been made up, though. When the best of the best speaks, it’s hard not to listen.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
