“THE LAST DANCE” REVIEWED - EPISODE 7

Pain of three

The game doesn’t look fun anymore at this point. At this point, after the Bull’s second title and Jordan serving as the international face of the Dream Team, we have reached peak Jordan-mania. He had conquered the basketball world and exploded the importance and profile of the game worldwide. In many ways, Michael Jordan was the NBA. He was existing on another plane. Playing a game beyond the game. On and off the court he had an untouchable aura. And you can see here, it was taking a toll on Michael Jordan the human at the center of the global phenomenon.

However the task at hand was to pick up the ball and keep on winning. With the entire league gunning against him, Jordan grew even more hardcore with his training and weights routine. The media smear campaign around his gambling and bullying of teammates would intensify. Michael prickled and recoiled from all the heat. Shutting himself off from the media and focusing on winning basketball games. As usual, he began taking all of these media slights personally, and churning them into his legendary fuel.

The biggest basketball slight of the season would be Charles Barkley winning the MVP award. Yes, Charles had an incredible season with the Phoenix Suns and was a legendary Hall-of-Fame player in his own right. But when the award was announced, it felt more like he was winning the “best player in the NBA whose name isn’t Michael Jordan” award. Predictably, Jordan took offense and powered his game in the NBA Finals to another level, which yielded the Bulls third straight NBA championship. Only at the celebration, Jordan didn’t seem overcome with emotion as he had after his first title and he didn’t seem overjoyed as he did in 1992. He seemed flat out exhausted. There was even talk of him retiring. He probably just needed a summer off. The dude looked flat our spent from being a living god slash superhero for the past three years.

Father’s death

The tragic news of his father’s murder came in the offseason. It was the final blow in a long run of tough times for Jordan. It also had the effect of turning him back into a sympathetic character. It was a reminder for the hype-crazed media that this global icon was indeed human. A son who had lost his father. It cast a further shadow over what had been an already subdued championship off-season. There would be no celebrations. Just reflection and meditation as Michael looked toward the future.

“I have nothing left to prove”

After the dour championship anti-celebration and his father’s death, it came as a shock, but not a huge surprise that Jordan would step away from the game. At the time, as a fan, it felt inevitable that the Bulls would keep on winning and had a legitimate chance to win four titles in a row. But we would never get the chance to find out when Jordan called it quits. While the sports world was robbed of the most iconic figure since Muhammad Ali, Jordan had already created a legendary career. From his perspective, he’d done it all. Proved himself as an individual dynamo, and then, three times over, proved that he had the ability to elevate his teammates and franchise into the stratosphere. He would leave a gaping hole in the sport landscape, but his legend was already assured of living on.

Why baseball?

As a young athlete in the middle of both a basketball and baseball career, Jordan’s devotion to baseball was a validating force in my own choice to play the game. I even opted for a “like Mike” semi retirement of my own from basketball as I went all in on baseball. (I would miss the game too much and rejoin the basketball team mid-season.) While the casual fan and media would criticize Michael’s “Detour” into baseball, I understood what it was doing for him as a competitor. For one, it lowered the stakes and profile of what he was doing. There were no expectations of the world’s best basketball player trying to give it a go on the baseball diamond. Secondly, it allowed Jordan to start at the beginning of an athletic challenge. The whole journey of building fundamentals, learning the mental game and challenging himself to move up the rankings on his team lay in front of him.

At first, it seemed like a media stunt. Or maybe even some far-flung marketing move by Jordan and super brand Nike. Eventually Nike leaned into these conspiracy rumors with a Steve Martin helmed Super Bowl commercial. But as Jordan stayed at baseball, the results and his game improved. His body even slowly started to morph into that of a baseball player as his training regime fully shifted to meet the demands of the game. He built more long term stamina and trained himself to adjust to the repetition of baseball. Eventually he got into a groove. He started stealing bases. His speed was still elite at this point. Baseball people speculated that he could possibly become a base-stealing specialist if he kept at it. He knocked a few balls out of the park. He moved up the minor leagues. His batting average rose as he entered the fall leagues.

As baseball entered the winter, it also entered into intense labor negotiations. The major leagues were headed for a strike and stoppage of play. The commissioner talked about starting the season with “replacement players.” Basically offering open tryouts to amateurs for the chance to officially play for big league clubs while the real major leaguers were holding out. For a fleeting moment it seemed like Michael Jordan could be the world’s most iconic replacement player. But he quickly came out and said he wouldn’t break the picket line, and that he stood with the major league players in their protest. 

“THE LAST DANCE” REVIEWED - EPISODE 6

The price of Immortality

I remember watching along at the time, that Jordan seemed different after the 1992 championship. Maybe he was tired. Maybe he was lacking in motivation. But he seemed meaner, angrier and with a much stronger physique. In 1992, it almost felt like he still had some child-like innocence about him. Like the game was a joy for him to play. He reminded me of the legendary baseball player Ken Griffey Jr. who was known for smiling and blowing bubbles the whole game. But in 1993, Jordan had some kind of shadow hanging over him. Even as a kid, I remember thinking that the game didn’t look fun for Jordan anymore. He was scowling, yelling more, getting more technical fouls. Something had changed.

Here we get to see the dark side of being Michael Jordan, the man everyone wants to be like. The doc shows take after take of Jordan delivering the same line over and over again in a high production interview session. Just imagine sitting in all those interviews, commercial shoots, media junkets, after practice talks, etc. Imagine having to be fully on and in character as super human Michael Jordan at all times. Think about how even celebrities and politicians were affected by Michael. This was never really about basketball. This was a grand business experiment in crafting an image. It was corporate politics. In an era before transparency and social media, with enough time and money, someone could create a sexy, mysterious, globally beloved image—and offer the public no real view into the human at the center of it. Michael Jordan’s life turned into a real life Truman Show level reality show. Only the cameras weren’t all access. We were flooded with the most premium images and videos in a high spending media era. The result was that we were sold an idea. The idea of the people’s champion. The idea that if you pursue greatness you have a fighting chance of achieving immortality. A 360 dunk here. A Big Mac there. Spike Lee holding up some Air Jordans over there. And Michael Jordan holding up another NBA championship trophy. Turning into the singular narrative arc in a team sport. He was marketed more as an individual athlete, like a tennis player or a golfer.

And then, at the end of the day, Michael Jordan would go back to his hotel room, alone. A human behind closed doors, taking a deep breath, puffing on a cigar and pondering the media monster he was complicit in creating. Was he driving the businesses surrounding him? Or were the business sucking him dry and driving him? As he deliberated, the mountains of cash piled up for everyone involved. And the trophies piled up for Michael. The Michael Jordan Project had reached peak saturation levels. Perhaps foreshadowing that the “first” end was near…

The Jordan Rules

I read the Jordan Rules book as soon as it came out. I was hungry to learn more about what made Jordan and the Bulls tick. All we got back then were nightly highlights and high production glimpses like Nike commercials and team highlight videos. On VHS. The Jordan Rules represented a fly on the wall view into the mystique of the budding dynasty. The press hype for the book was vicious, looking to take down Jordan as a bully. As a certified (certifiable?) MJ fan, I braced for the worst.

The accounts I found in the book were just a collection of anecdotes that just sounded like team sports. Players talking trash, fights breaking out in practice, alpha personalities exerting their dominance. All the episodes sounded like what I had already experienced on my teams. I breathed a sigh of relief. The Jordan Rules was shocking to non-competitive minds who believed that everyone deserved a participation ribbon. But to anyone who had ever dreamed of winning anything, there was nothing out of line. The only difference between what was going on between MJ and his teammates, and what happens in every high school locker room was that it was happening with famous millionaires. However, if the Jordan Rules were an attempted smear campaign, they seemed to have the opposite effect. They merely became another gospel account of Jordan’s legendary competitive nature. He was emerging as a kind of Steve Jobs of competitive sports. Stressing every detail. Demanding the best out of the weakest links. And as they say, you can’t argue with the results.

Going for 3 / The Knicks

The Knicks presented a more made-for-TV version of the Bad Boy Pistons. Pat Riley had stacked the Knicks with hard-nosed defenders who had crafted an identity out of slowing the game down to a wrestling match. The Knicks could control the pace and score of the game. They would be perfectly happy with a final score of 62-57. They weren’t going for highlights. They were playing the long game. They wanted to mentally and emotionally drain their high flying opponents.

There would be flare ups in the match up, but not to the Pistons versus Bulls levels. I think Jordan and Patrick Ewing were too good of friends for true hatred to spill into the series. Still, the series was a spectacle and felt vital with the key matches being played at Madison Square Garden. It was truly must see TV. The Bulls got down in the series, but Jordan willed them back after spending some late nights, soul searching, in Atlantic City. A foreshadowing of darker headlines looming on the horizon.

“I have a competition problem”

This episode fully slides into Michael’s well-publicized gambling hobby. He seems in full denial of having a problem—but as he says, he is well-funded and still more than able to provide for his family. Everyone has to blow off steam somehow. When your bank account has that many funds in it, even the side bets become shocking headlines. But taken in context, maybe it’s overblown. Of course, we don’t like our heroes to have vices, so it’s a reality we all must reconcile. To me, it seems huge and noteworthy that no one has ever accused Jordan of betting on his own performance on the basketball court. Maybe he has a gambling addiction, but it appears there are boundaries.

After months of not talking to the media, this is how Jordan dressed when he went on national TV to deny he had a gambling problem.

And yet again, we see how Jordan takes headlines and barbs thrown at him in the press and eats them for breakfast, as his fuel to power himself and his team to another victory. It’s almost like he needed to power up the Knicks to Bad Boy Piston levels, so he spent a late night gambling, created a media scandal around that, and then had a basketball team and negative press to overcome. As though he needed to get the last laugh. “Who cares if I’m up till 1am in the playoffs playing cards, my performance didn’t suffer. Maybe it was enhanced.”

Michael gets the last laugh. Again.

“THE LAST DANCE” REVIEWED - EPISODE 5

“That Laker Boy”

Man, this is emotional seeing Kobe Bryant talking about his idol so soon after his death. Kobe is back to life, full of life, tickled to be talking about his hero and literal role and game model. I find this relationship fascinating. For such a vengeful person as Jordan, it seems surprising that he would have embraced Kobe and put him under his wing. And really, this relationship was a clandestine one. Until the memorial for Kobe, when Jordan detailed some of their connection and signed out by saying “Rest well little brother,” the world never really had an eye into what was going on between the two all-time greats. There could be a whole documentary examining what that mentorship was like.

It was also revealing to see the throwback footage of a veteran Jordan talking trash about “that Laker boy” in the lockeroom of the All-Star Game. Surrounded by the game’s elite, Jordan almost seems defensive in obsessively talking about Kobe. It’s like he realized the young Bryant was a formidable threat, even at age 18. It speaks volumes that the young gun Kobe could get in Jordan’s dish like that. If only we had that time machine that could let peak Jordan and Kobe go at it. You know they would both relish in the chance to prove themselves. And we would all benefit from the spectacle of seeing fierce competitors locked in a battle for securing their all time legacies.

It really seems like Kobe “got” Jordan, and vice versa. Kobe faced the ridicule of “copying” Jordan’s game. I’ve never really understood that criticism. Why wouldn’t you copy the greatest to ever play the game? And so what that Kobe had the physical gifts, and mental approach to emulate MJ better than anyone else. Kobe was a pure disciple of Jordan, and for everyone wishing for the second coming, I hope they enjoyed Kobe while he was here. There was a fluidity to the fire that both players played with. I won’t get sucked into the GOAT argument here. For me, Jordan is the unshakeable king. But I also hold Kobe and LeBron in high regard. It’s like appreciating the work of different artists. Just because I love Picasso doesn’t mean I must disrespect Van Gogh. Generational sport talent is no different. I will say that Jordan touched the psyche in a more mythic way than Kobe or LeBron ever did. Jordan was almost like living, flying pop art. He was a Warhol can of soup. He was a Darth Vader wielding a lightsaber. He wasn’t just a basketball player, he was an icon. A personification of greatness. Maybe Mohammed Ali was the only other persona from sport to ascend to this kind of rarified position. Jordan was the perfect storm of basketball talent and a sustained and genius image making experiment. He transcended the sports pages and became an indelible meme on our psyches.

Signing with Nike

It’s funny to see the whole Nike singing reduced to a simple “My parents made me do it.” It’s one of those great time machine moments, where you go back in time, have Mike sign with Adidas and see if the story and cultural storm reaches the same zeitgeist. I’m a longtime Nike and Jordan fanboy to believe that it was the particular fusing of the man and the brand’s DNA that created the cultural impact they did. Nike was taking big swings and risks to get their athletes into popular culture, before that was a given pipeline. Other brands celebrated sports stars. There is a key distinction there for those paying attention.

Being “bigger than basketball” is now a common mantra. Now every season a handful of athletes are tagged “game changers.” Top athletes are now expected to be singer brands—taking to social media with the eloquence and ambition of CEOs and global business moguls. But before Jordan, bigger than basketball wasn’t a thing. Yes, you could be very good at the game, and become a superstar on the court. But there was no pathway to connect sport stars with a global business platform. Jordan created that template. Jordan excelled at the game on and off the court. He showed up to the arena in a fine suit, in an era where everyone else was wearing baggy sweatpants and hoodies. He defined a whole other type of game. And that separation built an unshakeable image and eventually moved untold billions of dollars in products.

1992 NBA Finals 

This series was a watershed moment for me personally. It pitted my favorite player, Jordan, against my favorite team, my hometown Portland Trailblazers. All year long there had been growing hype that the dream Finals matchup would be Michael Jordan versus Portland’s Clyde Drexler. Time has faded Drexler’s star from popular memory, but at the time, it was a vital debate. Jordan and Drexler finished first and second in MVP voting. Their games were similar—both predicated on owning the airspace high above the rim and delighting fans with insanely creative dunks.

The Last Dance doesn’t delve very deep into this series, other than to highlight Jordan taking offense at being compared to Drexler. And as Mike says, “that’s all I needed.” However, the series, wasn’t a sweep. It was tied 2-2 after four games. The Blazers had a chance to send the Bulls to their first ever Finals game 7, when they took a commanding 15-point lead into the fourth quarter of game 6, at Chicago Stadium. Phil Jackson and the Bulls even seemed to concede the game, resting Jordan for the fourth quarter, as a bunch of Bulls scrubs and Scottie Pippin mounted a comeback that would result in Chicago’s second title.

Clyde Drexler was a great player—he was even certified as one of the 50 greatest NBA players of all time. He was a member of the legendary Dream Team alongside Jordan. However, in this one-on-one duel with Jordan on the highest stage, he couldn’t pull off the upset. Clyde the Glide was a soft-spoken assassin. He didn’t talk trash. He didn’t give memorable quotes. His value lay entirely on his other worldly athleticism and all-star abilities on the court. He seemed mild mannered. He was knocked for not having a killer instinct. In the end, Jordan’s force of personality and unwavering obsession to dominate won the day. I just history would remember how hard the Blazers pushed Jordan’s Bulls. It wasn’t a cakewalk, even though the series has turned into a footnote in the narrative of Michael Jordan’s transcendence.

The Dream Team

This was absolutely the moment Michael Jordan became the clear face of the NBA. And maybe the brightest that an American athlete could possibly stand on the world’s stage. Magic and Bird were alongside him, as the icons of the 1980s, to pass the baton and sit back and watch as MJ took the pedestal they built and elevated it by an order of magnitude. The Dream Team would captivate Europe and plant the basketball seed in the hearts of a next generation of talent that would turn the continent into a hotbed of talent. 

Here we get another tale of vengeance as Jordan and Pippen vilified poor Tony Kukoc who had been drafted by the Bulls. These kind of stories feel frivolous and childish taken one at a time—but seeing these beats of imagined revenge pile up, you really see how the motivational engine of Jordan’s psyche worked. It all seems like a ripple affect of Jordan being bullied by the Pistons. Once he conquered his demon, that bullying instinct worked itself into his DNA until he in turn felt the lust of “administering pain.”

All this Dream Team footage has been poured over and used in other docs before, and it’s also interesting to see how even at the time, all of the other stars clearly looked up to Jordan. Just how he wanted it. He had a magnetic aura that set him apart, even when he was on a team of the 12 greatest basketball players ever assembled. Jordan was something else then, and the legend has only solidified his differences since then.

“THE LAST DANCE” REVIEWED - EPISODE 3

Dennis the Menace

Finally, we get the full on Rodman episode. Based on him getting a whole episode, you can tell that Jordan loves the guy. His colorful antics, and hair, easily distracted people from the immense talent he had. But watching Jordan, Pippen and Phil Jackson talk about what Rodman gave to those teams, you can see how valued his skills were.

The second three-peat Bulls were so beautiful to watch. They all knew the triangle offense and the ball zipped freely around court until it ended up in the hands of whoever had the open shot. It was an offense full of savvy, high IQ ball players, and it literally ran like clockwork. But, sometimes, the shots just weren’t falling. Sometimes MJ or Pippen were spent. 

That’s when Dennis would step in.

You could feel Rodman turn it on when his team needed it. When the energy just wasn’t there. He would find a way to get under the opponents skin, in a way that sparked the whole game. His elbows or flops or theatrics of the night would really fire up what ever pour soul he was guarding. Suddenly a humdrum game transformed into something electric. Sometimes it was as simple as Rodman jumping over the scorer’s table to track down a loose ball. Whatever his tactic was, the team responded. The fuel tanks got refilled. The crowd level raised. Suddenly Michael and Scottie would enter stage right and go back into being Superman and Batman or whatever dynamic duo you want to call them. But Rodman was always right there in the mix when it counted.

I liked the little subtext of Pippen returning to the Bulls after Jordan had formed a bond with Rodman. It’s almost like Scottie didn’t want to be left out. When he came back, the team gelled. Weird Dennis had been tamed enough, and repented enough from his Bad Boy Piston days. It seemed like it would be an obviously dysfunctional relationship, but it ended up being a highly functioning one.

I don’t think the Bulls are guaranteed to win three titles in a row without Rodman. He had to guard the biggest and best scorers on the other side. He waged mortal battle with Shawn Kemp, who was at the height of his powers, to get that first title in 96. Then he fought Karl Malone, twice. Look up the highlights on YouTube—Rodman played a pivotal role in how he shut down those guys. They got their numbers, but you could tell his psychological relentlessness grated on them. He created an edge and filed it down over the course of a series into a razor’s point.

I think this documentary is going to help secure Rodman into the Bulls legacy. Right where he should be.

The Bad Boys

In Rodman’s first act, he was a part of the notorious Detroit Pistons. They dispatched my beloved Portland Trailblazers in 1990, so I had a strong rooting interest for Jordan to bring their dynasty to an end in 1991. For Jordan, it was the culmination of three years of futile agony. He finally slayed his dragon, and in the process, Detroit create an absolute monster of the ages.

Without the Pistons thuggery, I don’t know what becomes of Michael Jordan. He probably wins a title or two—but without those disturbing runs through the depths of basketball hell, I don’t think Jordan ends up with the massive psychological chip on his shoulder. I mean look at the guy talking about the Pistons 30 years later. He’s that affected by what those guys did to him! 

Jordan needed revenge. And in the process, vengeance became the defining trait of his competitive drive. It wasn’t enough to win. There had to be stakes. There had to be humiliation on the line. And as Jordan says, he wanted to “administer pain.” His wounded psyche from failing against the Pistons in the late 80s, left an imprint that would go on to haunt the basketball world in the 90s.

I respect the Pistons. I don’t condone what they did, but it’s impressive how they were able to carve a unique and feared identity. They didn’t try to compete with the Hollywood slickness of Magic Johnson and the Lakers. They didn’t try to play old school ball like the Boston Celtics. They acted like a street gang. They played like thugs. And they had enough talent and charisma and shamelessness to play that way long enough to carve out their own dynasty. In the theater of basketball, Jordan fans everywhere owe a debt of gratitude to those Bad Boys for making Jordan’s trials as compelling as they did. It was good versus evil. It was air versus crowbars. 

When the Bulls finally vanquished the Pistons, who else could possibly stand in their way? The Knicks and various Finals challengers from the west would make their token efforts. But no one ever owned the Bulls, and Jordan’s ego, like the Pistons. When Jordan slayed his dragon, he was gifted a decade of dominance. Well earned. Hard fought. And apparently still a set of demons he is still wrestling with to this very day.

“THE LAST DANCE” REVIEWED - EPISODE 2

That Celtics’ series

It’s crazy how many short and mid-range jumpers Jordan hit in this early phase of his career. His jump shot for still looks the same as it did in his college days. It’s still a bit raw and not as refined as it would get later in his career. Also, the guy is hitting no three pointers. It’s all dunks and jump shots. It’s awesome seeing the Celtic legends Larry Bird and Danny Ainge talking about that playoff series. Nothing but praise. They realize that Michael was turning the game into something different. It was a special performance, peak young Jordan. As Bird said, he’s never seen anything like it before or after that series.

Pippen stews

I remember the narrative about Pippen being underpaid and asking for a trade. It was such a transition period for the NBA. In the 1980s you had players who had to have second jobs to support themselves in the off-season. Then the Bulls game through, turned the sport into a pop culture phenomenon, and suddenly the TV and marketing deals just swell up. Everyone wants a piece of what Jordan, Pippen and the Bulls created. But Pippen’s contract was locked in, long-term before the money really started pouring in. He was caught in the middle. He surely deserved to get some more coin for the popularity he was responsible for bringing to the game. Yet, as the documentary shows, the Bulls management weren’t willing to renegotiate. An unfortunate sour note in an otherwise soaring narrative of team dominance.

Late night WGN rebroadcasts

Way back in time, before streaming services, before Instagram, before Facebook even, there were a limited number of television channels. One of the national channels you could get anywhere in the US was the local Chicago station, WGN. So back before League Pass, if you wanted to, you could watch every Bulls game live if you wanted. 

Looking back now, there was something magical about tuning into WGN on a random weekday evening in January. There were no stakes. The playoffs lay waiting far on the other side of winter and spring. But there was basketball, and there was Michael Jordan. It’s funny thinking of this now, in this era of insanely hyped up YouTube mixtapes. On WGN, watching the Bulls was almost casual viewing. The crowds wouldn’t be that hyped in Milwaukee or Charlotte or wherever the Bulls happened to be playing. You would just dive through the worm hole and get to be a fly on the wall in stadiums across the US as Jordan and the Bulls would come to town. There was no fanfare, aside from the local Chicago announcers pulling out their best hyperbole to describe MJ’s latest aerial feat. 

But a lot of the time, the game just kind of dragged. And it was beautiful. You’d see Michael Jordan just moving around the court, sometimes not even touching the ball. But when he did, it was electric. The crowds he was visiting wouldn’t make much noise as he beat up on their home team, but he kept on at a constant clip. Racking up dunks and stats. Slowly building, almost behind the scenes, to something that would add up to be seen by all. These little nightcaps became a comfort food. Something to unwind to after a day of school and an evening of practice. A little competitive snack. Somewhere, in middle America, the Bulls were silently marching.

“THE LAST DANCE” REVIEWED - EPISODE 1

OK here we go. I’m just going to be dropping thoughts and associations that hit me as I watch this thing. I grew up watching Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and the 1990’s Chicago Bulls. Like so many in that era, their story became a part of my DNA. It shaped my mentality as an athlete. It gave me a framework to approach challenges. It gave me an attitude that carried me through high school and college. They were my Beatles. It’s the documentary we’ve been waiting to be released for over 20 years. As Michael Jordan has become a kind of generalized global meme for dominance, I think it’s good to look back at the details. I have distinct memories of watching Jordan throughout his career, and this is gonna be a treasured walk down memory lane.

No one had shown this kind of creativity and flair in basketball before. Young Jordan was a freak of athleticism that looked like nothing else in sport.

“Mike”

As a long time Jordan fan, I remember an MJ that was simply called Mike. Before the statues. Before the weighty legacy. Before the championships. Just from an aesthetic standpoint, he was a guy who jumped off the screen and into your living room. A guy who froze time and demanded to be put up on your bedroom wall. He didn’t look like anyone else. And he sure didn’t move like anyone else. Sure, basketball is a fun game. But culturally, it felt on par or maybe even behind other major sports, until Jordan came along and did his thing. Sure he had influences and peers, but the combination of his swagger, tongue wave, killer shoes, baggy shorts and game high above the rim, transcended anything we had ever seen before. He was different. He was new. He was important. He reached into a rarefied level of our collective imaginations. It wasn’t just basketball. It wasn’t just a sport. It was somehow bigger. And we all bought into it.

Who was this rookie that came out oozing with swagger? Who did this Mike kid think he was?!

Carolina Air

This is a nice refresher seeing all of the North Carolina footage. His championship winning shot over Georgetown gets reposted so much, that you kind of forget just how damn springy he was back then. Soaring into the air to block centers out of nowhere. Finishing two handed alley-oops. His game is rawer and more based on instinct, but you can see all the athletic building blocks that he will just keep accumulating talent onto as we move forward.

The dynamic duo

I know this whole series is about the 97-98 Bulls, but I just have to recount how I remembered them. I watched most of their games. I saw them play in person. And I watched every single playoff game. This is what I remember thinking. Jordan AND Scottie Pippen are unstoppable. Within the triangle offense, they had the two-man game on lockdown. On both ends. They toyed with opponents. It was the most fearsome full-court double team press I’ve ever seen. I mean, that’s not even a thing in today’s NBA. The Bulls pulled out a trap whenever they needed to make a comeback. They made their opponents so jittery. Especially the young teams, who couldn’t stand up to the aura of the mighty Chicago Bulls. But it never, ever, ever felt like a one-man team. Jordan was the global icon and transcended the sport into being a cultural icon, but in basketball terms, Scottie Pippen was a legit, MVP, all-world talent on his own. Hell, he was the second best player on the vaunted 1992 Dream Team. Pippen alone nearly took the Bulls to the championship when Jordan bowed out to play baseball for a season. I think that’s partly what spurred Jordan back to the Bulls. The realization that, damn, they almost won without me. Scottie Pippen was scary good. And I think Jordan himself feared what would happen to his legacy if Pippen were to win a championship or two on his own. So, back to basketball Jordan came. 

You don’t want to face this double team.

Jordan and Pippen as interchangeable parts. Bringing out the best in each other.

Superman, Batman and Rodman

This time, after the dust of the first three championships had settled, the world sensed what they were missing, and the final three championships became a farewell tour for this legendary team.  The media savored everyone moment of it. Sure the Bulls were iconic before. But from 1996 to 1998 they were legit gods, live on tour. Throw in Rodman, for some insane rebounding skill, the dated Madonna backstory and a healthy dose of what the hell is that guy doing here. And the Bulls were off and running once again. This time with a fully expectant, global audience. The Beatles of basketball. There has been nothing as culturally magnetic in sports for that prolonged period of time ever since. Sure teams have piled up great records and won fistfuls of championships. But they haven’t had that intangible, mesmerizing factor that those late 90s Bulls teams did. Everyone else is playing a sport, and maybe at an elite level. But the Bulls were engaging with destiny and legend. Modern myths using 90 feet of hardwood as their stage. This was not X’s and O’s. This was cosmic stuff.

Rodman demanded all the attention along with all the rebounds. His addition to the Bulls added toughness and a healthy dose of tabloid entertainment. The latter era Bulls had it all!

Oh boy, this series is gonna ruin me…

Little Routines and Deep Breaths

Without places to go and people to see—time has a way of flattening out. It’s important to create little spikes of nowness in your day. Little moments just because. To have some control over something. To fight a vague sense of dread with a specific burst of passion. Even if it’s just for five minutes. It’s important that we reclaim what we can. Reclaim what is ours. To be present and take back now.

Me, I reclaim my creativity with short writing and drawing breaks. I enter these with no goals in mind—no pressure. I just come to a blank page with a desire and willingness to create. That's what gets me going. I lay down some brushstrokes or colored pencil or start flowing sentences from my pen. Sometimes it leads somewhere else. Sometimes it completes itself. The victory lies in actually carving out the time. Reconnecting with your intentions. Taking back what matters to you. The things that make you breathe.



What are you doing to take back your now?

John C. Jay on Pushing the Boundaries of a Creative Career

In this podcast, Jeff Staple interviews John C. Jay and traces the career steps and creative risks he took at each step. John C. Jay is the former Global Creative Director of Wieden+Kennedy and the current President of Global Creative at Fast Retailing (Uniqlo). This podcast episode is a must listen for anyone interested in creativity, branding or business. I was lucky enough to have John as one of my first mentors in advertising. He always told me “Don’t make an ad. Make art.” It’s an inspiring viewpoint from a self-proclaimed “outsider.” John is drawn to advertising by the talented creators he can collaborate with, but he has always aspired to something beyond advertising. If you’re not familiar with John, he’s well worth googling to trace the influence he’s had on Nike and the creative industry. He is constantly digging for new, undiscovered and overlooked voices. He then cultivates that talent and collaborates with them on the brightest brand stages. This episode is full of inspiration on how to follow your gut, build a powerful network and push your creative career to new heights.

Check out the full episode here.

Below is one of John’s first pieces of work on Nike. It was part of a massive, hyper local New York City basketball campaign that included loads of posters and videos featuring local street legends. It was the first “city attack,” which years later has now become a standard client brief.