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SALT LAKE CITY — Perhaps more credit should be given a former BYU basketball great in the development of the greatest player in NBA history.
That was one of the many lessons and anecdotes shared during the two-hour premiere of “The Last Dance,” the 10-part documentary mini-series from ESPN and Netflix that debuted Sunday night on the Worldwide Leader in Sports about the 1997-98 NBA title-winning Chicago Bulls.
Among the fascinating anecdotes was a rewind to 1986. That’s when former BYU star Danny Ainge played golf with Michael Jordan the day before a Game 2 of the Eastern Conference playoffs, when he admitted to "talking trash" to each other.
Jordan was still in his infancy, his legend not yet cemented.
But the future would become the present soon enough, even the next day, after Ainge "might have taken a few bucks" off the future MVP.
"That might have been a mistake,” Ainge said with a smile, recalling how Jordan dropped 63 points in a 135-131 overtime loss to Boston.
Even in the loss, the game marked the beginning of the legend that was Michael Jordan.
“That wasn’t Michael Jordan," said Larry Bird, who had 36 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists for the Celtics. "That was God disguised as Michael Jordan."
Boston won the series 3-0, but Jordan — and by extension, the Bulls — won the larger battle: the respect and admiration of the entire league.
Ainge, Bird, Bill Walton and the rest of the Celtics often played the role of nemesis early in Jordan’s NBA career — a role that eventually shifted to John Stockton, Karl Malone and the Utah Jazz by the mid- to late-90s.
ESPN will document it all during a 10-part documentary mini-series. The series, which was originally scheduled to air in June, was moved up as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has many people stuck at home. Episodes one and two ran Sunday night.
Every episode will be available for replay on ESPN.com for subscribers, as well as on Netflix the Monday following its airing for viewers outside the United States.
Two more episodes will air next Sunday, with new episodes each Sunday for a total of five-straight weeks, providing basketball fans with a short respite in the absence of live sports.
While the final season of the “repeat three-peat” era of Jordan’s Bulls is the overarching plotline of the series, the documentary also traces Jordan’s origins. It includes his origins and struggles with intense racism in his hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina, as a child and the support of his brother Larry on his future career.
“I wanted that approval,” Jordan said. “My determination was to be as good, if not better, than my brother.”
That determination led Jordan on a path to become the legendary figure he is today, from being cut from the varsity team as a sophomore in high school to his NCAA championship-winning career at North Carolina to everything he accomplished in The Association.
It also takes us into the mind and psyche of Jordan’s teammates; episode 2 focused specifically on Scottie Pippen, who was in the final year of a contract that greatly favored the Bulls and had just undergone ankle surgery as the season began.
“Whenever they speak of Michael Jordan, they should speak of Scottie Pippen,” Jordan said in the film.
Next week’s episode will chronicle the role of elite rebounder Dennis Rodman in the Chicago dynasty. The entire documentary will likely end with the last series of the dynasty — whether you refer to it as “The Last Shot” or “The Push-off” is up to interpretation.
But it will chronicle the incredible career of a player few — if any — expected to be what it became.
“There was no one alive — not Coach Smith, not Rod Thorn, who drafted him, no one … none of the experts thought that he would become what he became,” Jordan’s longtime agent David Falk said.
