As '98 Jazz brought in, ESPN's 'Last Dance' introduces quiet star of season: Dennis Rodman

SALT LAKE CITY — Finally, the Stockton-to-Malone Utah Jazz are seen as the nemesis of the Chicago Bulls’ 1997-98 season, as chronicled in Sunday’s edition of the ESPN documentary “The Last Dance.”

Episode 4 ended as the Bulls arrived in Salt Lake City, pulling up South Temple and into the Delta Center, ready to face the archrival Utah Jazz in a “finals preview” prior to the 1998 title series.

The Bulls fell to the Jazz that night. And Jordan finally made clear his intentions on playing in a post-Jackson Bulls roster.

“If Phil’s not back, then I’m not back,” he said. “It doesn’t leave me any other choice.” Chicago was down — and questions remained about the future of the franchise.

“Is this the end of the Bulls as we know it?” blare the haunting words of episode 4 as the lights fade.

Karl Malone and John Stockton weren’t at the center of Sunday’s part three and four of the 10-point documentary. It wasn't former BYU star Danny Ainge, whose role with the Larry Bird-led Celtics in the 1980s was the climax of the second episode. It was Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Phil Jackson, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas and other stars of the league.

That’s to be expected.

But maybe unexpected was the natural star — Dennis Rodman. Episodes 3 and 4 of the 10-part documentary that aired on ESPN in the United States focused on Rodman, and the role of “The Worm” on the powerhouse Bulls’ teams run by Jordan.

And you guessed it; there were plenty of the “Bad Boy Pistons” that shaped Rodman into his role with the Bulls.

“Dennis was one of the smartest guys I played with,” Jordan said of his colored-haired, tattooed, enigmatic teammate.

The first two episodes of the documentary, which aired last week, shattered records with an average of 6.1 million viewers across ESPN and the edited edition on ESPN2. The feature that has been two decades in the making blasted the network’s previous top documentary “Bo Knows Bo,” which drew 3.6 million viewers in 2012.

“The Last Dance” opened as the most-viewed telecast on ESPN since the College Football Playoff national championship game, according to the Worldwide Leader in Sports. Episode 4 ended with the 1991 NBA finals — the year Jordan led the Bulls to the franchise’s first-ever league title, and proved himself to be on the same level as Magic Johnson.

The two episodes were bridged by the now-infamous episode of Rodman’s last-minute road trip to Las Vegas in January 1998. It came as suddenly as his desire to go — about two days was the original plan.

But the party lasted well longer than 48 hours.

“If you let this dude go on vacation, we’re not going to see him,” Jordan said. “If you let him go to Vegas, we’re definitely not going to see him.

“He didn’t come back on time. We had to go get his (butt) out of bed. And I’m not going to say what was in his bed.”

That was just Rodman being Rodman.

“I’m going to party hard. But I will work hard,” Rodman said. “We wanted to win — we wanted to win the championship.”

At the crux of Rodman’s personality as a basketball player and showman was Jackson, the Bulls coach who was brought in after the controversial firing of Doug Collins in 1989 who went on to become the architect of Jordan’s dynasty.

“Phil took over, and had a completely different approach,” Pippen said.

In many ways, the careers of Jackson and Rodman were as intertwined as any player-coach in NBA history. That might even include the unique relationship between Jackson and Jordan that led to six NBA titles.

“He don’t look at me as a basketball player,” Rodman said of his relationship with Jackson. “He looks at me as a great friend.”

Episode 5 and 6 of the documentary will air next Sunday on ESPN, with an edited version on ESPN2.

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