The first part of the Michael Jordan docuseries debuted on Sunday. The Series explores the story of the final championship of Michael Jordan’s Bulls as well as the story on leading up to the start of the 97-98 season. The episodes so far are excellent. The story jumps between the 97-98 season and the past. I like that storytelling decision because the story of the 97-98 season is the last dance for major players in the Bulls organization and jumping to the past allows for the viewer to understand the stakes, controversy, and story of the final championship run. It is building the main characters of the story of the series. The 1997-98 season story revolves around General Manager Jerry Krause deciding on breaking up the team. Krause said he will not bring back Phil Jackson as well as looking to trade Scottie Pippen. It was looked as their “last dance” with it being their last run at a championship as a group. Krause became a villain for wanting to get rid of the best coach in the league and one of the best players. The way he was treated by the players was awful and wasn’t a good look for Jordan and Pippen. I don’t blame them for being upset at Krause because they disagree with his decision to break up the team but the extend, they went was uncalled for. Krause developed a bad relationship with Phil Jackson over the course of Jackson’s tenure. Krause didn’t invite him to his stepdaughters wedding despite inviting all the bull’s assistant coach and Tim Floyd who ended up replacing Jackson after the 1998 season. It was a terrible idea to break up the talent on their team. There is an argument that they should have traded Pippen because the team struggled for years after the 1998 season. Scottie Pippen’s injury and contract are another storyline. Pippen decided to hold off having surgery till the fall because he wasn’t happy with the front office with his contract. Jordan felt Pippen was being selfish at the time, while Phil Jackson didn’t have an issue with the decision. Pippen signed a bad contract to guarantee financial security leading him to be significantly underpaid. Pippen signed the contract despite being advised against signing it. It the reason why his displeasure with the contract is unwarranted because it is his fault that he is in the situation. I don’t blame the Bulls not renegotiating the contract since it is a very team friendly contract at an exceptional value. They show the intense competitive nature of Jordan. We also saw some footage of Jordan in practice and it lines up with what we heard about Jordan being an intense competitor in practice. One interesting comment from Jordan was about if he had a headache and 9 of the 10 pills will cure it and one will kill you and Jordan said, “depends on how bad the headache is”. That is part of his competitive nature Jordan lost to Danny Ainge golfing before their playoff matchup and Jordan proceeded to drop 63 points afterward. Watching the highlights package, they put together for that scene was amazing to watch. The music used for the highlights throughout the episodes worked perfectly. The highlights showed a great mix of Jordan’s all-around game. It was exciting to see how explosive Jordan was back in the early days of his NBA career given that I was too young to watch Jordan during his Bulls days. I am not very familiar with his highlights from the 80s of Jordan, so it was interesting to watch regular season games of Jordan from the 80s. The next episodes will include the bad boy pistons and Dennis Rodman. It is interesting what they will show for Dennis Rodman to built another major character in this story. I can’t wait to watch the next two episodes on Sunday.
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