The Conclusion of The Last Dance: Three Takeaways from Episode 9 and 10

The final shot. The final championship. The final championship party at Grant Park. The final time the team was together. It was the final two episodes of The Last Dance and for one, this just settled the debate once and for all: Michael Jordan is indeed the greatest player of all-time. Period.

Both Episode Nine and Episode Ten of the 10-episode documentary about Michael Jordan and his final championship-winning season with the fabled Chicago Bulls in the National Basketball Association (NBA) focused on His Royal Airness' playoff run during the 1998 playoffs and the difficulties that the team had to go through before they could win their sixth NBA championship in eight years. 

First, the Bulls had to face a Reggie Miller-led Indiana Pacers team who was incidentally coached by Larry Bird- the former star of the Boston Celtics who Jordan et al in the playoffs during their multiple playoff battles. And considering that it was during the 1998 playoffs, the stakes couldn't get higher at that time with the possibility of Reggie Miller being the one to retire Michael Jordan and you know what? They almost succeeded. Almost.  

And that's one of the takeaways of the final two episodes of the series: Jordan's capability to carry his team to victory no matter what it takes.

Facing the Pacers in the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals, even the Bulls admitted themselves that the Pacers were a serious threat to them and that, Michael Jordan said that outside of the Detroit Pistons fo Isiah Thomas, that specific Indiana team was the toughest team they had to face in the playoffs and the fact that the Pacers pushed the defending champions to a Game Seven said something about the competitiveness of the Pacers back then. Mind you, that was only the second time that the Bulls needed to play a Game Seven in the playoffs. At the end of the day, it was Michael Jordan, his leadership, his trust to Steve Kerr, enabled the Bulls to move on to the NBA Finals for the sixth time in eight years. 

And even during the 1998  NBA Finals against Karl Malone, John Stockton, and the rest of the Utah Jazz whom the Bulls faced in the finals the year before,  a mentally and physically exhausted Michael Jordan was still a workhorse and with Scottie Pippen hobbling with a back injury in Game Six, he was forced to play extended minutes and it didn't bother him. Not even close. 

With the Bulls down by three points on the road with under a minute to play, His Royal Airness scored on a contested lay-up that brought Chicago within a point. Knowing that Utah would run a run by Karl Malone, Michael Jordan went on Malone's weak side and was able to complete the steal. Phil Jackson just looked at Michael Jordan and didn't call a timeout. At that time point, the Bulls knew what would happen next: Michael Jordan making his final statement with his final game-winner to win his final championship as a Bulls. And true enough, it all happened. Greatness at its best form.

Episode Nine also talked about the importance of Steve Kerr to the greatest dynasty that basketball has ever seen.

Sure, Kerr is now a three-time NBA champion coach with the Golden State Warriors and was at the helm when the Warriors finished the 2015-2016 season with a record-breaking 73-9 slate. Incidentally, Kerr was already playing alongside Michael Jordan when they finished at 72-10 during the 1995-1996 season but before that, he almost entered college without a scholarship until Arizona offered him one that Kerr accepted right away even without visiting the campus first. Kerr was drafted by the Phoenix Suns as the 50th pick in the 1988 NBA Draft and bounced from one team to the other. In that episode, he noted that the one Bull player he was watching was John Paxson and that, that was the position Steve Kerr wanted to be in. True enough, Paxson took Kerr under his wings upon the latter's arrival to Chicago in 1993 and the was history. In fact, it was Steve Kerr who helped the Bulls finish the Jazz off in the 1997 NBA Finals. See? Steve Kerr did bail Michael Jordan out at that time. 

But perhaps, one of the biggest takeaways of the final episode of the series is that Michael Jordan and the core players of the 1997-1998 championship could have returned for one more run in the 1998-1999 season. 

If you remember, the late Jerry Krause, then serving as the general manager of the Bulls, said at the beginning of the 1997-1998 season that regardless of how teh Bulls fared, that would be Phil Jackson's final year at the helm and with that being said, Michael Jordan said that he won't play for the Bulls if Phil Jackson wasn't the coach. As it turned out, Phil Jackson was offered to come back after the 1998 championship but respectfully turned down and opting to take a break. For Michael himself, the fact that Phil Jackson said that that was indeed the team's last dance was in the final dance for Jordan and company too and that deep down, the players knew that the organization would never keep the team. 

Jordan also added if Jerry Krause didn't make that statement that he was going to rebuild the team after that specific season and, Krause and the rest of the front office offered them a one-year contract to go for a seven championship, yes! Michael Jordan could have gone and tried to go for his seventh NBA championship alongside Scottie Pippen, Ron Harper, Dennis Rodman, among others. Yes, they could have signed one-year contracts for an opportunity to go for title number seven. All of that could have happened if the drama at the start of the '97-'98 season didn't happen. 

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