In last night’s premiere of the first part of the 10-part docuseries, The Last Dance, which tells the story of Michael Jordan and his career with the Chicago Bulls, the documentary went into detail about Scottie Pippen’s beef with Jerry Krause, drug usage in the league during Jordan’s rookie season, and much more.
In the first part of the miniseries, Bulls owner #JerryReinsdorf detailed how, after the fifth championship in 7 years, the organization considered bringing in new talent, with Pippen in talks to hit the chopping block.
“After the fifth championship, which was 96-97, we were looking at this team, and we realized, other than Michael [Jordan], the rest of the guys were probably at the end of their high productive years,” Reinsdorf revealed. “We had to decide whether to keep the team together or not. And we realized maybe this was the time to do a rebuild and maybe not try to win a sixth championship.”
“That really is what tarnished my relationship with Jerry [Krause],” Pippen explained, as he touched on rumors of the team’s disbandment. “He tried to make me feel so special, but yet he was still willing to try to trade [me]. He would never tell me that to my face. I felt insulted. I took the attitude of disrespecting him to some degree.”
However, Jordan thought that moving on would be unfair to him and the rest of the guys.
“We had just finished winning our fifth title,” Jordan stated. “There was a lot of uncertainty. Management started talking about the franchise is going to change, or we’re going to rebuild. I thought it was unfair. I would never let someone who’s not putting on a uniform and playing each and every day dictate what we do on a basketball court.”
Despite the offseason drama, the team went on to win the finals the following year in 98′, as well.
During the documentary, fans also learned about Bulls general manager Jerry Krause, and the bad contract one of the team’s star players signed at the time. Despite arguably being the second-best player in the league, Pippen signed a 7-year contract for $18 million.
“It was embarrassing,” his former teammate Steve Kerr said. “Because he was maybe the No. 2 player in the NBA.”
Former Bulls head coach Phil Jackson recalled Pippen being angry. “There was a lot of anger from Scottie,” Jackson said.
“Pippen started berating Jerry Krause in front of the team,” Jackson revealed. “We had to say, ‘hey, hold it down.'” But, Ultimately, the tension led to the beginning of the end for the historic team.
Elsewhere in the documentary, fans learned about the behind-the-scenes-drug usage in the NBA in the 80s.
Jordan told a story from his rookie year, where he walked in on his teammates in Peoria, IL, during the preseason, to which he found everyone doing hard drugs.
“I walk in, and practically the whole team was in there,” he explained. “And it was like, things I’ve never seen in my life, you know, as a young kid. You got your lines over here, you got your weed smokers over here, you got your women over here. So the first thing I said, ‘Look, man, I’m out.’ Because all I can think about is if they come and raid this place, right about now, I am just as guilty as everyone else that’s in this room. And from that point on, I was more or less on my own.”
Catching viewers by surprise, the documentary also introduced former President Barack Obama, as ‘Former Chicago Resident,’ and former president Bill Clinton as “Former Arkansas Governor,” which quickly became the talk of social media.
However, producer of the series Jason Hehir revealed in an interview with The Athletic, that, that was intentional and “a Michael thing.”
“That is a Michael thing,” Hehir said. “Barack Obama is not the kind of guy that I can find his number and text him. Michael had a connection. But I was pretty adamant that we don’t have people in here who don’t have an organic connection to the story. I think the temptation is because Michael was super famous, let’s get as many super famous people in here as possible. There were conflicting philosophies amongst all the [production] partners of what makes a good documentary and what makes a documentary sizzle.”
He continued, explaining that it’s much more interesting and organic, to not refer to them as presidents because now it makes them look no different than being basketball fans opposed to just being the President.
“I think the temptation would be to say, well, Bill Clinton was President in the 1990s. He has to talk about Michael because he was the President when Michael was playing and he saw Michael play live. My question was, okay, what is Bill Clinton going to say that is different than any other fan would say about watching Michael play? Why should he be considered an authority on basketball just because he’s Bill Clinton? Now, if Bill Clinton says I was governor of Arkansas when Scottie Pippen was in high school, and I saw Scottie play, that’s organic to the story and much more interesting,” Hehir added.
Episode two of the docuseries ended with Pippen demanding to be traded. Episodes three and four of the series airs this Sunday.
