‘The Last Dance’ - False Narratives

[Nowitness]

Big fan of the series so far, but it is as clear as day that the goal of this show is to rewrite some of the stories that could hurt MJ the most. The stuff about GP not being able to handle him and his inefficiency simply being down to ‘personal issues’ to me is the point where no Jordan fan can deny this was made to clean up his image.

Countless other narratives manufactured for the sake of saving his GOAT status.

[LostCause]

Wait, so you were expecting a documentary about the 98 Bulls season to somehow hurt his status as GOAT? That's strange

Anway someone posted this over at RealGM. Here's some cool stuff that actually was left off:

1. As was shown in the Last Dance, the two Jerrys gave Jordan the doctors report and tried to convince him to sit because of the risk of permanent injury, and a desire to tank out out a lost season. Apparently in the heated argument, Krause told Jordan he was their property and that he had to obey whatever Krause and Reinsdorf decided. This was probably just a typical Krause communication blunder and not his real feelings, but it's not hard to imagine why this created an enormous rift between them.

2. Pippen's contract situation only scratched the surface. I've never heard of an NBA team with this much hatred for specifically for the front office when it was winning. Reinsdorf was a savvy businessman who believed, given his real estate background, he always had to win the deal. In real estate it makes sense to try to screw the other guy, but as an owner you're screwing over your own talent who you hire to make you money. He had Krause play the bad guy during contract negotiations to get better deals (read: cheaper) with the Bull's players. Their strategy was to send Krause in to negotiate first. Krause would deliberately lowball an offer for the player, refuse to budge, frustrate them and their agent by demeaning the player and downplaying their achievements, and make the process a massive hassle. Then after several acrimonious meetings, Reinsdorf would swoop in, say 'let's handle this you and me, without Krause in the way,' thus getting them to accept a lower offer than they would otherwise out of exasperation and falling victim to cheap psych tricks. Krause was the face of this, but Reinsdorf was behind the strategy.

They played this game over and over, which not surprisingly created an enormous amount of resentment among the players because they felt like management was always trying to screw them over. Ex: When it came time for Paxson's new contract at his peak level of play, Jordan got so fed up with Krause's insulting treatment and poor offers (Pax had a $500k contract previously), so Jordan had his own agent get Paxson a competitive deal from the Spurs for 3x as much to force the Bulls to match. Jordan felt that Krause bullied the less-fortunate players on the team in this way because they had no leverage, which was another major point of contention. Phil Jackson was also criminally underpaid for some time compared to other top coaches because the Bulls did not agree a coach was worth that much, and who cares what the market says.....

[LostCause]

Cont..


...Reinsdorf later told Jordan 'I'll live to regret signing this' for Jordan's 30 mil contract in 1996-7 after a bad negotiation, something that infuriated Jordan because he had been the most underpaid player in the league relative to value until 1996. But that attitude was typical of the Bull's management: he said something similar to Paxson as well. One piece of context not mentioned about Pippen's awful contract was in that situation normally a management would give signals to the player that they would reward him on their next contract, and to just be patient. The Bulls FO did the opposite if anything, diminishing Pippen's contributions and continually trying to trade him. A couple trades were mentioned in the doc I believe (Pip for the McGrady pick in particular), but in 94 Krause came inches away from a straight Pippen for Shawn Kemp swap. It only fell through at the last minute because the Seattle owner feared the backlash he'd get by trading away fan favorite Kemp, and Krause berated him over the phone for backing off. A furious Pippen tried to go through with a plan of hiding out in a hotel room rather than reporting to training camp, but his agent dissuaded him.

On the other hand, Reinsdorf did reward Pippen at the end of his career for loyalty, which was a well-noted attribute of Reinsdorf; he also paid Jordan during his baseball season. Reinsdorf also did try to privately bring Jackson back for the 99 season, but Jackson was mentally done, and Reinsdorf the penny-pincher seems to have been okay with torpedoing the team and remaining loyal to Krause. Of course the Bulls rebuild failed miserably, with them having the worst aggregate record in the league from 99-04 when Krause finally got fired. Overall Reinsdorf deserves a lot more blame than he's getting in the Last Dance, because this adversarial negotiation style created so much bad blood with the players.

3. However, Krause's desire to fire Jackson in 98 was entirely justified. Arguably Krause's best moves were his coach signings, with Phil Jackson and assistants Tex Winter and Johnny Bach. Bach was Jordan's favorite coach before Jackson proved himself, and he acted as the antithesis to the more tactical/offensive-oriented Winter and direct to Jackson's calm, giving the Bulls multiple viewpoints.

The Jordan Rules in 91 was one of the only things that unified Krause and Jordan because it portrayed both more negatively than they'd have liked. The key question was who the major leaks were to Smith for the inside scoops he had. Horace Grant had been identified as one of the players, however there was another on the organization's side. Phil Jackson manipulated Krause and Reinsdorf to finger Johnny Bach for the leaks, and then used that as evidence to push for Krause to fire Bach. Bach was blindsided by this, having thought that 94 was their best coaching year yet, in 94. Jackson later sold it to Jordan and the players that Krause had fired Bach because he's Krause and tries to make their lives hell. However, in 1998 Sam Smith confessed to Reinsdorf, who told Krause, that it was in fact Jackson who had been the source all along! Krause felt horribly guilty for having fired and accused an innocent man, and it had really hurt Bach at an awful time in his life. It's hardly a surprise that he hated Jackson after this even outside of his need for credit, and frankly Jackson deserved to be fired for pulling such a dishonest stunt

[Roundball_Rock]

Which is fine except the media is passing along the doc like it is the Bible.

[kuniva_dAMiGhTy]

I had a Jordan fan trying to claim Chicago 'already won' the seires, and that Jordan's mind wasn't even on the games..

While that may be true, we cant give him that excuse. We can do that for other ATG's so where does it end? What we cant do either is downplay the job Glove did. GP is one of the greatest defenders ever, so its not a knock on Mike at all. In fact, it alludes to better competition.

[LostCause]

cont...


4. Krause's desperate need for credit showed its mark early. In 1988 he tried to trade Jordan to the Clippers for a combination of 5 picks and players, including #1 and #6. Reinsdorf ultimately nixed the deal because he was worried about fan backlash, having already angered Chicagoans for threatening to move the White Sox to Florida. Furthermore, right after the Bulls won the 72-10 title, he tried to replace Jackson with Tim Floyd!! Tim Floyd himself refused and told him it was a bad idea.

Krause's choice of Brad Sellers (who would become a 3rd-string player) over Johnny Dawkins (became a respectable role player), who was seen as the BPA, was viewed as Krause not wanting to go with an 'obvious pick' because he wouldn't get credit. Krause constantly hyping up Brad Sellers to everyone didn't help things either; this wasn't his only bust but the context made a big impact on other Bulls personnel. In 98 Krause traded away Jason Caffey for effectively nothing, which mystified everyone in the organization, since Caffey was their only real youth and a useful bench piece. I still don't think anyone has figured out why that happened.

Krause tried to needle Jordan from the start, constantly telling him he wasn't as good as Earl Monroe (who Krause bragged about picking at #2), which left Bulls staffers confused as why Krause seemed determined to wreck his relationship with Jordan before it began. One of the big battles that later fractured the Jackson-Krause relationship was Krause's desire to 'be one of the boys' and continuously hang around the team, even though few liked him. This devolved to silly levels: Jordan wanted to be alone in the bathroom for a pre-game ritual, so Krause continually snuck in and 'ambushed him' there. You can't make this stuff up.

[Da_Realist]

Lots of quotes that will shut down a lot of ISH false narratives. :applause:

[SATAN]

Big fan of the series so far, but it is as clear as day that the goal of this show is to rewrite some of the stories that could hurt MJ the most. The stuff about GP not being able to handle him and his inefficiency simply being down to ‘personal issues’ to me is the point where no Jordan fan can deny this was made to clean up his image.

Countless other narratives manufactured for the sake of saving his GOAT status.

Can you give more info on what he said about GP? Which episode is that in?

[Roundball_Rock]

Can you give more info on what he said about GP? Which episode is that in?

The most recent episode. He literally laughed when he was shown Payton talking about his defense on him. Jordan tried to say the reason he struggled was he was thinking about his dad. The problem is he struggled for 3 games, not 1. Moreover, he did fine in the first 3 games.

[SpaceJam]

Know someone who is convinced MJ lost on purpose so he could win it on Father's Day :roll:

[LostCause]

As if Jordan's words earlier in the doc didn't already show how much he appreciated Pippen, this gesture is always overlooked
https://youtu.be/Uv3rOHLJ1o0?t=591

Starts at 9:51. It continues at 12:10

[ImKobe]

The most recent episode. He literally laughed when he was shown Payton talking about his defense on him. Jordan tried to say the reason he struggled was he was thinking about his dad. The problem is he struggled for 3 games, not 1. Moreover, he did fine in the first 3 games.

He didn't struggle all of the last 3 games. His Game 5 was good enough to win when he had 26 on 50%. Pippen going 9/37 in Games 4 & 5 hurt them more.

[LostCause]

He didn't struggle all of the last 3 games. His Game 5 was good enough to win when he had 26 on 50%. Pippen going 9/37 in Games 4 & 5 hurt them more.

Harper also only played 1 minute in Game 5.

Pippen probably lost them Game 4 though with his play down the stretch (Went like 1-5 or 1-6 with 5 turnovers)

[Roundball_Rock]

He didn't struggle all of the last 3 games. His Game 5 was good enough to win when he had 26 on 50%.

True but the splits speak for themselves:

First three games: 31 points, 46 fg%, 50 3fg%, 12.3 FTA.
Last three games: 23.7 points, 36.7 fg%, 11.1 3fg% 10 FTA.

Not sure why there is this big push back on Payton. He was an all-time great defender so why is this surprising? We saw MJ have bad games against John Starks, Miami, Detroit, etc.

[Da_Realist]

MJ had 2 horrific games (5-19 and 6-19) in the 96 Finals that brought down his averages. The other four games were pretty good. It was a physical, defensive slugfest. It wasn't as freewheeling as today.

Gary Payton: I keep hitting him and banging him, hitting him and banging him. It took a toll on Mike.

[ImKobe]

True but the splits speak for themselves:

First three games: 31 points, 46 fg%, 50 3fg%, 12.3 FTA.
Last three games: 23.7 points, 36.7 fg%, 11.1 3fg% 10 FTA.

Not sure why there is this big push back on Payton. He was an all-time great defender so why is this surprising? We saw MJ have bad games against John Starks, Miami, Detroit, etc.

So, he had two bad shooting games over the course of a 6-game series, GP guarding him might have had something to do with it, or it could have just been a coincidence. Like you said, he's had off nights against much worse defensive players. Jump shooters have off nights. Pretty sure he torched GP's Sonics for most of his career.

[Roundball_Rock]

Pretty sure he torched GP's Sonics for most of his career.

He is MJ. You don't shut down a MJ or KAJ for an extended period. You just limit them.

[Bronbron23]

Big fan of the series so far, but it is as clear as day that the goal of this show is to rewrite some of the stories that could hurt MJ the most. The stuff about GP not being able to handle him and his inefficiency simply being down to ‘personal issues’ to me is the point where no Jordan fan can deny this was made to clean up his image.

Countless other narratives manufactured for the sake of saving his GOAT status.

I agree thats its not a real documentary. Mj has final say and hes obviously biased. As far as gp goes I actually think mj believes that. Most great athletes make up excuses to justify their poor play. Its kind of a defensive mechanism. It protects their confidence.

Plus if you go back and watch the series gp didn't really bother mj. He got his usual good looks he just missd a bit more than he usually does.

[PP34Deuce]

MJ did struggle, he missed shots because Payton was in his grill and was quick enough to stop his penetrations. I tend to think while MJ is an absolute GOAT, people forget heading into 97, he had his moments where SG's and big PG's were closing the gap on his athletiscm advantage. Payton did a good job. You can't stop MJ but he did contribute to bad shooting games.