All of us basketball fans were eagerly awaiting the debut of “The Last Dance,” the 10-part documentary on the great Chicago Bulls dynasty and particularly the 1997-98 championship.
The first two episodes were brilliant. It was great for ESPN to move this documentary up a couple of months for us sports fans who are starving for something to watch with no live sports going on because of this pandemic. This presentation will bring back great memories for all of us old-school basketball fans while also introducing this great dynasty to a younger generation of fans for their enjoyment.
After Sunday’s debut, I’ve had many people ask for my opinion as to who I think is the greatest basketball player of all time. As a rule, I just try to enjoy all of the great players in their particular era and appreciate all they have done for the game. With that being said, I do have some personal thoughts on the subject.
Growing up in Milwaukee as a youngster, I got a chance to see Kareem Abdul-Jabbar up close and personal at the beginning of his career while following his 20 years of greatness. In my eyes, he was the best basketball player I’ve ever seen and I never thought I would see someone surpass him.
That was until Michael Jordan came along and changed my opinion with not only all of the extraordinary things he accomplished, but the impact that was felt by the time he was finished. Here are five quick reasons as to why I think Michael Jordan is the greatest to ever play the game.
*Individual offensive dominance: Michael is the most dominant offensive perimeter player in the history of the game. He won 10 NBA scoring titles, which is still a record.
*Individual defensive dominance: He was selected to the NBA All-Defensive Team nine times during his career. He led the league in steals three times and was the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year in 1988. (By the way, he led the NBA in scoring that same year at 38 points a game).
*Team dominance: Michael was the linchpin of the Chicago Bulls dynasty, which is one of the most enduring team legacies of our lifetime. The Bulls ruled the 1990’s with six championships, which came on double three-peats from 1991-93 and 1996-98.
*Unconventional dominance: The history of the NBA suggests that you are not supposed to build a championship team, much less a dynasty around a 6’6” shooting guard. For generations, the league was built around the big man. You had Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar, Shaq, Hakeem, Tim Duncan dominating the paint and winning championships. If it wasn’t the bigs, you had those big hybrid performers such as Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard running things in the league.
Michael bucked the popular thinking that bucket-getters like him were good to sell tickets and put butts in the seats with his tremendous scoring prowess, but forget about winning championships. It cannot be done. MJ destroyed that myth by not only winning a championship, but authoring a dynasty built around his scoring. He led the league in scoring in all six of the Bulls’ championship seasons. The only other shooting guard who would come close to this success was the late, great Kobe Bryant, who patterned everything he did after Michael Jordan.
*Finally and most important, it was his indomitable will that pushed him to being the best ever to play his game. If there is one thing to take from this documentary, it is his insatiable need to win and how he pushed through any and every obstacle in his way to get to the top; and stay on top once he achieved that goal.
The Detroit Pistons tried to derail Jordan by any means necessary. The “Bad Boys” tried to break him with their brutal physicality. It worked for two years, but in that third year, Jordan and the Bulls broke through and dropped off the Pistons in 1991. And when Michael took over the NBA throne, his competitive dominance and mental toughness would not let anyone come close to knocking him off.
Thanks to Jordan’s unwillingness to share, the NBA has an All-Star fraternity of all-time greats that never won a championship. Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Reggie Miller and Patrick Ewing never tasted championship champagne because Jordan simply would not allow it on his watch. To me, that’s the most amazing part of his legacy.
The next two episodes of “The Last Dance” are on tap for Sunday night. Can’t wait.
