Tag: last dance

The rivalry that wasn’t: Boston’s Len Bias vs. Michael Jordan

Len Bias and Michael Jordan seemed poised to rise to the top of the NBA in 1986, but Bias’ tragic death would end their rivalry before began.

It was supposed to have been the rivalry of the era, akin to Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain or Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.

But the much-anticipated showdown across the careers of the Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan and her apparent of the Boston Celtics Len Bias never happened due to Bias’ untimely death.

Two days after being drafted by the Celtics, Bias would pass from a cardiac arrhythmia brought on by a cocaine overdose, dealing a blow to the organization that would take decades to fully recover from.

When people intimate the potential impact of Bias on the NBA of that era, it’s not just green-tinted lenses when it is suggested he might have been a true contemporary rival of Jordan.

ESPN’s Michael Wilbon recently released a video on exactly this topic, highlighting the depth of the basketball community’s loss.

Noting his omission from “The Last Dance,” the ESPN documentary on Jordan’s last season with the Bulls, Wilbon refers to Bias as a “talented force of nature who likely would have changed the course even of Michael Jordan’s story.”

“He stood 6-foot-8, had Shawn Kemp’s explosion, Michael Jordan’s athleticism and a jump shot from basketball heaven — straight up, flick, bucket. No leaning, no drifting, back down to the floor with the bold defiance of a young Jim Brown.”

But isn’t it hyperbole to suggest an untested player out of Maryland would have been capable of even approaching the success of the player many regard even now in the era of LeBron James as the greatest to play the game?

Perhaps.

But it’s not just an army of 40-something Celtics fans and Michael Wilbon who believe this, as Wilbon is sure to note:

“Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski told the Boston Globe’s Bob Ryan 17 years ago, ‘This is my 24th year at Duke, and in that time, there have been two opposing planets what really stood out, Michael Jordan, and Len Bias'”.

You might not like Krzyzewski’s program, but you’d be lying if you said he wasn’t an astute judge of the potential of prospects at the college level.

“Those of us who had the pleasure of watching him believe Bias would have been to Jordan what [Larry] Bird was to Magic [Johnson] — a true natural, equally fierce rival, the singular decade long rival Jordan never had,” offered Wilbon.

Bias’ tragic death left us only with counterfactual histories that never came to pass, hints and daydreams of what might have been a richer, fuller history of competition in the 1990s.

The loss of Bias and not long after, Reggie Lewis, would usher in the darkest days of Celtics history in the team’s seven decades of existence. But far more importantly, it robbed the world of an amazing talent — and the epic battles with Jordan that never were.

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Rick Pitino recalls his win over ’98 Bulls in first game with Celtics

Former Boston Celtics head coach and team president Rick Pitino recalls his win over Michael Jordan’s Bulls in 1997.

You would never have predicted the rest of former Boston Celtics head coach and team president Rick Pitino’s tenure went based on the results of Game 1 of the Pitino era.

Replacing Celtics legend Red Auerbach was a tall order — really, the tallest — and history testifies to how the story ended for the New Yorker’s foray into Boston’s front office turned out.

But with the ESPN Michael Jordan documentary “The Last Dance” bringing all manner of old controversies back to life, Game 1 of the Chicago Bulls season depicted in the documentary series — and Pitino’s oft-oathed time at the helm of the Celtics — has come back to the fore.

It was the 1997-98 Celtics that were to be the presumptive punching bag to Jordan’s Bulls that season, but down Scottie Pippen, Jordan and the Bulls started the season with a 0-1 record with an outstanding performance by Boston.

Early on, the Celtics fell into a deep hole, down as much as 20 points in the first quarter; “our expectations weren’t great, obviously, coming off a 15-win season [in 1996-97],” noted Pitino (via the Boston Herald’s Steve Bulpett).

But forward Antoine Walker would go off for 31 points, stealing the game from Chicago and infuriating Jordan with his trademark shimmy.

“I’ll never forget, as long as I live, we were going back to the locker room, and Michael Jordan is yelling at Antoine … And I said, ‘ … what happened there?’ Then the assistant coaches explained to me that apparently Antoine was shimmying … Michael started screaming, ‘Antoine, you won’t be … dancing when you come to Chicago.'”

“He kept saying it, and I said, ‘Oh, [expletive],'” laughed the former Celtics head honcho.

True to his word, Jordan’s Bulls beat the pants off the Celtics in their later meetings.

But, for just a moment, the hope train the Celtics had had a habit of missing with gusto since the retirement of Larry Bird seemed to be pulling into the station — only for reality to smack the team in the face, and encourage the former Kentucky head coach to make poor, win-now decisions.

To his credit, Pitino has owned up to that era’s mistakes, acknowledging he abused his position to alleviate the stress of high expectations.

“If I could have just stuck to coaching and not paid attention to anything else, it would have worked out. But I didn’t, and that’s my fault. I have nothing but good feelings for the Celtics and Boston. I’m the first one to admit that I did not do a good job.”

“Anything that didn’t happen the right way was my fault, and I take ownership for that,” he added.

It’s unlikely we’ll ever see a reconciliation between Pitino and the Celtics fanbase, who still rightfully blame him for turning a rough patch into a multi-decade title drought — but it’s still satisfying on some level to hear his contrition.

It won’t make up for the wilderness era between banners 16 and 17, but as can happen when we dredge up the past, old scores can find a degree of reconciliation even if they won’t be resolved in whole, and other debates long extinguished flare back to life.

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Kevin McHale tells his version of 1988 Celtics-Pistons series ending

Legendary Boston Celtics big man Kevin McHale shares his version of the ending of that 1988 Cs-Pistons series Isiah Thomas cites as why Detroit left the Bulls hanging later.

A little more has come to light in the controversy of the unamicable Detroit Pistons walk-off vs. the Chicago Bulls reignited by the ESPN Michael Jordan documentary, “The Last Dance”.

Former Boston Celtics big man legend Kevin McHale spoke with the Boston Herald’s Steve Bulpett about what happened at the end of the series the Pistons beat Boston in 1988, used to explain the Pistons’ behavior towards the Bulls, who left the court in the loss refusing to shake hands with Chicago.

McHale disagrees with some — but not all — of Pistons point guard Isiah Thomas, noting that the longtime Boston foe was actually not inaccurate about the culture of the game in that era.

“I’m going to tell you this: of all the series that I played in all through the ’80s, after a close-out game, unless you were walking with somebody you knew, you almost never said anything,” he began.

“You might congratulate them if you saw them later, but there wasn’t a lot of talk, I mean, congratulatory or [smack]-talking or anything … You just kind of went in the locker room. Ninety percent of the series we won, I didn’t talk to anybody.”

“They didn’t come up to me, and I didn’t think they should,” added the three-time NBA champion.

He also didn’t mind the physical play, suggesting the Bulls “complained all the time,” noting ” their physicality never bothered us. I thought their physicality made us play better.”

But, on the issue of how that Detroit-Boston playoff series in 1988 ended, McHale related a version true to the refutations of Thomas’ version of events.

“Someone told us to get out of there before they stormed the court,” he explained.

“Security people guided the Celts off, as fans began invading the floor with three seconds left and the Pistons going to the free throw line. You had a really long walk to get out of there … It wasn’t like the Garden or other places. You had a hundred yards probably before you got to the entryway to the locker rooms.”

This largely corroborates the version of events given by a Celtics staffer in contrast to Thomas’ take after he reiterated those old claims in the ESPN documentary.

McHale did have a conversation with the Pistons point guard, who he considers a friend to this day despite those tough battles.

“I knew Isiah from the Pan-Am Games, and Zeke and I have always been friends,” said the seven-time All-Star.

“He said something to me, and I said, ‘Hey, man, look, it feels just as bad to lose in The Finals as it does to lose in the Eastern Conference finals.’ I said, ‘This [expletive]’s not over with. You guys got another series to play, so don’t celebrate too much.’ I said that, then I walked off.”

“That was just my advice to him as a friend,” McHale finished.

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Former Vol head coach appears in ESPN’s ‘The Last Dance’

Former Vol head coach appears in ESPN documentary.

Former University of Tennessee men’s basketball head coach Buzz Peterson made a cameo appearance in “The Last Dance.”

The ESPN documentary is chronicling the Chicago Bulls’ 1998 championship season and Michael Jordan’s basketball career.

Chicago won six NBA Championships in eight years between 1991-98 with a cast of characters including Jordan, John Paxson, Ron Harper, Scottie Pippen, Steve Kerr, head coach Phil Jackson and assistant coach Tex Winter, who was the architect of the Bulls’ triangle offense.

Chicago won three straight titles between 1991-93 before Jordan retired from the NBA to pursue baseball for two years. When Jordan returned, the Bulls were NBA champions between 1996-98.

Jordan and Peterson were roommates at the University of North Carolina.

Peterson coached at Tennessee from 2001-05. With the Vols, he compiled a 61-59 record and finished above .500 twice.

Peterson went 17-12 in 2002-03 and guided UT to the NIT. He went 15-14 in 2003-04 and guided the Big Orange to a second consecutive postseason appearance in the NIT.

Scottie Pippen was almost traded to the Boston Celtics in 1997

“The Last Dance” could have had a very different story arc had a proposed deal to send Scottie Pippen to the Boston Celtics panned out.

The Boston Celtics have not been the most prominent opponent in the new ESPN Michael Jordan documentary “The Last Dance”, but there have been a few interesting ties between that era of the Chicago Bulls and the Massachusetts franchise.

One resurfaced in a conversation between “The Jordan Rules” biographer of Sir Airness himself Sam Smith and Boston Globe veteran reporter Bob Ryan as the pair discussed a trade for Bulls forward Scottie Pippen that could have changed the history of the league — and very nearly went down.

Speaking on “The Ryan and Goodman Podcast”, Smith set the scene leading up to the aborted trade.

M.L. Carr had just passed the torch as general manager of the Celtics to prodigal son Rick Pitino, who took over as coach and G.M. in the summer of 1997 with two lottery picks gifted him from Carr and the miserable, 15-win season of 1996-97, the worst in Boston’s storied history.

“M.L. Carr loses every game that season so Boston could get Tim Duncan … they get three in the lottery,” Smith begins.

“So now Pitino comes in, he’s not coaching [whoever is taken with] No. 3 in the [lottery],” exclaimed Smith, “so he reaches out to the Bulls for [Scotty] Pippin. They should have made this deal!”

Originally reported in the New York Times that summer, McGrady himself actually brought this deal up himself appearing on ESPN’s “The Jump”.

“What a lot of people don’t know about that night is that Jerry Krause was actually trying to make a trade for me and Scottie Pippen, and MJ called and axed that whole deal,” related the Hall of Famer on how he was nearly a Bull.

RELATED: Ex-Celtic Dana Barros shares how he was almost drafted by the Bulls

“They would have had [Tracy] McGrady, who again [was] a small college guy that Jerry [Reinsdorf] had found [who he] was pursuing for years,” continued Smith.

“They would have also had three [and] six with the Boston picks and a veteran; I don’t know which veteran it was. So, were they to get that, they probably win the next season with with that plus [Dennis] Rodman, [Michael] Jordan and the team they had. And then they get McGrady going forward, then they don’t have to go back to the bottom like they did.”

“But Reinsdorf even though Jerry [Krause] kind of greased the deal with Boston, Reinsdorf says, ‘No, we have a chance to win next season we’re going to keep it together,'” finished the Jordan biographer.

“So, he — like all owners — he’s got the last veto,” related Smith.

It’s hard to say whether such a move would have worked out for the Celtics; in a  roundabout way, contracts added to the roster through dealing the players Boston would draft No. 3 and 6 (Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer) would bring back some of the players dealt to assemble the Banner 17 team.

Pippen was past his prime, but still a good player — would adding his name have provided enough wins to take the pressure off Pitino?

The world will never know, but in a time without basketball, at least it gives us something to ponder.

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ESPN Power Index Down on 2020 Notre Dame

Now I think you’ve got to walk before you can run and simply put, Notre Dame hasn’t walked on the national stage, at least not in big games.  That said, I still have expectations for this team to make a run at a potential CFP berth.

Talk to a Notre Dame football fan and they’ve got expectations to make another run at a College Football Playoff appearance, if not an outside chance at a national championship.  Now I think you’ve got to walk before you can run and simply put, Notre Dame hasn’t walked on the national stage, at least not in big games.  That said, I still have expectations for this team to make a run at a potential CFP berth.

One outlet that appears not to?  The ESPN Football Power Index.  The FPI puts together their formula and spits out a teams chances at winning all 12 of their regular season contests.  Let’s just say it really doesn’t like Notre Dame’s chances in a quarter of their contests this fall.

Opponent and ESPN FPI’s chances of a Notre Dame win:

vs. Navy 82.3%
vs. Arkansas 90.3%
vs. Western Michigan 94.4%
vs. Wake Forest 85.4%
vs. Wisconsin 26.5%
vs. Stanford 76.6%
at Pittsburgh 75.3%
vs. Duke 89%
vs. Clemson 13.3%
at Georgia Tech 75%
vs. Louisville 65.4%
at USC 30.4%

Let’s quickly discuss the projected losses:

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