Tag: The Last Dance

Scottie Pippen confirms he’s furious with Michael Jordan after ‘The Last Dance’

“He couldn’t have been more condescending if he tried.”

Michael Jordan meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people. But few had a closer view of the legend than Scottie Pippen.

The two players won six NBA championships while playing together and their time as teammates was put under a massive spotlight when ESPN aired The Last Dance documentary in 2020. Pippen, like millions of others, watched each week.

While it was assuredly fascinating for him to take a trip down memory lane, Pippen has said it was challenging for him to see Jordan constantly glorified while he and his teammates were not given “nearly enough praise” for their contributions to the six title runs.

According to Pippen, whose upcoming memoir Unguarded will release on Nov. 9, the last two episodes of the ten-episode series were particularly tough pills to swallow.

In an excerpt from the book that was published on Tuesday morning, here is part of what the seven-time All-Star said about Jordan (via GQ):

“Even in the second episode, which focused for a while on my difficult upbringing and unlikely path to the NBA, the narrative returned to MJ and his determination to win. I was nothing more than a prop. His ‘best teammate of all time,’ he called me. He couldn’t have been more condescending if he tried.”

Pippen reiterated that each episode showed Jordan on a “pedestal” while his other teammates were just tertiary characters in his journey.

While he said he wasn’t surprised at this depiction and he felt it would have been “naive” to expect anything different, being “demeaned” once again was brutal because it was “insulting enough” when it happened in real-time.

Beyond the journalistic integrity that vanished when the producers gave Jordan editorial control of the final product, Pippen also felt fiscally slighted as well:

“To make things worse, Michael received $10 million for his role in the doc while my teammates and I didn’t earn a dime, another reminder of the pecking order from the old days. For an entire season, we allowed cameras into the sanctity of our locker rooms, our practices, our hotels, our huddles…our lives.”

Later in the excerpt, Pippen also shared some not-so-positive thoughts he had about former teammate and longtime Bulls executive John Paxson.

Pippen also expressed dismay about his role as an ambassador for Chicago’s organization, which he held from 2012 until 2020. While he was seemingly given more responsibility in 2014, unfortunately for Pippen, that wasn’t the case either:

“I was excited to be involved with the basketball operations. For the Bulls to benefit from my expertise instead of exploiting my name. After filing the scouting reports, I waited to hear back from Paxson and other members of the organization. What would they want me to do next?  I didn’t hear a word. Nor did the Bulls invite me to any meetings or workouts with prospects in the weeks leading up to the 2014 NBA draft. It dawned on me they’d been humoring me from the start.”

All things considered, his excerpt made it obvious there will be a lot more packed in that will assuredly draw all sorts of eyeball emojis on Twitter.

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Saturday Night Live hilariously spoofed Michael Jordan and ‘The Last Dance’

Classic MJ.

“The Last Dance” came along last summer, as sports were on pause and we were adjusting to pandemic living. Its nostalgia-laced look at the career of Michael Jordan hit perfectly, as did those bourbon-fueled sit-down interviews with MJ that immediately launched a dozen memes.

Here we are all these many months later — creeping ever-so-close to normalcy — and “The Last Dance” still has enough currency that it’s being mocked by Saturday Night Life.

Host Keegan-Michael Key played Jordan Saturday night, but the performance that makes this work is Heidi Gardner as John Michael Wozniak, Jordan’s bodyguard.

We got the shrug. We got “And I took that personally.” It’s all here, and there’s even Charles Barkley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz6go7xC3Zs

“Bet your pants, then.”

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Scottie Pippen said he let Michael Jordan know that he wasn’t happy about ‘The Last Dance’

There were some issues.

ESPN’s 10-part documentary series, The Last Dance, gave sports fans a fascinating look into one of the great NBA dynasties with Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls.

But even for its undeniable entertainment value, the series did face its share of criticism — particularly in how Scottie Pippen was portrayed at times. In the second episode, Jordan called Pippen “selfish” for waiting until the start of the 1997-98 season to have surgery. Pippen was also portrayed as underpaid and soft at various points throughout the series.

And, apparently, Pippen let Jordan know that he wasn’t pleased about how the show portrayed him.

In an interview with The Guardian, Pippen said that he didn’t feel the series accurately told the story of his time with the Bulls. He felt that the show was more about propping up Jordan than actual storytelling.

Pippen said:

“I don’t think it was that accurate in terms of really defining what was accomplished in one of the greatest eras of basketball, but also by two of the greatest players – and one could even put that aside and say the greatest team of all time. I didn’t think those things stood out in the documentary. I thought it was more about Michael trying to uplift himself and to be glorified [the series was co-produced by Jordan’s Jump 23 company]. I think it also backfired to some degree in that people got a chance to see what kind of personality Michael had.”

He added that he didn’t shy away from voicing that concern to Jordan.

“Yeah. I told him I wasn’t too pleased with it. He accepted it. He said, “hey, you’re right”. That was pretty much it.”

At least according to Pippen, Jordan agreed with him. And it seems that Pippen was able to move on. He knows what they accomplished together, and a documentary doesn’t change that.

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Inspired by Michael Jordan documentary, Sei Young Kim opens up 5-shot lead at Pelican

At the Pelican Women’s Championship, Sei Young Kim holds a five-shot lead entering the final round at Pelican Golf Club.

BELLEAIR, Florida – Sei Young Kim found inspiration on Netflix of all places, diving into Michael Jordan’s “The Last Dance” documentary ahead of weekend play at the Pelican Women’s Championship. The recent major winner promptly went out and extended her lead to five strokes over Ally McDonald, who won the LPGA Drive On Championship last month.

Not even an ace from McDonald could shake Kim, whose advantage immediately shrunk from three strokes to one. The third-degree black belt in Taekwondo responded with four consecutive birdies on Nos. 14-17 to card a 6-under 64. She’s at 14-under for the tournament when only 18 players have managed to break par.

The 11-time winner on the LPGA looks to become the first player since Ariya Jutanugarn in 2016 to follow her first major title with a victory in her next start.

After the round Kim was asked if she felt pressure to prove herself with fellow South Koreans Jin Young Ko and Sung Hyun Park getting most of the attention in recent years.

“Kind of, a little bit,” she said. “Because if I say no, it’s maybe a lie. But, yeah, I’m very good rival each other. If you have a good rival, I am able to improve myself.”

Kim recorded only one bogey over the last 36 holes.

Former No. 1 Lydia Ko, who sits in fourth place, seven strokes back, calls Kim’s run of late “super impressive.”

“Her first major I guess was at KPMG,” said Ko, “and when there is that kind of pressure, I know what it feels like to be in that position. And the way she finished was absolutely incredible.”

In Saturday’s wind-swept round, Kim, 27, nearly aced the par-3 third hole with a 7-iron when her ball hit the flagstick and lipped out of the hole. McDonald’s hole-in-one on the par-3 12th, the first of her LPGA career, came with a pitching wedge from 132 yards.

“We had some people standing back at the tee, some people on the green,” said McDonald. “So that was obviously like the biggest reaction for anything. I’m pretty sure I just reacted with my hands up and then Dan I and got really excited and stuff. Sei Young was great.”

McDonald made the first ace of her life during a practice round at the Marathon Classic in her second year on tour. Her second one came at a Winter Shootout at Old Waverly Golf Club and a third at an event that had her set up on a par 3, hitting the same shot over and over again. That one took about 12 swings.

“You can stand on a par 3 all day and still not make one,” she said, “just happened to be the one.”

While Pelican is open off the tee, it’s easy to make big numbers with an aggressive approach. Even though the gap is wide, McDonald doesn’t plan to stray from what has worked so far in the final round.

“I’m just kind of going to stick with my game plan and try to execute the shots that strategically might be a 20-footer,” she said, “and just trust that I’m rolling it well to roll a few of those in.”

Kim, meanwhile, will prepare with a plateful of carbs and a movie date with Jordan. A winning combination if there ever was one.

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Salió en subasta el Mercedes de Michael Jordan de 1996

El Mercedes Benz S600 de 1996 que aparece en el documental como el auto de Jordan será subastado.

Si quedaron emocionados por la serie documental “The Last Dance” de Michael Jordan, esta noticia seguro les tocará algunas fibras.

El Mercedes Benz S600 de 1996 que aparece en el documental como el auto de Jordan será subastado. Beverly Hills Cars Club es el actual dueño del auto y también es la institución que ha puesto el vehículo en subasta.

La gran noticia es que las ofertas comienzaron en US $23. Lo que nos acercó bastante a que cualquiera de nosotros tuviera la oportunidad, al menos por unos minutos, de soñar en adquirir el coche.

Foto cortesía eBay.

Claro está que, con tremenda carga histórica que tiene el coche, además de ser un Mercedes, el precio se disparará. Por ahora, a unas horas de abrir la subasta, el auto ya suma una oferta de US $33’433.00. ¡Auch! Ahí va otro sueño destruido.

Para los detalles técnicos, la agencia destaca que el auto ha recorrido 157,000 millas y además tiene las especificaciones de ventanas eléctricas, aire acondicionado, calefacción, asientos calefaccionados y un motor v12 . ¿Y ya dijimos que lo solía conducir Michael Jordan? Queríamos recordárselos.

Si les interesa participar en la subasta, podrán hacer sus pujas a través de eBay, a partir de ¡YA!

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Celebrate The Last Dance with Chicago Bulls Bobbleheads featuring Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman

Celebrate your Chicago Bulls fandom with these must-have bobbleheads featuring Scottie Pippen & Dennis Rodman, get yours!

The Last Dance brought back some great memories from the Chicago Bulls run from 1991-1998 where they won six NBA championships. You can now pick up some memorabilia to celebrate that time in NBA history with Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman bobbleheads.

Grab this double dose of throwback greatness to your legendary lineup with Scottie Pippen & Dennis Rodman Chicago Bulls Dual Bobblehead. It is pre-order only and will ship no later than September 21st and is only $55.00.

The man. The myth. The legend. The Worm. Adding some throwback Bulls championship greatness is as easy as 1-2-3 with this Dennis Rodman Chicago Bulls 3x NBA Champion Bobblehead.

It is pre-order only and will ship no later than September 21st and is only $50.00.

Defend yourself against anyone who questions your legendary Bulls fandom with this Scottie Pippen Chicago Bulls Lockdown Defense Bobblehead.

It is pre-order only and will ship no later than September 21st and is only $50.00.

Scottie Pippen did A LOT of winning in his career and he’s got the hardware to prove it. Add those winning ways to your collection with the Scottie Pippen Chicago Bulls 6x NBA Champion Bobblehead. 

It is pre-order only and will ship no later than September 21st and is only $50.00.

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Kenny Smith on 1995 Bulls vs. Rockets: ‘They were just too small’

“We would’ve done the same thing,” Smith said of a 1995 NBA Finals matchup vs. Chicago. “The team that they lost to 4-2, we swept.”

As the starter at point guard for the 1993-94 and 1994-95 championship squads of the Houston Rockets, Kenny Smith knows the merits and accomplishments of those teams as well as anyone.

“The Jet” is also well aware of the popular NBA hypothetical from those days, which has recently taken on new life thanks to ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary on the 1990s Chicago Bulls.

Would Houston have won those titles, had Michael Jordan not abruptly taken a mid-career retirement from October 1993 to March 1995? After all, Chicago did win the three NBA championships both preceding and following Houston’s two-year “Clutch City” run in 1994 and 1995.

Many around the Rockets have long bristled at that notion, especially because the 1994-95 team had arguably the toughest championship path in NBA history. There’s also the fact that Jordan was playing in the 1995 playoffs, but his Bulls lost in the second round to Shaquille O’Neal’s Orlando Magic. Then, in the NBA Finals, the Rockets swept those Magic.

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In a Friday interview with Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s First Take, Houston’s veteran point guard broached the subject by saying:

First of all, [Jordan] was wearing number 45, the year that they lost. And he was actually in the league. People forget that. But they were just too small. No Horace Grant. He was in Orlando. Dennis Rodman was still in San Antonio. That’s why they lost to Orlando Magic.

We would’ve done the same thing. The team that they lost to 4-2, we swept. It wasn’t Jordan wasn’t the best player. That wasn’t the best team. So if they didn’t keep Horace Grant or they didn’t get a Dennis Rodman with Michael, they would’ve been too small on the inside. I don’t think they would’ve won eight straight.

Hall of Fame center Hakeem Olajuwon recently made a very similar argument regarding his team’s championship merits.

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One popular theory is that Jordan was “rusty” in the 1995 playoffs after only playing in 17 regular-season games. But that’s not evident in the data. Jordan averaged more points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks per game in the 1995 playoffs than he did in the 1996 playoffs (when the Bulls won the title), all on superior shooting from the field.

Olajuwon’s Rockets also seemed to have a matchup edge against Jordan’s Bulls. In six meetings between 1991 and 1993, all prior to Jordan’s retirement, Houston went 5-1. Olajuwon clearly earned Jordan’s respect, as evidenced by Jordan selecting “The Dream” for his all-time NBA team.

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While they never met in the playoffs, Chicago’s nondescript centers such as Bill Cartwright and Luc Longley offered little resistance to Olajuwon in the regular season. By contrast, many of the teams Chicago defeated in the NBA Finals — such as Charles Barkley’s Phoenix Suns, Karl Malone’s Utah Jazz, and Shawn Kemp’s Seattle Sonics — lacked the offensive production at center to challenge the Bulls at their weakest position.

Ultimately, the Rockets and Bulls peaked at different times in the 1990s, and NBA fans never got to see the hypothetical play out in a playoff setting. As it is, though, the Rockets are happy with their two titles — and their championship veterans like Smith will understandably push back against anyone trying to diminish that group’s accomplishments.

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LeBron James says Steph Curry would be ‘GREAT!!!’ in any era of NBA basketball

LeBron James chimed in on an Instagram post saying Stephen Curry would be “GREAT!!!” in any era of NBA basketball.

With the recent success of ESPN’s “The Last Dance,” debates have waged on regarding Michael Jordan’s era of basketball versus today’s game. The 10-part series followed Jordan’s rise to multiple championship runs with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s.

The Golden State Warriors’ two-time Most Valuable Player was the latest to be spun into the debate.

Alongside an image on Instagram of Stephen Curry laying up a shot over Hakeem Olajuwon, Mars Reel asked, “How good would Steph be if he had played in the ’90s?”

One of Curry’s longtime adversaries chimed in on the post. LeBron James commented that Curry would be “GREAT!!!” in any era of the NBA.

Via @marsreel on Instagram:

Via @Ali_Thanawalla on Twitter:

After sharing a bevy of memorable battles in four consecutive trips to the NBA Finals, the pair of MVPs have been complimentary of each other on social media. When Curry made his long-awaited return from injury in early March, James praised the Golden State point guard on Twitter saying, “the game missed you.”

After James shared an image of the new Space Jam 2 logo, Curry reacted on the Los Angeles Lakers forward’s Instagram, calling the new emblem “dope.”

With Golden State slated to be one of the eight teams set to miss the league’s restart in Orlando, James and Curry will have to wait till next season to link up on the court again.

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Mario Elie on hypothetical series vs. Jordan’s Bulls: ‘Rockets in 7’

“We had a group of guys who weren’t scared,” Elie said of the 1990s Rockets. “A lot of these players were scared of Michael Jordan.”

Of the nine NBA championships awarded from 1991 through 1999, six were won by legendary guard Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.

The other three champions of that era — the 1994 and 1995 Houston Rockets, and the 1999 San Antonio Spurs — shared a common thread in the form of defensive minded swingman Mario Elie.

Known as the “Junkyard Dog,” Elie’s combination of perimeter defense, toughness, and clutch shotmaking made him an essential role player for those title teams. While he admires the Bulls for their accomplishments, which have been featured in recent weeks thanks to “The Last Dance” documentary release, he understandably is partial to his own teams.

In an interview with Rockets broadcaster Craig Ackerman, Elie was asked about those Houston teams not being brought up in the film.

“I don’t really care if they didn’t mention us,” said Elie, whose teams never faced Jordan’s Bulls in the playoffs. “We still got those championships, first of all. “Second of all, we’d have matched up great against them.”

“We had Vernon [Maxwell] and myself,” he said. You’re not going to stop Michael Jordan, we all know that know that, but we’re two guys who can make him work. And Jordan really didn’t face a big man at the caliber of Hakeem Olajuwon. If Michael Jordan would have beat me and Vernon, he would’ve had to meet No. 34 at the rim.”

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Elie said the Rockets’ title teams were mentally tough, which he believes was in contrast to many other contenders in that era. He explained:

We had a group of guys who weren’t scared. A lot of these players were scared of Michael Jordan. It was like that Mike Tyson effect. When Mike Tyson was first on the scene and you walked in the ring, he’d have those guys beat by the staredown.

I thought we had guys that weren’t scared. We weren’t scared of nothing. Especially the two years we won, being down [in series]. We had adversity we had to deal with. We just had some tough, gritty guys.

In terms of the Xs and Os of a hypothetical matchup, Elie said he would have been fascinated by the potential of a young Robert Horry going against Scottie Pippen, as well as Otis Thorpe at power forward versus Dennis Rodman. Coaching strategies may also have played a key role.

“Robert would tell me that Phil Jackson didn’t like to double team,” Elie said. Years later, Jackson coached Horry with the Los Angeles Lakers.

“I played with Hakeem Olajuwon for five years,” Elie explained. “This man sees double and triple teams on a nightly basis and still gets 30 and 40 points. So imagine if Phil Jackson doesn’t double. He would kill them and get them all in foul trouble, etc.”

There’s certainly reason to question whether Chicago’s nondescript centers like Bill Cartwright and Luc Longley could have held up against Olajuwon’s Rockets, who were 5-1 against Jordan’s Bulls in six regular-season games from 1990-91 through 1992-93.

By comparison, many teams Chicago defeated in the NBA Finals in their title runs — such as Charles Barkley’s Phoenix Suns, Karl Malone’s Utah Jazz, and Shawn Kemp’s Seattle Sonics — lacked the offensive production at center to challenge the Bulls at their weakest position.

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But in the end, Elie believes it’s the role players that would have given the “Clutch City” Rockets an advantage versus Chicago. He said:

I would take us in seven [games]. It would have been a great series. Jordan would have got his for sure, and Olajuwon would get his. … Both guys were on top of their games at the time.

I think it’d have been up to the role players, and I sort of like our role players a little better than theirs, you know. It’d have been interesting, but I would like our chances, especially with that ’94 team. We had size, we had athleticism, and we had toughness.

The 1994 team featured Otis Thorpe starting at power forward. Before the 1995 title run, Houston traded Thorpe in a deal for star shooting guard Clyde Drexler, which led to Horry sliding to power forward.

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Jordan didn’t play in the 1993-94 season after an abrupt mid-career retirement in October 1993, which lasted until March 1995. Stylistically, the 1993-94 Rockets with Thorpe had the most in common with the group that went 5-1 versus Chicago in the previous three seasons. Olajuwon was also regular-season MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in 1993-94.

Jordan returned the next season and played well in the 1995 playoffs, but his Bulls lost in the second round to the Orlando. The Magic were later swept by Elie’s Rockets in the 1995 NBA Finals.

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The Bulls regrouped in the subsequent 1995 offseason and signed Rodman as their next power forward, filling Grant’s old role. From there, Chicago took the next three championships from 1996 through 1998, which was when the Olajuwon-era Rockets were aging out of contention.

In the end, Olajuwon’s Rockets and Jordan’s Bulls peaked at different times in the 1990s, and NBA fans never saw the playoff matchup they craved between the two MVPs and Hall of Famers. But even decades later, it’s a debate that still lives on in NBA lore. Understandably, Elie is partial to “The Dream” and his teammates from that golden era in Houston.

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Clyde Drexler on facing Michael Jordan: ‘This is a team game’

“I didn’t take 35 shots and get 20 free throws a night, so I wasn’t going to score 40 points a night,” Drexler said to SportsTalk 790.

Though ESPN’s “The Last Dance” played up the early 1990s rivalry between guards Michael Jordan and Clyde Drexler, the former Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers star isn’t interested in that angle.

In showing highlights of the 1992 NBA Finals matchup between Jordan’s Chicago Bulls and Drexler’s Trail Blazers, Jordan said on the film that he was “offended” by pre-series comparisons to Drexler.

“I’m not saying [Clyde] wasn’t a threat,” Jordan said on the documentary. “But me being compared to him, I took offense to that.” Jordan went on to average 35.8 points per game on 52.6% shooting in the best-of-seven series, which his Bulls won in six games.

Since then, in an appearance this week with Rockets flagship radio station SportsTalk 790, Drexler shared his side of the story:

This is a team game, it’s not one guy. You can have 50 points and 40 rebounds, but if you lose, are you less of a player than anybody on the other team? No, it’s a team game. So I hate when people act like it’s an individual competition. I didn’t take 35 shots and get 20 free throws a night, so I wasn’t going to score 40 points a night.

Drexler said he didn’t watch the Jordan-focused documentary, because he had seen enough from his time as a player. He explains:

I lived it. That’s Michael’s documentary of course it’s going to be from his perspective. It was a golden era, and everybody is entitled to their own opinion.

In that era, there were nothing but men, real men who played. A lot of times guys didn’t like each other from other teams, but as you get older, you’ve got to get beyond all of that and show some love and some respect for the people you played with and against. I hope Michael was able to do that in his documentary.

Drexler did hold his own in the 1992 Finals, averaging 24.8 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game against Jordan and the Bulls.

Though “The Glide” didn’t win the championship with the Trail Blazers, he had the right team around him three years later — when Drexler helped lead the Rockets to their second NBA title in 1995.

Later in the SportsTalk 790 interview, Drexler took issue with the recent debates flowing out of “The Last Dance” about whether Michael Jordan or LeBron James is the greatest NBA player of all-time. From the Hall of Famer’s perspective, the list should be more comprehensive.

“I have a real problem with that,” said Drexler, who still works today as a game analyst on a part-time basis for the Rockets. He elaborated:

For all these guys who played the game, for you to have a conversation, are these two guys the GOAT when you got Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, two of the greatest players that ever lived? You start with those two.”

And then you’ve got guys like Dr. J [Julius Irving], Larry Bird, George Gervin, Elgin Baylor, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West… all those guys are in the conversation. For people bringing this up today, to me, it’s unbelievable. And I love Michael and LeBron, but let’s not take something away from those other guys who played.

The complete conversation between Drexler and hosts Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler can be listened to below.

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