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“The Last Dance” has lived up to the hype and has delivered some pretty great sports television for us over the past four Sunday nights. Unfortunately, this Sunday night will be the last we see of it, as the final two episodes will air and we’ll go on with our lives wishing there was more Michael Jordan and the Bulls content for us to watch.
Because this has been so, so good.
We’ve been shown so many great behind-the scenes moments from Jordan’s legendary career, have seen how he worked so hard to be the best and how well he handled all the fame that came with it.
We also got to see how hard he pushed his teammates, too, and in some cases how roughly he treated them.
It’s been great. All of it.
So let’s look at the 10 best moments from the series so far.
1. The security guard with the awesome mullet and the ability to beat Jordan in a game of quarters stole our hearts in episode six when he did the Jordan Shrug after taking some of MJ’s money. This guy was one of Jordan’s longtime security guards and was almost always by his side. It was really fun to see how much Jordan enjoyed interacting with him and other security guards in the bowels of the United Center and also how competitive Jordan was at everything.
2. In episode 8 we were treated to some of the best television I’ve ever witnessed as Jordan, in full practice attire, sat in the locker room with a bat in his hands and a cigar in his mouth talking about how B.J. Armstrong pulled the wrong time to start talking trash and that a real man talks trash when the score is even. I’m going to be rewatching this scene for years to come.
3. Episode 8 also gave us a legendary new Jordan meme, as his laughing at Gary Payton took on a life of its own during the episode. Jordan found it really, really, really funny that Payton had thought that he shut Jordan down in Game 4 of the 1996 NBA Finals. Oh, and this mashup video of Jordan laughing at LeBron James is something you need to see.
4. It was really funny to see that Jordan still thinks Isiah Thomas is a bad word after all these years. He wanted no part in playing the nice guy and letting old wounds heal while talking about Thomas and the Pistons walking off the court before the series was over and I loved the pettiness. Absolutely loved it.
5. The musical choices in this series have been perfect, leading with the highlight package of Jordan’s 63-point game against the Celtics in the playoffs with LL Cool J’s “I’m Bad” playing as the soundtrack was just one of the coolest few minutes of TV that I’ve ever seen.
6. The story about Dennis Rodman needing to take a few days off in the season to go to Las Vegas and then staying there longer than expected only to have Jordan go to Vegas and pull Rodman out of bed (who he was in with Carmen Electra) is the best type of gold that this series delivered. It’s also a story that could never happen in a social media world.
7. Jerry Krause broke this team up and took a lot of shots during the series but his dancing on the plane after the Bulls eliminated the Pistons in the 1991 playoffs was so good.
8. We also got to learn about who Jordan was before he got famous… and he was just like any other college. Jordan’s mom read a note that her son wrote from UNC in which he politely asked for some money and provided his bank account information. This was pre Venmo, of course, and it was a move all of us pulled in school.
9. Jordan’s emotional speech about why he pushed his teammates so hard was the biggest goosebumps moment of the series, as it ended with him getting emotional and walking away from the interview. This is another video I’m going to watch for years to come.
10. Kobe Bryant made an appearance in the beginning of the fifth episode and while it was awesome to see him talking about what Jordan meant to him, it was still hard to come to grips that he’s no longer with us.
Thursday’s biggest winner: NFL uniform rankings.
There have been a lot of uniform changes across the NFL this offseason so my pal Charles Curtis broke them all down and ranked the 32 uniforms worst to best. Carolina Panthers fans are not going to be happy.
Quick hits: Booger wasn’t bothered… NASCAR is back… Rays’ ace sounds off… And more!
– Booger McFarland said he wasn’t bothered at all by the criticism and memes that came his way during his stint in the MNF booth.
– NASCAR is back this weekend and Kevin Harvick explained why he’s OK with NASCAR not testing for coronavirus at the track.
– Brad Keselowski, meanwhile, warned against NASCAR drivers having ‘false sense of confidence’ in return.
– Rays ace Blake Snell sounded off on a potential salary cut probably needed for a season this year and this might be how a lot of players feel.
– Bill Murray joked that he’s tired of Michael Jordan getting all the credit for ‘Space Jam’ win.