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ACC QUESTION of WEEK : Did The Last Dance help or hurt Michael Jordan’s legacy?
It helps no one when a columnist is asked to give an opinion on a compelling but contentious point of debate, and that columnist tries to write as though s/he has no viewpoint. The attempt to be “neutral” only makes things worse when the columnist makes his assessments of the case. A professed “neutrality” becomes less convincing to the reader, who is led to think the columnist is putting up a smokescreen and is not entirely dealing straight.
Therefore, let me engage in a piece of full disclosure: I didn’t really like Michael Jordan when he played, and I haven’t really liked him afterward, either.
I lived in Seattle for much of the 1990s, having attended college (Seattle University) in those years. John Stockton was my favorite NBA player of the time, Jerry Sloan (who just died) my favorite NBA coach. I rooted for the Utah Jazz. Jordan was the enemy in a sports-specific context.
Then consider something which was mentioned in “The Last Dance”: Jordan’s lack of political activism and his concurrent emphasis on maximizing profits as the shrewd businessman he was. Imagine if Jordan had been an activist. He could have done so much good, and he frankly turned the other way.
I am the last person to paint Jordan in an especially favorable light as a public figure. Moreover, while “The Last Dance” was essentially Jordan’s story and not anyone else’s, it’s not as though the film (though slanted) completely ignored the darker side of Jordan. Yes, it didn’t give as much weight to those parts of Jordan’s life as a more “neutral” film would have, but it acknowledged some of his less pleasing aspects.
So yes, I am not an ardent Michael Jordan fan.
Now you know.
My verdict on “The Last Dance” relative to Jordan’s legacy? The film undeniably improves it.
I can be less than admiring of Jordan’s personal choices in his public life and still acknowledge what the film laid out:
Jordan is a remarkable athlete unlike any we have ever seen… including LeBron James.
Jordan three-peated TWICE — and never even got taken to Game 7 of the NBA Finals — on teams with Bill Cartwright, Bill Wennington, Stacey King, Scott Williams, Bobby Hansen, Luc Longley, Scott Burrell, and a lot of other spare parts. Sure, the Bulls had Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant and Dennis Rodman, but they were less a complete roster than other great championship teams. I don’t think a lot of people realized just how much Jordan had to do to carry the Bulls over the top each year.
Yet, he did precisely that.
When LeBron had collections of spare parts in the Finals, he did face better opponents than Jordan did — that much has to be given to LeBron; he had taller obstacles in his path — but he nevertheless couldn’t match the standard Jordan was able to attain.
“The Last Dance” — even though it was Michael Jordan’s story, told fundamentally from his vantage point — nevertheless had a certain degree of objectivity, in the sense that the Bulls’ six titles are a matter of public record. No one can change that. The film looked at those gleaming, glowing moments and recalled for those of us old enough to remember them just how majestic and indomitable Jordan was.
He was so mentally and physically exhausted in 1993 and 1998. He and the Bulls trailed in the final 50 seconds of road Game 6s, staring down the barrel of a road Game 7, and both times, Jordan played a brilliant final four possessions (two on offense, two on defense) to carry his teams to the title.
LeBron will always have Games 5-7 of the 2016 Finals against the Warriors, but that was an exceptional moment in his Finals career. For Jordan, the extraordinary was normal, regular business.
You can not like Michael Jordan personally, as I do. You can still hate him as a fan due to his defeats of the Sonics and Jazz, as I do.
You can’t ignore how towering a standard of excellence he set, on flawed rosters he transcended to win six titles in eight years… with Jerry Krause then breaking up the Bulls instead of allowing them all to come back in 1999 and maybe even 2000.
LeBron James made eight straight NBA Finals. That is the kind of feat worthy of a “greatest of all time” player. Whatever Jordan did, LeBron’s feats aren’t anti-Jordan arguments; they merely reflect the remarkable body of work Bron has put together. Similarly, noting Jordan’s brilliance isn’t an anti-LeBron argument. We simply have to absorb just how great Jordan was in his prime.
For the many younger Americans who weren’t able to see him in real time, “The Last Dance” effectively brought home just how extraordinary MJ truly was.
The film can only improve his legacy, regardless of your own personal feelings about the man.
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