The Last Dance: In Praise of One Lone Gold Hoop Earring

Back in the office after his vacation on a 154-foot rented yacht named Mister Terrible

beautiful phrase

dark musings!

"I … I always thought I would die young," he says, leaning up to rap his knuckles on the rich, dark wood of his desk.

was listening to some pod recently and they advanced the idea that as an owner having so little control over outcomes would be driving him totally insane if he didn't detach in a pretty severe way.

to me he seems pretty normal among people who peaked early. they usually know when they don't have a second act. so he plays 36 holes of golf every day and hangs out with a family he seems to at least kind of like. it could be worse.

The Harvey Gantt stuff in E5 was really interesting. I'm familiar with the Jordan quote but didn't know it was connected to a specific political campaign.

Felt bad for Kukoc for being thrown into that impossible situation in the Olympics--here, go pitch to Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig; I got them nice and angry ahead of time for you--so was glad he made a good showing second time around.

he's capable of a lot of nuanced reflection now

That's the best thing about this. He wiggled a bit talking about Gantt, but for the most part, I never feel like he's shaping his responses. The things that drove him then still do--loved the Clyde Drexler showdown, the way he's able to speak respectfully about Drexler but still make it clear it was a mismatch.

it's fun to watch the glass of whiskey next to him go up and down

yeah, i imagine the quantum state of that tumbler is impacting the nature of this doc quite a bit

i saw somewhere that it's extra anejo tequila which is appropriately gauche

lol that is definitely a hard liquor flex

Lol. I think Barkley STILL calls Dirk "No-wit-ski".

Cause he's chill af or is that actually a widely accepted variant?

Like how Olajuwon let 10 years go by before going um actually it's Hakeem not Akeem

Charles Barkley was great in E5. Disappointed to read Jordan's feuding with him, too--1000% with Barkley there.

i can't stop thinking about a guns and roses doc made exactly like this with a fat old axl sitting there settling scores and getting embarrassed by old footage and pointedly not touching a tumbler full of whiskey and al gore talking about how he had to sneak his listening on a walkman while tipper was in another room

lol hell yes

i want to hear axl reveal all about his feud with mnuchin

did mnuchin walk out of the conference room without shaking hands?

yes!

i didn't expect that to be resolved so quickly, but it makes sense!

oh lol my YES was for the idea of the axl doc series

I'm the biggest MJ fan on ILH but yeah I'm with Barkley on that too. You'd hope that MJ would hear Barkley's recent comments about their falling out and extend a hand to Barkley, but I'm not holding my breath.

i was just reading about it this morning. that sucks :(

i imagine it’s not uncommon though? switching from sport to commentary & being called on to give some hard opinions about friends & fellow teammates etc. maybe moreso for barkley bc he never pulled his punches anyway

i am okay with anybody in the entire world not being friends with charles barkley; he seems like he would get infuriating quickly

Barkley's words are more hurtful than he seems to realize. He focuses on how he said the people around Jordan are bad and not Jordan specifically. But in doing that, he's painting a picture of MJ as a clueless dupe. It's the sort of criticism that probably causes more turmoil and second-guessing within the org than just saying "Jordan made this or that terrible pick/decision, and they need to recover from that."

ultimately, Barkley is either right or wrong about it. if he's right, i'm probably on his side. but if he was trying to craft a middle ground soundbyte that allowed him to do his job and not hurt his friend, I think he failed.

where is the info re barkley feud

https://youtu.be/vGAY_pKRelQ

I read Chuck's autobio 10 yrs or so ago and he came off WAY differently than he does on TV. I'm guessing he's much different person than most ppl judge him to be.

the golf swing hitch is an affectation

guys don’t make me tell my Charles Barkley was a dick to me where I was a teenager story on here for like the fifth time, but yeah in sum chuck is an actual insensitive dick

https://youtu.be/vGAY_pKRelQ

― Morton Koopa Jr. Sings Elvis (Sufjan Grafton), Thursday, May 7, 2020 4:13 PM (fifty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol i actually love this

Was trying to let MJ off the hook for being a dick by thinking he just got worn down by the constant scrutiny and infamy, that he developed it as a defense mechanism. But then there's that story from that great long article several years back (I'm blanking on the author. I can picture him. Name starts with W?) about him on a commercial shoot early in his career where he put his finger into every donut in a box just so the crew wouldn't have any, because they didn't deserve HIS donuts.

ok it's Wright Thompson and I mangled that anecdote:

"Back when they used to shoot a lot of commercials, Jordan's security team would wait for him in his trailer while he was on set. A woman named Linda cooked Michael's meals, and he loved cinnamon rolls. She'd bake a tray and bring it to him. When it came time to film, he'd see the guards eyeing the cinnamon rolls and he'd walk over and spit on each one, to make sure nobody took his food."

idk i wouldnt really want to eat food that i spit on

that's why you have no 'chips

damn was wondering why at least now i know

goon has got zero #MambaMentality

fuck its true

i posted that wright thompson article a couple days back. was pretty eye opening for me when i read it as i never really followed MJ the person before.

he'd see the guards eyeing the cinnamon rolls and he'd walk over and spit on each one

just an alpha dog marking his territory

I think it was eye-opening for most ppl. He's so guarded, there wasn't that sort of behind-the-curtains look at him before afaik.

cinnamon rolls are for NBA game CLOSERS

where is the info re barkley feud

This is the piece I came across:

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29140010/charles-barkley-see-long-riff-michael-jordan-ending

Barkley's been one of my favourite interviews for years, even only as a casual basketball fan. I thought he was very eloquent in the documentary, saying that for the first time in that final series he had to accept that there was a player better than he was (after a game where he played great and it still wasn't enough).

I find his love for the humble homemade cinnamon roll a bit charming. Probably made Linda feel good anyway.

cinnamon rolls are good

This article gave me a lot of goodwill towards Barkley, well worth a read

https://amp.wbur.org/onlyagame/2018/12/14/lin-wang-charles-barkley

Just realized why I misrembered that anecdote. My friend once brought me donuts at work and stuck her finger in one just as a gag lol.

Jordan in that Phoenix series might have been the peak Jordan.

Has anyone watched the Rodman 30 for 30?
I started it but it seemed v corny so i bailed.

it was okay! covers a lot of the same ground but is clearly filtered through Dennis' sensibilities and focuses more on the life after basketball than during.

ok serioulsy what is going one with that security guy flipping coins w MJ?

is that a real person? He looks like a Safdie bros walk-on. Hoping he gets his own episode because...wow

― Yanni Xenakis (Hadrian VIII), lundi 4 mai 2020 14:22 (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Eheh, that was such a great moment.
I also like the idea of MJ listening to W. Houston's first album on repeat... so gangsta !