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

honestly never knew kerr threw the first punch but mj made it clear he fouled the shit out of him, so that was clearly the instigating factor

this doc has actually made me think he's less of a dick than i thought he was previously.

same, I kinda forgot how charismatic and funny he was, especially compared to guys like Kobe and LeBron

that said the doc is def edited in his favor

yah its p much a puff piece

being a mild to moderate asshole is obvs common amongst bigtime ballers tho

I wonder if he ever took that fact in and thought "well then if I'm an even bigger asshole, I'll be that much better of a baller!"

i bet he did lol

this doc has actually made me think he's less of a dick than i thought he was previously.

― Spottie, Wednesday, May 13, 2020 6:28 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

same, I kinda forgot how charismatic and funny he was, especially compared to guys like Kobe and LeBron

that said the doc is def edited in his favor

― frogbs, Wednesday, May 13, 2020 6:34 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

agree w all of this and for me its not that hes seemed like less of an asshole just that other sides of his personality are being revealed that temper it, also hes prob a pretty different person now than when he played its been a while people change

i see zirin is yet another in the long line of people who are confused why a michael jordan documentary, made with the cooperation and editorial signoff of michael jordan, isn't more critical of michael jordan.

wonder what the deal is with jordan not allowing them to use the old footage until now is, like why didnt he want it out there its odd

it probably really was difficult and emotional for him to relive all this stuff on camera. i actually think the timing is perfect now that there's a whole generation that never really saw him and thinks lebron is the best player.

this is prob going to sound weird but hearing MJ talk about his mindset helped me understand my Mum - wrt sports as a kid. She was super competitive, natural talent at everything & won basically every game she played bc she had that deep will to win.
she would try to push me to compete harder in tennis or netball etc & i just didnt want to, bc i wasnt competitive & sport was just something to do. We fought so hard about it!!

But I kinda see that she had that same MJ mindset even though it was crazily misplaced on me lol

Doesnt change anything but the new perspective is interesting

def a savvy move to do it now xp

the fact that basketball stopped right be for it came out wasnt bad for it either

seriously, i wonder where it's going to go down among most-watched docs.

Those other docs better not talk shit.

def getting a serious airing

well deserved imo its really well done tbh 10eps of jordan wasnt that appealing to me but im rapt

some other 30 for 30s that people raved over i didnt really think were that good but this one is

nice to have so much raw footage from 97-98

yeah that stuffs a gold mine, and then the interviews have been great too

the bit where they give them the ipads is so good

seems like an obvious move and yet

it's brilliant. the director is def a talented guy. my spouse is not a basketball fan at all and she's been locked in every week.

yeah it stands on its own

i have a young friend, he's like idk 24, who grew up a lakers & kobe stan (he thought kobe was the GOAT, i have since talked him out of this nonsense using STATISTICS) and he is utterly enthralled by this doc. i think to him MJ was this ghost who he never got to see and the way he lorded over so much nba discussion turned the kid off, but seeing all this footage the guy is suddenly the world's biggest MJ fan which is neat to see happen

good for the youth to receive an education

prob that he's an absolute nth level degenerate gambler and competition addict can relate to mj on that primal level

i noticed today that bball-ref has some spotty mj high school stats (probably someone went out and looked at old copies of the wilmington, nc, newspaper), and lol, he apparently scored 45 pts in a jv game. maybe helps put "cut from the varsity" in context.

I feel like MJ was a dick to his teammates but it never reached any sort of level where it might impact their performance negatively. I can’t say this for, for example, Kevin Garnett

did you run this post by kwame brown?

I'm sure some of their performances were negatively affected. but kobe was worse lol

Cause Kobe thought hey if MJ was a dick to his teammates and he was the greatest ever, I'm be an even bigger dick and therefore be even greatererer!

VegemiteGrrl nice post, I mean I'm like your mom in this regard, though I rarely call my kids out on it in MJ ways when I think they're slacking, but I drive myself in the MJ way and sometimes *want* to hold others accountable when they're not putting in the same effort. I'd guess this is pretty common & is maybe what separates the "Mamba Mentality" from MJ's.

I got asked a few years to be on a panel discussion at my son's middle school, with other "successful" members of the school community, and there was a question from the moderator about who you model yourself after. the other people were like "my mom" etc & I said MJ, and explained basically what we've been talking about, about his insane drive & (kinda) his dickness & the students just went wild for the first time during the whole otherwise boring time. I looked at the other panel members like they were all Craig Ehlo and walked away.

quel balleur

it's fun seeing fat jordan and reliving some of those games but mainly for me it's that footage. most of what any of us have ever seen of jordan is SD-quality video of games.. and here comes this HD, slo-mo, pinpoint sharp, perfectly exposed footage not only of the games but the locker rooms, hotel rooms, buses - it's extraordinary

haha yeah it was in Paris! my kid's school was basically all students of African descent so I think they understand MJ in their own particular way, but my son said afterwards that they loved it.

Still have a couple of episodes to go--there's a bit of a delay in Canada.

Re Jordan's competitiveness...When that journeyman player had the great game, and Jordan made up that story where the guy said "nice game" to him so he could motivate himself via anger and revenge--which then broadened out to Jordan's habit of doing that as a matter of routine--it reminded me of a certain president whose name I won't infect this thread with, the need for a perceived enemy to function. Obviously there's a world of difference there as to the ultimate goal, but that did cross my mind.

I don't think it's that uncommon a thing--Dylan more or less operated the same way in 1965. The end result can be "Positively 4th Street," an NBA title, or making fun of a disabled reporter--depends how you use it.

I'm sure some of their performances were negatively affected. but kobe was worse lol

The footage of all the Eastern Conference All-Stars in the locker room before the All-Star game clowning on 19yo Kobe was hilarious.

i was a lil surprised they left some of the kobe-baiting stuff in considering recent events

i think that's why they plunked in the "with love" at the start

yeah it seemed appropriate

couple interesting nuggets here:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2020/05/15/the-last-dance-ahmad-rashad-reflects-covering-michael-jordan/5196625002/

my main man

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYGlBpxX0AE71NZ?format=jpg&name=small

1 - super fucking excited to see the end of this
2 - a little bummed in how much this has been cooling my basketball jones and now it's leaving

I’m kinda anticipating they skip the wizards years entirely but I really hope that’s not the case bc I find the Jordan aged and declining on a shit team thing fascinating

they gotta have a least a lil wiz in there

the spine is that film footage. might feel a little weird to go beyond it.