Great fucking series. Made me feel like a kid again. It also brought back a ton of memories that I had previously forgotten about. Can’t wait to watch it again in a couple years.
I cried a bunch during this thing. I know it’s a sanitized, highly pro-Jordan perspective but it really hit me in the feels. I was 9 when they won their first title and 16 when they won the last one and it was the first sports I was hugely emotionally invested in. Really took me back. Could have watched 20 hours and been begging for more. Fantastic content.
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This interaction with Bird is now one of my favorite things. Two of the greatest trash talkers of all time.
My favorite Bird trash talk story:
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I’m about 5 years older than you but similarly these memories coincide with some of the happiest times of my life. I think the first time I was really into sports was the two Pistons championships. The Pistons over the Blazers was my first sports heartbreak - I LOVED that 1990 Portland team, top to bottom.
To make sure I never suffered that kind of playoff disappointment again I switched to baseball and became a Braves fan. Oops.
Ok I’m intentionally responding without googling, but my immediate instinct here is to say, “really?”
Cubs fan my whole life (I’m 39), and all I remember about my childhood is the Braves being fucking awesome.
edit: i do remember other things about my childhood
It makes sense. Braves were nationally televised and went from 60 wins a year to 100 wins a year for 10 years overnight.
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They couldn’t get over the hump. Until fate gave them a Cleveland team. So, that great staff only won one WS.
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His mom was 13 when she named the kid.
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If the Bulls could have kept the core together for the next season, they likely don’t title, right?
They were already pretty vulnerable in the 98 playoffs, going to 7 against the Pacers and 6 vs. the Jazz.
The Jazz faded big-time, losing in the conference semis to the Blazers and their core was basically the same as the Bulls’ big 3.
Add to that the Spurs were just playing out of their minds and only lost 2 the entire playoffs.
It probably ended the best way it could (other than the Wizards comeback).
You know it’s Jordan friendly when everyone, absolutely everyone, says Jordan’s an asshole and then the clips of him at practice are of him being less abusive then my high school coaches.
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I know. It’s sad on multiple levels.
He had the final say on whether or not this ever saw the light of day, so it’s not too surprising.
I think there was less total tape then some think. They weren’t filming every practice and training session. For the space jam pickup games they apparently only filmed like 90 seconds of stuff.
I finally polished this off, very enjoyable for people that were fans at the time but with obvious flaws as a piece of film making. The best description I saw was that this is hagiography, not documentary, which is totally accurate.
Having said that for 1990s kids/teens/young adults like me (91–98 is my age 13 to 20 period, basically the peak of my life, lol) this is hook-it-directly-to-my-veins-please nostalgia.
Highlights for me from the last couple of episodes:
- Those mormon white peoples get out of control for Jazz basketball. Settle down, Karen.
- Antoine Carr!
- John Stockton was very good at basketball.
- Notwithstanding Karl Malone’s off court despicable behavior, it was quite cool of him to go on the bus after the final and congratulate the Bulls on winning. Quite a contrast with the earlier stuff about the Pistons.
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Agree, and maybe I’m a huge nit, but Jordan didn’t even stand up to receive it.
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Great article on how this thing finally got done.
I mean, if it wasn’t Grant then wtf was it? Jordan himself?
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Phil Jackson has some pretty loose lips. He wrote a book on the ins and outs with Kobe.
Also, it was probably sourced a bit from everybody. You could see Buechler, Perdue, Wennington, etc were all talkers.
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