While The Last Dance is nominally about the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls, the 10-hour documentary goes much deeper into the history of the team’s major players like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, and will continue to follow that trajectory as it bounces back and forth from the 97-98 season to the past that shaped that last team.
The next episode will feature the Bulls-Pistons rivalry of the late 80s and early 90s, and also introduce Dennis Rodman to the documentary for the first time, with some fantastic stories surely to come out of his involvement and his teammates’ remembrances of The Worm. After that, we’ll get to the first three-peat and, eventually, Michael Jordan’s first retirement after the 1992-93 season.
Jordan’s retirement to play baseball in the minor leagues for 18 months before returning in 1995 remains a hot topic for many, with speculation about exactly why he chose to step away from basketball. After the murder of his father, Jordan decided to pursue his first sports love of baseball, but there are some that believe there was more to it. The “secret suspension” theory is popular among some corners of the internet, but former teammate Steve Kerr believes Jordan was simply emotionally exhausted from the constant scrutiny and spotlight that followed him as the world’s most famous athlete (and, arguably, person), as he told Rachel Nichols on The Jump.
Always a smart conversation with @SteveKerr on #TheJump – he told us why he thinks MJ really left to play baseball, about Scottie’s battles with Jerry Krause & if the Warriors (who already have the best odds for the No. 1 pick) would rather call this season/start fresh next year pic.twitter.com/8CRtumXBHm
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) April 21, 2020
“Make no mistake about it, he faced all kinds scrutiny, but it was different,” Kerr said. “I will always maintain that the reason he really went and played baseball was because he was fried emotionally from the scrutiny that really only he felt. Just watching him, by the time I got there, watching the life that he led compared to everyone else, it was insane. And so, I think he had had enough and just stepped away for a little while, then came back and was ready to roll.”
It wouldn’t be surprising if this was the case, with his father’s death only adding to the emotional weight he would’ve had to carry. It’ll be interesting how much The Last Dance dives into that decision and how much Jordan speaks on it, but we’ll just have to wait a few weeks to find out.