The Last Dance 1.07

Episode VII

The Chicago Bulls opened the 1998 playoffs by playing the New Jersey Nets in Chicago. The Nets led most of the way but the Bulls wun the game by 3 points.

James Jordan, Michael Jordan's father, was murdered in July 1993. Michael Jordan announced his retirement from the NBA in August 1993. Rumors swirled around that this was ordered by the head of the NBA, David Stern.

Michael Jordan started to train with a Chicago White Sox minor league team, the Birmingham Barons, in Feb 1994. The Barons were a AA team. Normally a new player would start with the A team but the White Sox A team didn't have the facilities to deal with the press coverage that Michael would generate. Jordan got a lot of scrutiny as a baseball player. He started with a 13-game hitting streak but then stumbled. He kept practicing and got better. He hit .202 in his first year with the Barons and batted in 50 runs.

1998. Michael Jordan liked to push his teammates to play harder and better, especially Scott Burrell. The energy Jordan put into pushing his teammates wasn't always appreciated but a number of them concede that it made the team better.

1994. The Bulls had a good year without Michael Jordan. Scottie Pippen became the leader of the team on the court. He was not the same personality type as Jordan. Tony Kukoc joined the team in 1994. He was a prolific scorer but didn't play defense as well as the team needed him to play. The Bulls finished third in the East in the regular season. They swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs.

The Bulls played the Knicks in the second round. The Knicks won the first two games. The Bulls were down by a point with less that 2 seconds to go in game 3. Phil Jackson drew up a play which would get the ball to Tony Kukoc for the shot to win the game. Scottie Pippen didn't like it and refused to leave the bench. The play went as planned and the Bulls won the game by two points.

The team was not okay with the way Pippen quit on them when they needed him most. Bill Cartwright gave a speech in the locker room after the game and talked about how he felt betrayed by Pippen. There were tears in his eyes. The speech got to everyone including Pippen who apologized to the team. The Bulls were down in the series 1-2. They won two of the next three games but the Knicks won the series.

1998. The Bulls won games 2 and 3 of the opening round with the Nets. They moved on to face the Charlotte Hornets in the second round.