The Last Dance was great. Since then I have watched The Last Season: the 1998, 82 games Bulls regular season. It’s fantastic basketball and makes that last run feel even more spectacular.
First off, in 1998 the Bulls team is a *lot* slower than the two previous runs. It’s obvious. Their bodies –especially Scottie’s, who’s on the bench until January- are messed up. When Phil Jackson says in the documentary that they wouldn’t have been able to get a 7th title, I really agree with that.
Second, EVERYONE wants to beat them. They’re the champs, the 5-time champions. Every single team wants to beat the Bulls and most are extremely well prepared. They also know that they’re not as quick as before and ALL the young guns are ready to show Michael who’s taking the crown next. They all know how the Bulls work, how to double team, when etc. The Bulls are known, dissected. The Bulls have no secret.
I’ve never seen MJ getting blocked or smacked to the ground or forced to pass the ball more than those games. There’s a game at the end of the season where Grant Hill absolutely dominates Michael. The NBA teams knew what the fuck was going on.
When the Bulls lose during that regular season, the other teams look like they just won the Finals and Olympics combined. There’s this game where MJ has 47 pts, Dennis has 29 rebounds and they win by single digit. They look completely exhausted and it’s only October or November.
The media talks shit. The Bulls are super good and strong as hell, but you can see the cracks. Plus, they already have 5 titles, how can you possibly want more? There might be fatigue. There’s also this halo around Michael. The man is a god at that time, more than ever. No one wants him to retire, but everyone wants to beat him. So it’s a strange mix and probably an insane and absurd pressure on the players’ shoulders. Observations:
The Bench
Shout out to them! Even though they’re struggling at the start of the season, they end up being crucial, allowing the starting 5 to recover. Wennington is hitting the baseline Js like it’s nothing, Brown is stealing the ball like there’s no tomorrow and Buechler is setting things on fire from those corner 3s. Burrell also has some excellent games at the end of the season and provides a lot of energy.
Kerr
Steve is a defensive beast. Of course he gets thrown around against the biggest guards in the league but his relentlessness is relentless. If you wonder why now as a coach he gets players to become much better defenders (Andrew Wiggins), that’s why.
MJ’s feeding energy
Now that I saw it, it’s true. This man wants to win every single *play*. He doesn’t want the other team to succeed at anything. He goes so hard, all the time. But that season, it’s barely enough to keep a 5-8 pts lead. He spends so much energy though that when he hits the bench, the bench is ready to throw it down just by sheer respect for his incredible hustle on the field. It’s feeding other players and without it, there’s no championship because the team would crumble under the pressure.
Phil Jackson is scary
He spends that season berating Kukoc, I mean, it’s unreal. There’s not a timeout without Phil going at Toni with “what the fuck are you doing out there you piece of shit?” vibes. It’s frightening because he’s supposed to be that cool, zen dude who wrote a book about LSD and all of a sudden he stomps Croatians for dinner. It’s wild. But it works, because Toni gets better and becomes a key to the Bulls offense (Game 7 against the Pacers in the eastern conference finals, he will go 5/5 from the field in the 3rd quarter, sealing the win).
Time Out
Phil calls them at the absolute perfect time. The second the other team feels some kind of flow, he calls it. He absolutely destroys momentums like that. It’s a beautiful thing to see and I’ve only seen Greg Popovich being that good at calling time outs. Weirdly, other teams don’t use theirs to disrupt the Bulls.
Dennis
He is so crucial to that championship team. We forget how essential rebounding is when MJ hits that crazy fadeaway J, but without Dennis getting that offensive board, there’s no win. He’s also quite nasty, locking people’s arms and getting under people’s skin like no other player. FOR THE WIN
The Pacers
From the start of the season, you can tell they’re the team the Bulls are afraid of. Even during regular season, it’s on sight. The Pacers are absolutely excellent with their 3 lefties and Reggie. The games are tough. I think the last game they meet, the Bulls again barely win and MJ who give everything on the floor is a bum for the next game like, he’s not even caring about it because he knows that they just beat their strongest opponent. The Bulls are also at that time like 25-2. Unreal.
Triangle and Defense
I say that the Bulls have no secret for other teams but their triangle offense in 1998, is a thing of beauty. They circulate the ball so well and always find something to do where they can get a nice shot. It’s honestly the most beautiful offense I’ve ever seen. Only the beautiful game of the 2014 Spurs comes close. And then the defense is just something that we don’t see anymore these days. They’d press you 24/7, basically. Long bois everywhere. The Jordan-Pippen-Harper claw, yeah, good luck with that.
Kobe Damon Allen
There’s a couple plays in LA where MJ defends Kobe without holding anything. Kobe drains the Js in his face, but knows that holy shit, that was close. Damon Stoudamire slaps the ball off Michael’s hands once, it’s dope to see a small player block OG 23. Allen is not able to shake MJ much, but he’s scoring efficiently against the Bulls. The Bulls win anyway.
Fast forward to those last moves in the last game of the finals, –clutch free throws, layup, steal, jump shot, it almost feels like MJ simply reminds himself of how painfully hard that year has been and that it’s time to fucking end this shit. Right now.
*squares up for The Shot*
