is it really that big of a deal that ahmad rashad and jordan were close? rashad was a tv personality/host, not a writer.
i was 10 when the bulls won their last title but i definitely remember him being the host of nba inside stuff at the time ultimately it's irrelevant to the outcome of the games but a media person being so close with the best player would seem strange now. windhorst and lebron arent exactly golfing together
I agree with this. Duncan averaged 21 and 11 in that season. He and Robinson had like a 35% combined rebound rate. Rodman by himself was about 25%, which is incredible, but I'm skeptical about him being able to outplay both of them, particularly in a playoff series at that point in Rodman's life when his care level wrt basketball was so low And also a mid/low-level player like Ray Felton got fat as hell during the most recent lockout. I don't think Rodman would exactly be a gym rat in the interim
The guy no-showed for practice during the NBA Finals to be on WCW Nitro Maybe the 90s actually were a better time
They touched on it a bit but the idea that Kukoc wasnt tough is a joke Safe Area Gorazde is a great book about that time in that part of the world
They didn't say during that part of the doc but apparently after Michael was sick he unintentionally drank something called Gatorlode, which was intended to be like a post-workout drink, instead of Gatorade and it made him feel even worse
I'm not morally outraged by it or anything. It's sports and not a huge deal. It's still kind of weird to see the sideline reporter driving to games with a player on one of the teams or hanging out before the games with someone. Can't blame Ahmad for it. Inside Stuff wasn't going to last forever and he's still in Jordan's crew today so he was smart to get in while he could.
Ramona got a bunch of stuff from Reinsdorf after the doc where he talks a lot about Krause and Phil. I end up in the middle on all the Krause stuff. I've always hated Phil and feel bad for Krause's family that he gets dragged like this after he died and can't defend himself, but I also can't imagine liking the guy if I was around him based on everything that's out there about him. Also, Jordan suggesting all those fringe guys would have turned down life-changing money to stick in Chicago for one year for less was ridiculous last night. Maybe one or two of them, but no way all of them do. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29187153/did-1998-the-last-dance-michael-jordan-bulls
I wonder if there was footage that got edited out of Michael going off about the number not very good white guys Krause surrounded him with. All three of the best white guys he played with on the Bulls (Paxon, Kukoc and Kerr) he had stories where he was surprised that they could help him win. I bet he bullied the hell out of Christian Laetner in Dream Team practices.
I don't remember him saying anything like that about any of those three. I'd bet decent money that Jordan preferred playing with try hard guys like Paxson and Kerr who knew their roles and were reliable over more talented players who wanted the ball more.
Has there been any discussion about little hints of possible PED usage? He played baseball in the middle of “The Steroid Era”, he actually punched Steve Kerr in a fit of rage and he looked absolutely shredded during the 98 season.
As with literally every argument ever, the truth is in the middle. That's a good article showing that the break up, and the issues with Krause, were the fault of pretty much everyone, from Reinsdorf on down. Jordan looked bad in the documentary ragging on him, but this shows that Phil and Krause shared a lot of blame as well. Thanks for posting it.
Phil Jackson had to inform MJ that Paxson was open and Michael was clearly surprised that he was able to hit the shots. He was skeptical that Kukoc could survive in the NBA and getting annoyed that Kerr was assigned to guard him in a practice was disrespectful. My original point wasn’t about MJ not thinking white people cant play basketball but more of an observation of just how many bit part white guys he played with over his career. His fond memories of Dream Team practices and the best players in the league scrimmaging while filming Space Jam makes me believe he’d prefer teammates that were good enough to be stars in their own right but still subservient to him.
Is that really a spicy take? I think it's pretty well accepted by anyone who follows basketball closely that the current spacing & three point driven game is a more efficient system offensively. That being said, if MJ played in this era, I can just about guarantee that he'd be taking and making more 3s because it would be a higher prioritized point of development for him. This is the standard era vs era discussion that happens in all sports.
after reading this piece i was trying to figure out how Jordan would have molded his game to continue his offensive dominance since the mid-range game would be excised, the defensive schemes would require a different offensive system, etc he'd probably just turn himself into a Harden/Lebron singular offensive ecosystem. only 3's and layups, more passing, etc. on the not that spicy part it was more about saying people struggle to understand the game evolves because of death anxiety making them prone to denialism, second to that the argument about 90s athleticism/talent being low leads to spicy arguments of its own
Pearl Jam are huge nba fans in general. Original band name was Mookie Blaylock. First album “Ten” was a tribute to his jersey number (actual album has 11 songs)
Saw this larger picture posted in another thread and just noticed the guy in the background taking a picture. Looks like he is taking a picture of her ass.
this was good, especially the discussion around the sports narrative that the doc uses would not have been a broadly popular one until the recent shift towards giving labor more credit vs moneyball-esque grand architects behind the scenes of prior times i dont 100% agree with it since Jordan gets his own rules in these discussions, but did make me think a little
And Rodman/Vedder have been friends for decades. He always gets on stage at there shows and there are hundreds of pics/videos of that
Going 6 games against a team that scored 54 points total in a pro basketball game, and an nba finals game at that, is equally asterisk worthy
Ftr, Jordan wasn't really known to be a drug user. I can buy that one. He was all about the groupies though, so I'm sure he was partaking there. Also, the food poisoning by pizza thing was around at the time. He definitely didn't order by name, but I wouldn't be surprised if they generally knew who it was going to...i.e. someone on the Bulls.
A guy who knows the pizza guy called Dan Patrick this am and said the whole thing was bs. Case closed
The pizza thing seems like a Grover legend more than a Jordan lie to me. That just sounds like one of those stories that gets embellished as time goes on to make it sound more nefarious than it was. Especially with Grover being the potential hero of the story saying he had a bad feeling about it.
I had started typing up something kind of similar. Felt weird how much airtime Grover got on this, how much MJ seemed to corroborate it, and why they felt the need to go so deep on something that wasn't really that much of a story. Guy was sick (obviously) and had a great game, but why did they feel the need to overextend the coverage on something that no one was really talking about?
Right. But Windhorst and Ramona Shelbourne and Dave McMenamin are all writers and reporters. Rashad was a host; it's different to me because writers and reporters should be objective but nobody cares that SVP is a Maryland fan, Michele Beadle is a Spurs fan, etc. I definitely can't think of anyone who was in an athlete's inner circle like Rashad was but it seems like no harm, no foul. It's not like he was writing a book trying to convince people of MJ's greatness.
Ahmad still probably considers himself a Pro Bowl level professional athlete first and probably bristles at being compared to a greasy 400 pound guy who covered Lebron in high school. No question that he was one of MJ's bobos and not making Walter Cronkite sweat journalistically.
noticed that Phil Jackson had earplugs in for the games at Utah, don't think I've seen a coach do that before.
He's a sideline reporter who gets to listen in on huddles and talk to teams before, during and after games. I'm not making a federal case about it because I'm assuming everyone knew the deal there, but it's still an odd look.
Imagine Tom Brady riding to the Super Bowl with Rich Eisen then. My care level about it is pretty low but it doesnt look great