Michael Jordan is one of the most dominant athletes of all-time. He is widely regarded as greatest basketball player ever, winning six NBA Championships in the 1990s.
It was his relentless mentality that made him so great. Few people in any walk of life could match the ferociousness with which he approached his craft. That often rubbed people up the wrong way, including his own teammates.
That is something we are going to get a glimpse of very soon. The first first two episodes of The Last Dance, a fly-on-the-wall documentary following Jordan's final season with the Chicago Bulls, airs on ESPN tonight. In this country, it will be available on Netflix tomorrow morning.
Jordan. Pippen. Rodman.
"The Last Dance," a 10-part series on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls is coming to ESPN in 2020 pic.twitter.com/TUiV3CODnK— 30 for 30 (@30for30) December 25, 2018
On April 19 ... IT BEGINS 🍿#TheLastDance | @StateFarm pic.twitter.com/BTxWjWyqdY
— ESPN (@espn) March 31, 2020
We should get a good look at the way Jordan carried himself around his teammates, but we already know that he had an extreme way of dealing with them at times.
Steve Kerr, the current coach of the Golden State Warriors, was a member of the Bulls from 1993-1998. He had already been with the team a couple of years when he and Jordan got into a fight at practice in 1995.
However, due to Jordan's hiatus from the NBA, he had only known Kerr a couple of months. He decided to put him to the test, and he ended up giving him a black eye with a punch after the trash talk between the pair got out of hand.
I don’t know what the hell I was thinking.
It’s Michael Jordan, it’s the greatest player ever, but I was pretty competitive and I kind of played with a chip on my shoulder. I had to or I wouldn’t have made it.
I took exception to something he said, so I was talking back and I don’t think Michael appreciated that ... and we got in the lane and he gave me a forearm shiver to the chest and I pushed him back.
And next thing you know, our teammates were pulling him off of me.
I knew that if we were in an actual fight he could actually probably kill me if he wanted to. It was more just I’m going to stand up for myself.
After that, he had earned Jordan's respect. 'His Airness' admitted as much a few years ago:
The next day I went into practice and I'm looking at Steve there with a black eye.
When I saw him I went up to him and said 'I'm totally sorry, I just lost my temper'. He said 'it was partly my fault too, I knew not to push you'.
We were two grown men stood there for 20 minutes apologising to each other. From that point I have always respected him, he didn't back down.
You can expect to hear plenty of stories similar to this in The Last Dance.
We can't wait...
