The Last Dance

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As ESPN's 'The Last Dance' comes to an end on Sunday, Sam Smith relives the final minute of the 1998 NBA Finals - a microcosm of Jordan's legendary career.

The Michael Jordan 1990s Bulls hagiography, The Last Dance, concludes Sunday on ESPN with the greatest minute of basketball in NBA history. Yes, yet another greatest declaration for Jordan and this wonderful documentary.

There have been many famous, infamous and exciting last moments in NBA history. What's special about this one—spoiler alert coming here; the Bulls win the game—is that the amazing career of the basketball player most regard as the game's greatest showed why he is the most special one in that Game 6 one minute of play for victory.

Not just with the famous Jordan winning jump shot and statuesque pose for the Salt Lake City audience and Bulls diaspora. But those last 59.2 game seconds served as something of a microcosm of Jordan's basketball career.

Thirteen legendary years went by just like that. Felt like a minute.

It was Jordan as cynosure. But with everything on display at the most crucial and pressure laden time to demonstrate the brilliant scoring, the imperturbable calm, peripatetic defense and preternatural intelligence and instincts. In a bare minute of play you could imagine and understand the 10 scoring championships, nine-time all-defensive first team and Defensive Player of the Year, five Most Valuable player awards, six championships and selected as an All-Star every year of his career including when he was injured.

Phil Jackson called Jordan's Game 6 to close out the so called Last Dance season the best critical game performance he's witnessed.

Michael Jordan sets up what is now known as The Last Shot.

Jordan always has produced the most artful choreography for the basketball ballet that was his Bulls career, both poetic and prosaic. Amazing in its richness and beauty, though also expected and predictable.

And so it's hardly surprising that Jordan would provide this dramatic ending to the greatest story that's being told again and likely will be told again and again. It's time to say goodnight to this 10-part epic.

Cut the theater lights and aim the spotlight. Michael Jordan's going to embrace the basketball world one last time (Yes, yes, there was Washington, but that was in another millennium). Cue the music and watch those special dance steps.

The 1998 Finals was supposed to be the Jazz' time.

The lyrical Last Dance season had taken a lot out of the Bulls, the Jazz earning the home court advantage for the Finals despite identical 62-20 records with a regular season 2-0 sweep of the Bulls. This time it was the Jazz with the long rest, dominating the Western Conference after a tough opening round series with Houston. Utah had 10 days off after sweeping the Lakers in the conference finals—Nick Van Exel's famous "one, two, three, Cancun" practice chant before Game 4 easing Utah's road—while the Bulls struggled through a rugged seven-game series with the Indiana Pacers. With Utah players home since winning in Los Angeles May 24, the Bulls closed out the Pacers May 31 and then headed across country for Salt Lake City.

This was going to take all Jordan had left. And for anyone else it wouldn't have been much. Jordan was culminating three and a half seasons since his return from baseball in 1995 never missing a game. Plus with Scottie Pippen's intransigence that led him to miss the first half of the season and Dennis Rodman's capriciousness that led him to want to miss the last half of the season, Jordan played more minutes in 1997-98 than in any of the six championship seasons. And at 35 years old in his 13th NBA season.

In addition, Pippen's back was acting up by then. He'd need a second back surgery after the season, essentially changing him from a star to a role playing facilitator. Pippen would crash late in the Finals, shooting two of 16 in Game 5 and sitting out much of Game 6 with the aching back.

Utah won Game 1, but the Bulls evened the series and then returned to Chicago to post the all-time Finals defensive game, holding Utah to 54 points in Game 3 in a 44-point victory. Karl Malone seemed to have no legs left and not even much will as the Bulls won their third straight. But carried by Malone and driven by Jerry Sloan, the Jazz produced one more great effort to bring the series back to Salt Lake City for Game 6. The Bulls had a small chance to win with less than a second left in Game 5. But Jordan's three-point attempt in a crowded space on the inbounds pass hit only air. It was back to Utah and the greatest minute ever played.

Utah led throughout a close first half with an officials' calls that would reignite conspiracies about Bulls' favoritism. Referees rejected a Howard Eisley three pointer as too late. Which it wasn't, meaning three fewer points for Utah's 49-45 halftime lead. Later, Ron Harper would get credit for a basket which did come late. Still, in basketball games there's always time to make up for a mistaken decision. Unless it's the last one. The Jazz couldn't recover from theirs to let Jordan shoot.

The Jazz maintained the deliberate pace of the game, a slower, physical slog with Jordan on the way to 44 minutes, 35 shots and 45 points. Toni Kukoc would be the only other Bulls player to score in double figures with 15 points on 14 shots. No other Bulls player attempted more than seven shots. Phil Jackson was stretching Jordan to even his limit. It seemed unlikely Pippen could play in a Game 7. The Bulls had to get this one.

Jordan scored quickly to start the fourth quarter with a pair of free throws and a basket on the way to 16 fourth quarter points. Then it was hand to hand, man to man combat. The Jazz matched every thrust and with 59.2 seconds left in the game, Jordan was on the free throw line shooting two in an attempt to tie the game.

So that's where it begins, pressure free throws down the stretch, everything and everyone stopped, everyone staring. Many great players don't like that moment and even avoid those last shots for that reason. Both Wilt and Shaq have demurred.

This was a periodic table of Jordan's career, his tungsten mentality, the steely belief and will for the gold standard of success.

Jordan swished both to tie the game at 83.

John Stockton dribbled the ball up and threw into the left post, a common Jazz action. Sloan's offense was unusual in the way the guards were primarily screeners, often on the baseline. Though not unexpected considering that Sloan was one of the most damaging screeners when he played guard for the first baby Bulls.

Although Tex Winter and his triple post triangle offense gets most of the strategic attention, the Bulls' defense through assistant Johnny Bach always was their stealth weapon. A particular feature of the triangle offense was the lack of play calls so opponents could not anticipate. Similarly, the Bulls defensive schemes employed unusual double teaming options with different players coming to double team depending on who was getting the ball and where.

Though this time there was a breakdown. Pippen went to double team as Malone was exchanging post position, which left Ron Harper caught in space. Harper shaded toward Antoine Carr in the post, which left Stockton open on the right wing for a three pointer and 86-83 Jazz lead with 41.9 seconds left. Utah's fan base is one of the loudest and often most vile in the NBA, and the arena was rocking. Fans were anticipating that sweet Game 7 revenge for 1997.

Sometimes you set up a defense early in the game. And sometimes the year before.

The Bulls clinched that Game 6 win and championship in 1997 when Jordan anticipated Stockton coming off Steve Kerr to double team. Jordan is seen in familiar video during a timeout predicting the Jazz reaction and telling Kerr to be ready.

And so Jordan and Jackson knew Jordan would have space. Stockton wouldn't leave Kerr this time. Pippen inbounded to Jordan above the three-point circle on the right side. Kerr was stationed in the right corner on the same side. So Jordan circled, hesitated and then drove past Bryon Russell for the layup to get the Bulls within 86-85. Stockton was too late because he clearly feared leaving Kerr.

There was the athletic burst from Jordan, the desire to make the play. But also the savvy to understand what had happened a year ago and how the Jazz' best defender would react.

Utah didn't call timeout and Stockton dribbled up slowly as the Jazz went into their offensive pattern.

Jeff Hornacek guarded by Jordan went to the left block with Malone on the right baseline. Hornacek turned to set the baseline screen. Hornacek then headed through to right wing where Stockton had caught the three-point ball the possession before. But this time Jordan came under along the baseline for the double team instead of over the top as Pippen did before. Malone appeared to be looking for the over the top help. He didn't see Jordan, who came from behind before Malone had a chance to turn to see Hornacek. Jordan hammered the ball away and retrieved it with 20 seconds remaining.

Jordan dribbles up the floor after stealing the ball from Karl Malone in the game's final moments.

Jordan took the ball to the middle of the floor and never looked for the timeout, thus not giving the Jazz a chance to set up their top rated defense. Again, Jordan was thinking ahead double, both to anticipate the Jazz' play, respond and then disdain the timeout so the Jazz could not prepare.

This time Jordan dribbled down the left side with Jazz players mismatched, Hornacek stuck on Kukoc. Jordan lined up Russell again with his dribble. Rodman came cutting across diagonally right to left, which cleared the lane. Jordan drove into the lane, his left hand flailing toward the hip of Russell, who stumbled as Jordan pulled up in a 60 to zero screech.

Jordan made the famous 17 footer from the top of the key with 5.2 seconds left with a little extra hold and pose for effect. Anyone for another statue?

Jordan was grimacing, trying to catch his breath as he returned to the bench. Stockton got a pretty good look at a three screening off Ron Harper. It hit the front rim and Jordan exulted, both arms raised high, a sixth title and sixth Finals MVP in a minute of pressure play, offensive excellence, defensive brilliance, intimidation, extraordinary intelligence and yet another celebration. It's the Michael Jordan story.

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The Last Shot of The Last Dance

Bulls.com

What: Inside the Dance, an exclusive one-hour show with exclusive interviews from players and personalities from the championship Bulls teams, diving into memories of the championship years and reactions to ESPN's hit documentary.When: Sunday, May 17 at 3:00 pm CT.Where: Chicago Bulls Facebook and YouTube pages, Bulls.com, Chicago Bulls app.Host: Jason Benetti.

Coby White &amp; Roy Williams talk about their reactions to The Last Dance and Williams shares stories of Michael Jordan.Stacey King, John Paxson &amp; Horace Grant relive the first three championships and discuss which era of 90s Bulls would win if they played.Toni Kukoc, Randy Brown &amp; Bill Wennington walk down memory lane of the final three championships and the end of the dynasty.Sam Smith talks about The Jordan Rules and addresses a famously misrepresented Michael Jordan quote.Arturas Karnisovas &amp; Marc Eversley talk about the impact the documentary has had on them and the future of the organization.

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Watch exclusive interviews from championship Bulls players and more on "Inside The Dance"

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90s Celebrities at Chicago Bulls Games

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Episode 7 of "The Last Dance" documentary spent a few minutes detailing Scottie Pippen's refusal to play the final 1.8 seconds of a playoff game against the Knicks. While that moment could've broken the team, Sam Smith details why part of Pippen's brilliance was succeeding while being in the storm.

Chicago sports owns some of the most famous numbers in sports history. There's obviously 23, which has been celebrated again with "The Last Dance" documentary Sunday on ESPN. There's 34 for Walter Payton, 14 for Ernie Banks, 51 for Dick Butkus. And, of course, 1.8.

But that polarizing and unthinkable Faustian moment when it seemed that Pippen had sold the soul of the team also represented the soul of Scottie Pippen, and what actually enabled him to become perhaps the most unexpected great player in NBA history.

Look, this guy was the clubhouse attendant as a college freshman, hanging on through a work/study program to a nowhere school walk-on athletic scholarship. It did appear Pippen was going to be an early one-and-done. You know, one year of college and done and on the way to the factory.

It couldn't have been more Pippen Sunday in the documentary to say of the infamous 1.8 moment, "It was one of those incidents where I wish it never happened…"

Now wait for the sine qua non that is so Scottie Pippen…

"But if I had a chance to do it over again I probably wouldn't change it."

As unexpected as the laconic Pippen's snake-like reach on defense and gliding balletic offensive strides toward the basket are, so are his responses to adversity and accusation. But it's also perhaps the most vital armor Pippen has, the callous that serves as his shield against the barbs and bites of life.

It perhaps emerges from that impoverished rural life in Arkansas, the youngest of 12 in a two-room house, a father and a brother handicapped and in wheelchairs. Still, Pippen's trait is unique, in some respects like Michael Jordan who became his only family member taller than six feet. There was something special and unusual with Scottie Pippen, a peculiarity that perhaps isn't politically correct. Obstinate, unyielding, sure. They generally aren't the attributes scouts look for. Yet, it's probably as much as any which enabled Pippen to emerge as the second that helped make all those championships possible. And for Michael Jordan to reach the destiny that at least he expected for himself.

Scottie Pippen simply refused to be who everyone expected him to be. For better or worse. And it didn't much matter to him what anyone said or thought about that.

It's also a unique skill to exceed despite that.

One of my favorite stories about Pippen was one few would recall, just another night in a long season before the Bulls were winning championships. The team was in Boston and Pippen, as has often been explained in the documentary, was predictably unhappy with general manager Jerry Krause about his contract. Pippen was forever lagging behind in salary because he always insisted on the security of long term contracts. Which in the vast escalation of salaries in the 1990s become outdated quickly.

Pippen, as Steve Kerr eloquently described in the documentary, was something of the antidote to Jordan's passion and wrath. At least during Kerr's Bulls tenure. By then, Pippen, buttressed by his Dream Team success and MVP-caliber 1993-94 season, had settled into his Robin-to-Batman role of facilitator to Jordan's finisher.

Pippen was the one during the second threepeat who always knew who was on the court a long stretch without a shot. He'd tell that player to relax, that he'd get him a shot. He often was the calm in Jordan's storm. Yes, that Scottie Pippen.

Doug Collins relied excessively on Jordan at a time when the roster was weak and in transition. But Collins also fought in vain to get the ball out of Jordan's hands to start possessions. He wanted Jordan to go downcourt to lure the defense. But Jordan was so distrusting of the other players, he insisted on carrying the ball and doing it all himself. The teamwork breakthrough for Jordan wasn't just the triangle offense, but the trust in Pippen to start and run the offense.

The athletic Bulls were taking flight then, better than the aging Celtics, who still had Larry Bird and Kevin McHale. And it was yet another night of Scottie feeling unappreciated and maintaining his petulance. So to some innocuous question, Pippen launched his frustration at Krause and the Bulls. It was another of those endless diatribes of volatile charges and accusations. Not quite to the 1997 level of the refusal to wear a Bulls jersey again, but newspaper headline stuff.

So the team is back in Chicago the next morning and Pippen is wondering what's going on as he enters the north suburban Berto Center practice facility. There are a half dozen TV trucks and media swarming around waiting for the court to open for interviews. Pippen sees coach Phil Jackson while in his casual amble toward the locker room. Pippen's thinking Jordan must have done something again.

"Phil," Pippen asks, "what's everyone doing here? What's going on."

Jackson smiles his smirk. "Scottie," he says, "They're here for you." 

"Because of what you said last night," Jackson explains.

Not that Pippen was suffering early Alzheimer's. But Pippen has the most unusual ability to compartmentalize unacceptable trespass and transgression without letting it affect his abilities.

Pippen, as Phil Jackson acknowledged in his play calling, wasn't the best shooter, scorer or finisher. Though Pippen did work himself up to the fifth pick in the 1987 draft, his overall basketball skills didn't impress that many.

Scottie Pippen's legendary slam over Patrick Ewing in the 1994 playoffs.

After sitting out that last 1.8, bringing teammate Bill Cartwright to tears over his sit down strike, giving the impression of quitting on his team and it becoming a national uproar and debate, Pippen goes out the next day in Game 4 and carries the Bulls to victory. Pippen goes for 25 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals. In the Bulls 95-83 victory, Pippen was the only player on either team to score at least 20 points and the only one other than Horace Grant on the Bulls to score more than 10. Before an ambivalent home crowd that included many shouting he was a quitter, Pippen carried the Bulls back into the series that would eventually go seven games and include Pippen's Game 6 dunk stepping over Patrick Ewing.

That's also toughness. OK, maybe some pigheaded in there.

Pippen's kind of behavior should have snapped the bands of collectiveness of a team. Instead, it was an unusual quality of being able to look beyond and even ignore the distraction that symbolized those Bulls as much as Jordan's special abilities.

It wasn't just Pippen's ideal fit as the cog that meshed with Jordan's special wheel of athletic brilliance. But also Pippen's ability to not only ignore the whirling funnel clouds media mayhem around him, but to perform at a high level despite being in the eye of the storm. Jordan's white hot talent that lit the fires around the Bulls seemed also to be cooled by Pippen's somewhat oblivious calm in the storm.

To the outside world it was a tornado that disrupted the sport sphere. To them, it was just the temperature.

That's how you survive getting a concussion in the opening minute of Game 6 of the 1989 conference finals and then the migraine headache in Game 7 of the 1990 conference finals that you could see from the documentary even Jordan still wondered about.

And then to come back in the clinching game Game 4 in 1991 even after Dennis Rodman's vicious attack and play a game high in minutes and record 23 points, 10 assists and three steals with a game high 12 free throw attempts. It was Pippen absorbing the blows. Literal this time, as well.

Which is hardly to suggest that Pippen didn't behave in a questionable manner often.

That postponement of surgery in 1997 so he could miss the first half of that season was discouraging. Not that Pippen ever offered any contrition. And yet there he was in the Finals against the Jazz with 28 points and nine rebounds in Game 4 to help the Bulls to the basically insurmountable 3-1 lead. He played at least 45 minutes in both Games 4 and 5—averaging 42.4 minutes in the first five games—before his back gave out and Jordan carried the Bulls down the stretch in the Game 6 clincher.

The Last Dance is the Michael Jordan story. It's also the Phil Jackson story in the remarkable way the erudite coach was able to manage and motivate this remarkable group of athletes and individuals through one of the most successful sports decades in history. And the Scottie Pippen story of how one man's idiosyncratic inflexibility proved to be ballast not just for the Bulls sometimes listing ship, but his own unusual career. Like a snap of the fingers. Which takes about 1.8 seconds.

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The Last Dance takeaway: Scottie Pippen thrived in the storm

Sam Smith

Sam Smith reflects on the story of Dennis Rodman and how an outcast was accepted as a beloved figure in Chicago.

Being known as the Worm had nothing to do with behaving like an ugly, slimy, bothersome creature. It was because Dennis Rodman wiggled around so much when he was playing pinball machines.

This is the story, to me, that best defined and represents Rodman, whose turn comes Sunday with ESPN's continuing Last Dance tableau of the championship Bulls. Following a famously infamous and dysfunctional adolescence, the son of the eponymous Philander who supposedly fathered more than two dozen children with more than a dozen mothers, Dennis went to work cleaning cars in an Oldsmobile dealership and then as a janitor in the mammoth Dallas/Ft. Worth airport. It's why it was a 25-year-old Dennis finally being drafted in the second round by the Detroit Pistons in 1986.

Dennis' actual household wasn't very much, a mother who'd eventually toss him out and two athletically gifted sisters who played collegiate basketball. Dennis was awkward and unappreciated, cut from the football team, unable to dribble a basketball with any aptitude. He was clumsy and scrawny in poverty surrounded by relative successes. You know he was always hearing, "Can't you be like…." Dennis was barely 5-8 in high school with only an unexpected growth sport later sending him to his destiny.

The Detroit Pistons drafted Rodman in 1986.

It's fairly simple to envision someone forever seeking acceptance, security and attention. However he could get it. With an attention deficit disorder that apparently was so obvious I'd get unsolicited letters virtually every week when Dennis was with the Bulls from psychologists explaining the classic symptoms they recognized in his various outrages.

"I spent my whole childhood looking for an escape," he once said.

So Dennis got arrested while he was working at the airport.

Though I was something of a conservative scold toward Dennis when he was with the Bulls in my self assigned protection of the so called integrity of the game, Dennis asked me to write his biography when he was being inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2011. I walked with him the three blocks from the reception, social distancing before it was de rigueur, in certainly the most unusual entrance to the Symphony Hall ceremony. He was wearing a feather lined cowboy hat and large sunglasses before an adoring and cheering crowd lining the street. As Rodman wrote, as bad as he was, he was beloved. I believe people did see him for his innocence and naivety despite his numerous offenses.

That post high school airport offense was robbery. But there was a question of pressing charges. Could Dennis just return the stolen merchandise? So Dennis went around to his friends. He had given away all the watches he stole to his friends. He hadn't kept anything for himself.

It's also why during all those years with the Bulls, Dennis was closest with the ball boys and clubhouse workers, the people who rarely got a second glance and yearned for something better, something more. That's always who Dennis has been, just a kid straining for attention and acceptance, so anxious to please with that mischievous nature. Most of us are able to repress those urges into adulthood. Dennis eventually figured out with the inspiration of his mentor and girlfriend Madonna that to his delight this combination of insouciance and imp-like whimsey was both profitable and filled the void of love and attention.

Though it also shouldn't be confused with a lack of commitment despite the many times Dennis' hyperactivity distracted him. Dennis was a manic worker, strong and in condition at his wire 6-8. Despite a lack of academic interests, he was something of a basketball savant capable of absorbing the complex triangle offense principles with ease and analyzing the flight of the basketball so innately as to make him in one eight-year stretch the game's most prolific rebounder since Wilt Chamberlain.

Dennis was as competitive as Michael Jordan in his own way. Jordan yearned to a maniacal level for success and victory. Dennis did so perhaps more for acceptance.

Few people understood Dennis Rodman like Phil Jackson.

Dennis broke down almost immediately when he walked onto that stage in Springfield, grasping for presenter Phil Jackson for support as he would have for his previous guide, the late Pistons coach Chuck Daly. When the Pistons wanted to retire Dennis' jersey, he protested about attending without Chuck, the first father he believed he ever had. Chuck and the Pistons understood. They accepted Dennis for who he was. Just as the Bulls and Phil Jackson would years later. Who imagined it was Dennis the two bitter rivals would have in common.

So perhaps Dennis Rodman was the role model.

After all, what better rags-to-riches, success-from-rejection story is there than Rodman's rise from poverty and rejection to acclaim and fame? If not exactly the way you'd hope for all your children.

After all, Rodman has had his share of substance issues. Jackson even once participated in an intervention for Rodman. Which considering the issues in society at large also places Dennis in the unusual position of some normalcy.

Another delicious irony of the Bulls championship dynasty, especially in those last three seasons leading to the Last Dance, was that one of the guys in the Pistons' black and blue hat was the same guy with the rainbow hairstyle who was so enthusiastically and colorfully embraced during those last three championship years. Dennis was the guy who harassed Scottie Pippen to distraction to support Bill Laimbeer's cheap shot tactics and eventually viciously threw Pippen into the stands late in the Game 4 sweep in the 1991 conference finals. Little recalled about that famous Pistons walk off late in that concluding game was Michael Jordan's provocative media comments the previous day at practice, declaring the Pistons frauds and unworthy champions because of their tactics. Rodman became a co-instigator of the quick exit. And then a Chicago icon.

Dennis was just another rookie when he came to the Pistons in 1986, not playing much, about 15 minutes per game in the playoffs. And even a scorer. He averaged his most points per game within his first two years in the NBA. But his vulnerability was on display immediately. The path to his heart and trust was clear, if dangerous, and first Isiah Thomas and then Phil Jackson succumbed. When you commit to Dennis, he commits in return. That humiliating 1987 playoffs was when Thomas made the ill-fated inbounds pass Larry Bird stole. After the Pistons lost Game 7, Rodman blathered about Bird only being MVP because he was white. Thomas sitting nearby and sensing Rodman's error jumped in front of the bullet and agreed with Dennis. The NBA would eventually force Thomas to go to the Finals in LA and make a public apology. Even as he knew he was merely falling on the sword aimed at Rodman.

Similarly, when Rodman made his insulting comments about Mormons in 1997 and was fined heavily by the NBA, Jackson said: "To Dennis, a Mormon may just be a nickname for people from Utah. He may not even know it's a religious cult or sect or whatever it is."

Another guy to push Dennis out of the way and take the hit. It never was there for Dennis growing up, and it wasn't in San Antonio. Dennis could smile again. People cared.

I remember the fury among Chicago fans when Rodman head butted referee Ted Bernhardt during a game in the 1995-96 season. Rodman was suspended six games, which the Bulls and Chicago fans protested as inordinately severe. After all, wrestlers do stuff like that all the time. And then the Bulls merely continued on their way to win 72 games.

That perhaps more than anything was the strength of that second threepeat team. It had this remarkable ability despite the tumult of the games's greatest player, the game's most famous coach and the game's most outrageous player to march through the hail of distractions that would have leveled any other team. We're breaking you up! Sure, see if we care!

Rodman's atrocities may have been in some respects additional help rather than hindrance. Like Michael's legendary harsh demands and challenges during games and practices, there were Dennis' behavioral volatility that further helped anneal the group for the intense cauldron of the playoffs.

Condemnation of Mormons in Salt Lake City, kicking the sideline photographer, punching Joe Wolf in the groin, head butting Stacey King, then in Miami, suspended by the Bulls for profanities in a post game interview, sent home after missing practice after a night partying in Atlantic City. Rodman left the Bulls various times for Las Vegas getaways, even in the 1998 Finals.

"Dennis needs to dissipate energy sometimes," Jackson explained. "It builds up in him and he has to get rid of it. Whether it's on the dance floor or whatever. Sometimes Dennis plays a 40-minute game and then goes out and plays a 48-minute game afterward. He's got a perfect ability. I don't know what kind of biological clock he has in his system to do that kind of thing and bounce back and feel better."

Rodman was one of the best rebounders of all time.

Jackson once asked Steve Kerr and a few players to take Dennis to Atlantic City for a needed escape when the team was playing in Philadelphia. They only arrived back to Philadelphia the next morning straight to practice. It wasn't a very good practice.

That was part of the Dennis Rodman experience.

He was the ultimate underdog finally being, if not fully accepted, certainly appreciated by the big dogs.

Dennis didn't go out with Jordan or Scottie Pippen. He wasn't part of their famous workout Breakfast Club that last season with Jordan, Pippen and Ron Harper. Jordan would often say when he had to speak with Rodman he'd try to get him to focus like he did with his kids, stare into his eyes and reiterate, "Dennis, do you understand what I am saying!"

Dennis never really looked you in the eyes. When his dress wasn't spectacular, like when he wore a wedding gown walking Michigan Avenue to declare his intention to marry himself to promote a book, he often came to games wearing the logo shirt of a sanitation worker, security guard or truck driver. They were Dennis' people and he walked with them because they best knew his life on the inside despite what he showed on the outside.

Finally comfortable in the armor the Bulls' embrace provided, Rodman was an invaluable, irrepressible and irreplaceable part of those last three championships. Not that it was expected. General Manager Jerry Krause detested Rodman's behavior and was opposed to his signing. So was Phil Jackson, who was lobbying for Derrick Coleman because of his more versatile offensive game. But credit Krause for that buck stopping there. Krause approved, Jackson, Jordan and Pippen agreed to be patient, and Dennis was given the space he needed.

Suspensions and injuries cost Rodman 45 games those first two Bulls seasons. During the Last Dance, Dennis' attendance was nearly perfect while Pippen stewed. Dennis seemed to lose interest when Pippen returned in January, though likely he was more hurt as Michael's embrace returned to Scottie. But Dennis didn't disappoint when needed on the court, his amazing defense against Shaquille O'Neal and Karl Malone in the playoffs crucial to the Bulls success in that era. Rodman became such a skilled defender, he was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year in Detroit despite still coming off the bench.

Rodman's defensive versatility enabled Jackson to be the first to successfully employ that ultimate five-player switching lineup that the Golden State Warriors popularized in recent years. Rodman averaged more than 15 rebounds per game his three Bulls seasons and more than 11 in the playoffs. In the 1996 Finals even though Jordan was MVP, Seattle coach George Karl said Rodman won two games virtually on his own.

Dennis has had his problems since leaving basketball with arrests, reality shows and the fantasy of international diplomacy in North Korea. "There's one thing people don't understand," he once said, "I like my character." Dennis has been in many ways pierced and tattooed in a multicolored life. That also has wormed its way into so many hearts.

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The Last Dance isn't complete without the colorful story of Dennis Rodman

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Zach LaVine shares his favorite Michael Jordan story

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Sam Smith looks back at the history of the Bulls-Pistons rivalry and how those battles helped shape Michael Jordan into the player that dominated the 90s.

If the Last Dance documentary that continues Sunday night is the greatest basketball story ever told, then the greatest basketball rivalry ever to unfold were those Michael Jordan Bulls and Isiah Thomas's Detroit Pistons.

It figures to become a focus of the next series of episodes of the ESPN docudrama because the Michael Jordan story and the tale of the Bulls dynasty would not be what it was without the ultimate adversary. The elements of the great novel are theme, character, setting, point of view. Most of all the conflict and the anti-hero.

For week one, that was Bulls general manager Jerry Krause. But the most daunting antagonist and obstacle in this great pilgrimage for Jordan— as well as the Bulls' Mt. Kailash in their magical quest for success and redemption—was those Bad Boys.

There were more famous rivalries in sports, the Lakers and Celtics in basketball, the Yankees and Red Sox in baseball, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona in soccer, Ohio State and Michigan in college football. There were more damaging rivalries, Ali and Frazier, the Hatfields and McCoys, the Capulets and the Montagues. Few combined them like the Bulls and Pistons in an incubator of righteous contempt that developed into a destructive force that played out on a remarkable sporting stage that was both lavish and malicious. You both couldn't look nor look away.

The Jordan Rules were born in the 1989 Eastern Conference finals.

The denouement was a pair of NBA championships for the Pistons before the public renunciation and humiliation of the way they played and who they were with their invites declined for basketball's celebration at the 1992 Olympics. They also became the launching pad for the booster rocket that put the Bulls into the basketball heavens, the pad burning in the appropriate symbolism.

Fewer games were more ruthless or ruthlessly contested.

The Pistons had to earn their distinction by defeating the Boston Celtics with Bird, McHale and Parish. There was rivalry and respect. Detroit's view of Chicago was more intense considering a city rivalry in which the big guy didn't much take the little guy seriously. Chicagoans like to consider themselves blue collar, gritty. It's more image. It's realty in working class Detroit. Detroit made the cars; Chicagoans bought them.

And now as the Pistons basketball team finally ascended, here came the big city guys with the biggest star and that air of condescension. Play the right way!

The NBA still clung to the physical game that once had basketball players called "cagers' because the violence of the game was so intense wire caging surrounded the court to protect spectators. Like when Kevin McHale took down Kurt Rambis with an infamous clothesline tackle in the 1984 playoffs. The Pistons with mostly home style blue collar talent reveled in their fight, Bill Laimbeer the target and instigator with Larry Bird, Robert Parish and others.

So when the Pistons finally vanquished their East rivals and then the Lakers, the throne and presumably the accolades were finally to be theirs. And then along came this sanctified upstart, America's favorite wearing the figurative white hat. Maybe Michael's tongue was sticking out in the direction of the Pistons.

Their Hunger Games officially began with the 1988 playoffs that inaugurated three post season years of despair for the Bulls before the 1991 reckoning that elevated Jordan and the Bulls to their Olympian destiny. There were preliminaries, like Rick Mahorn and Charles Oakley in 1988, coach Doug Collins flying over the scorers' table, assistant Johnny Bach with a broken hand in the melee, the irrepressible Collins going back at Mahorn. There'd be the laconic Bill Cartwright in a frenzy chasing Isiah Thomas and eventually in the frustration of defeat in 1991, Dennis Rodman tackling Scottie Pippen into the stands not long before the Pistons final funeral procession to ignominy as the Bulls' run began.

But perhaps the rivalry really began the day Michael Jordan became a Chicago Bull in the 1984 draft, his electric personality and eclectic basketball repertoire quickly eclipsing the bright light that was the local favorite, little Isiah Thomas from St. Joseph High School, NCAA champion Indiana U., and especially Gladys Park in Garfield Park. It's where the diminutive and daring hoopster became the darling of the city. Until the air went out of his balloon.

Pistons guard and Chicago native Isiah Thomas attended St. Joseph High School in Westchester

Isiah would return to his park for pickup games and he heard: "You ain't nothin. Jordan's the man. Jordan's better than you."

"I didn't understand being booed in Chicago Stadium and I took it personally," Thomas once told me. "It was very conflicting. I'm giving my family tickets to the game and they're rooting for the Bulls. I used to tell Michael, ‘You might wear Chicago on your chest, but I'll show you what Chicago guys play like.'"

There was the famous freeze out at the 1985 All-Star game in Indianapolis that supposedly was orchestrated by Isiah, Magic Johnson and George Gervin to ostensibly embarrass the cocky rookie. Jordan was anything but that for the weekend, actually more of a shy kid trying to fit in with the game's stars. ''I was very quiet when I went down there,'' Jordan said afterward. ''I didn't want to go there like, ‘I'm a big shot rookie and you must respect me.'"

But his marketing machine transcended his individuality with an outfit of Nike gear that some players misinterpreted as his conceit about having major endorsements even the veterans didn't. There was a famous elevator ride that weekend with Thomas and Johnson in which there were jokes about a rookie's role. Jordan shrugged it off, and that should have ended it. After all, if it was a conspiracy how could it have been carried out with two thirds of the plotters on the other team? But a representative of Thomas's and Johnson's, still apparently getting heat from his clients about their lack of Madison Avenue attention, blabbed to a reporter at the airport after the game about how they'd shown up Jordan, who shot just two of nine. Which was hardly unusual for a rookie in an All-Star game. Bird had seven points as did Jordan in his first All-Star game.

Michael Jordan poses with fellow All-Star slam dunk contest participants, including Julius Erving, in 1985.

But it was enough for Jordan, the competitor. Like Phil Jackson once said when he was asked to compare Jordan with his thematic predecessor, Julius Erving: "Michael wants to beat you for your last cent. Dr. J wants to, also. But he won't send you home naked and without your car like Michael."

The Bulls first game after the 1985 All-Star break—it's kismet that these things happen—was in the Chicago Stadium against, that's right, Isiah and the Pistons. The national media picked up the report from one Detroit columnist of the conversation in the airport. Jordan was furious, which was perfect. Sidney Green recalls Jordan taking it out on everyone in practice and predicting revenge. It was Jordan's leit motif, anyway, the real or imagined slight or challenge or taunt that fueled his passion. It carried to his famous Hall of Fame acceptance speech when he recited a litany of perceived and imagined slights over the years from the high school varsity rejection to the impudence of Jeff Van Gundy.

The Bulls won in overtime as Jordan had 49 points and 15 rebounds, seven offensive, with five assists and four steals. And now the Bulls were back to .500 at 25-25. They were years away from contending with any of the powers in the Eastern Conference, of which the Pistons weren't yet with a starting lineup that included John Long, Kent Benson and Terry Tyler. The Pistons weren't the Bad Boys yet.

So as Jordan understood his Bulls couldn't compete with the league's elite, he had found his bete noire, Isiah and the Pistons. If they were bad boys, he eventually was going to deliver the punishment.

It would evolve to one of the most intense, frustrating and eventually fruitful, at least for Jordan and the Bulls, rivalries the NBA ever has seen.

Conference teams played six games against one another back then, so the games took on more significance than they do today. There were no days off, either. The Pistons won four of six against the Bulls the next season when Jordan was injured and never did play the Pistons in his minutes restricted return. Though the game before Jordan's injury in Oakland, Laimbeer body slammed Jordan on a drive that drew Pistons coach Chuck Daly and Bulls coach Stan Albeck into a fist fight. Jordan returned minutes limited and the Bulls went on to absorb the playoff sweep against Boston as Jordan began to be taken seriously with that 63-point game in the Boston Garden.

The teams split the six games the next season as the Bulls began to make some progress with the fierce Doug Collins now coach. Some of the Celtics players from that 63-point game complained Jordan was playing with fresh legs after missing 64 games compared to their season long slog in the grueling Eastern Conference. So Jordan showed those beautiful legs for an entire season, averaging 37.1 points, still the closest to Wilt Chamberlain's one season records. Certainly not by coincidence, Jordan averaged more than 40 points in the games against Detroit with one of my favorite Jordan games ever.

Jordan exploded for a then Bulls record 61 points vs. Detroit in March of the 1986-87 season

On a frigid late winter evening in March that 1986-87 Season in the cavernous Silver Dome where the Pistons then played, Jordan and Thomas went at it for 53 minutes, Jordan scoring seemingly every time down the stretch and into overtime while Thomas set up teammates with a magician's touch. The Bad Boys were coming into focus with John Salley and Dennis Rodman off the bench, though Rodman wasn't a rotation player yet and had just six minutes in that game. Jordan scored a Bulls franchise record 61 points with seven rebounds, three steals and three blocks. Thomas had 31 points and another 18 assists with cunning and artistry that belied his stature. They didn't hug or shake hands afterward.

The Bulls were swept by Boston again in the playoffs, Jordan now 1-9 in his three pro playoff appearances and starting to bristle about the lack of talent around him. Though he didn't realize it then, the future began after that series with the 1987 draft of Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant.

Neither were starters that 1987-88 season with Grant behind Jordan's bouncer, Oakley, and Pippen behind Jordan irritant Brad Sellers. Pippen would get his first start in Game 5 of the first round playoff series against Cleveland, leading to the Bulls first playoff series win since 1981. But the Bulls kids were no match for the 52-win Pistons in the conference semifinals, the Pistons grinding down and grinding up the Bulls in five ugly, foreboding games, the last three decided by an average winning Pistons margin of 16 points.

But 1:37 into Game 3 in Chicago, Laimbeer set an illegal screen that drew a personal foul and he then punched Jordan in the groin. Jordan fired back with a right cross. Both benches emptied. On the next play, Oakley and Rick Mahorn wrapped their hands around a rebound. Mahorn used an elbow to pry Oakley loose and drew a technical. Mahorn gestured to Oakley. Jordan in Game 5 delivered a head shot to Thomas, briefly knocking him unconscious. But Jordan never scored more than 25 points in each of the last three games.

"I used to compare Isiah to Bobby Clarke with the Broad Street Bullies," Phil Jackson once said. "He'd come in and provoke the fight and then all the bullies would be there to beat the crap out of everybody. Isiah was the feisty guy who started the conflict and then Mahorn and Laimbeer would get in there. They created challenging things for retaliation, and then you were unable to play with poise. Michael could deal with it. But it was something the Bulls had to work on emotionally."

At least the Bulls would enjoy some measure of voyeuristic pleasure watching Thomas' famous turnover against Boston in Game 5 of the conference finals and then in trying to protect the erratic Rodman Thomas saying he agreed with Rodman's racist claim that Bird was only winning MVP awards because he was white. It became such a huge issue the NBA made Thomas fly to the Finals to apologize in a press conference. Talk about Bad.

There were no Jordan Rules yet for the Pistons; just too much talent even as the Bulls reached 50 wins for the first time in 14 years. Pippen averaged 9.4 points starting all five games of the 1988 Pistons series with Sam Vincent the Bulls second leading scorer. Jordan was concerned, and even more so by the end of the next season when in Game 6 of the 1989 Eastern Conference finals with the Pistons leading 3-2, Laimbeer in the first minute of the game hammered Pippen in the head. With play continuing and the teams unaware, official Joey Crawford literally dragged Pippen's dazed and barely conscious body off the court so he wouldn't be stepped on. Pippen was taken to the hospital as the Bulls went on to lose the series.

The cheap shots were the story, though. Jordan got a shove from behind almost every time Laimbeer walked past him and was often taken out of the air on drives. Laimbeer, Mahorn and Rodman would frequently walk by Bulls players and throw the ball at them in dead ball situations. But the Pistons understood Jordan's greatness, which created the Jordan Rules.

The Pistons defense collapses on a driving Jordan.

They were the series of trapping defenses designed to thwart and frustrate Jordan, and it was that 1989 series when it truly was born.

That was the season of the famous winning shot in Cleveland that sent the Bulls to the upset victory in the opening round. Then the Bulls beat the also favored Knicks and shocked the Pistons with a Game 1 win in Detroit in the conference finals. Then the Bulls really worried a Pistons team with its eye on retaliation in Los Angeles. Because Jordan with 46 points made one of his greatest and overlooked game winners, a running bank shot over Dennis Rodman for a 2-1 series lead in the conference finals.

Thomas was distraught. Could this be the end? To Jordan, of all people, and in Chicago. Thomas walked the Lake Michigan shoreline until well past midnight and then returned to the team's hotel. He called assistant Brendan Suhr. Jordan was too good, Isiah admitted. They had to do something. They formulated the outlines of the surrounding defense, though Daly as a stalwart of man defense was uncertain. A few minutes into Game 4 with Jordan starting fast, Daly called a timeout and said, "We're doubling."

So the Pistons continued to rule, three straight wins and then another brutal season of shoves and stares until Game 7 in Auburn Hills June 3, 1990. Pippen's head was exploding. But no one had hit him this time. It was the infamous migraine headache, Pippen sitting on the Bulls bench with a towel draped over his head through pregame warmups, trying to stand up and often failing. Pippen would drag himself through 42 minutes, shooting one of 10 for two points. Trailing by 19 at halftime, the Bulls never had a chance as Pistons players shared pregame pictures of the distraught Pippen and mocked the Bulls.

Never again, Jordan declared afterward in the locker room. The Bulls would start preparing for the 1991 conference finals within a few days of the end of 1990 season. Just less than a year later, May 27, 1991, Pistons players were walking off the court in disgrace with 7.9 seconds left in the game with time called. The Bulls had inbounded the ball with 24.8 seconds left leading 115-94 with B.J. Armstrong dribbling out the clock. Pistons players started to walk toward the locker rooms, which required passing in front of the Bulls bench. There was timeout called with 7.9 seconds left and Pistons kept walking. Jordan with arms crossed quizzically watched as Pistons players left the court.

how-the-michael-jordan-bulls-and-isiah-thomas-pistons-became-the-ultimate-rivalry

How the Michael Jordan Bulls and Isiah Thomas Pistons became the ultimate rivalry

A 23-year-old Illinois State grad represented the Bulls at the 1984 NBA Draft and made the pick of a lifetime.

Keith Brown, the Bulls Vice-President of Ticketing, is retiring with the end of this season after 37 years with the organization. Chicago owes Brown a great debt. Because, you see, the Rolling Meadows native selected Michael Jordan in the 1984 NBA draft.

"I always call the draft my Forrest Gump moment," says Brown with a laugh.

That's because every time you see the Michael Jordan story, as you will Sunday night on ESPN with the debut of the Last Dance documentary, there's the NBA draft scene with the young kid signaling a thumbs up and NBA commissioner David Stern announcing Michael Jordan with the No. 3 pick to the Chicago Bulls.

It was General Manager Rod Thorn back in Chicago with the coaches and managing partner Jonathan Kovler relaying the choice to New York.

Keith Brown made a brief appearance on television as he called in the Bulls' selection of Michael Jordan.

"Rod had given him our selections and Jon told me we're going to take Michael Jordan from North Carolina," recalled Brown. "I filled out the paperwork for the league and gave it to a runner who took it to David Stern at the podium. He announced the Chicago Bulls pick and the rest, as they say, is history."

But what if the phones failed? After all, it was 1984 and they still were dialing. What if Keith Brown, the only member of about a 15-person Bulls staff to go to Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum representing the Bulls, couldn't get the word? The Bulls had five minutes.

"Rod Thorn didn't give me any advance notice about who we were going to pick or what players he liked," Brown admitted. "Most people assumed it would be Michael Jordan if he was available. But I didn't know for sure until Jonathan Kovler advised me on the telephone after it was our turn to pick. We never considered that possibility or any other emergency situations. If my phone line went dead, I probably would have advised an NBA official and asked for more time or another open line. If I was denied those accommodations and forced to make a pick, that would have been a lot of pressure. But I probably would have selected Michael Jordan, anyway, since he was widely considered the best player available."

Keith Brown, after 37 years with the Chicago Bulls organization, is retiring at the end of this season.

Though as difficult as it is to believe now, the Bulls season ticket holders—as few as there were—and a large number of fans didn't want the Bulls to draft Jordan, Brown said. Nothing personal against Michael. But it was not the era of guards.

"At the time, it was a center dominated league," recalled Brown, who was on the phones with those fans selling or trying to persuade them to stay on. "What we heard every single day in the office from season ticket holders and fans: ‘You've got to get a center.' There were a lot of people at the time who wanted Sam Perkins (picked fourth) or Mel Turpin (picked sixth). There was never anyone in the Bulls organization lobbing for anyone but Jordan. But certainly outside the organization they wanted us to draft a center."

It was the beginning of a remarkable journey for the northwest suburban kid who went to Illinois State and was a door to door cable TV salesman with his first job out of college. Not exactly the dream. Where was it?

"I answered a blind ad in the Chicago Tribune," recalled Brown. "It read, ‘Sports organization looking for part-time sales people' with just a post office box number. Joe O'Neil hired four of us and gave us a phone book and a phone and said, ‘Go at it.' It was unsalaried, 100 percent commission."

Brown had a knack for the sale. And the Bulls could use the help, averaging out 6,300 the season before Jordan was drafted. Brown impressed enough to be asked to return as an intern. Unpaid, of course, under the old Wirtz, Crown, Steinbrenner, et al regime. With barely more than a dozen employees in the entire organization, about the size of a coaching staff these days, Brown became one of the guys. Well, sort of.

"I'd fetch lunch for Rod Thorn almost every day," Brown remembered.

So then came the franchise changing draft, not that anyone knew it at the time. Every team was angling for U. of Houston center Akeem (nee) Olajuwon. The tanking antics were so egregious the NBA instituted the draft lottery the next season. The Bulls great fortune was Portland with the No. 2 pick from a previous trade with Indiana, which certainly would have selected Jordan, had Clyde Drexler, regarded at least Jordan's equal at the time.

Thorn wanted to remain in Chicago in the so called war room, as did Kovler. The coaches demurred.

"Rod Thorn called me into his office and said we need someone to go and represent the Bulls at the draft," said Brown. "I was 23 at the time and thought it was a bit odd. ‘Why me?' But I was happy to go. I flew out the night before and took my seat with the Chicago Bulls logo at the table. Every single team was represented by an owner or GM or head coach or scout and for the Bulls it's me, a 23-year-old sales rep. It was an all day affair back then with 10 rounds during the day.

"It was televised live by the USA network," said Brown. "We had the open line to the draft room. I was communicating with Kovler and when it came to the third pick the network camera came to our table and the red light went on. Kovler was on the other end waiting to give me the pick. He said, ‘You're on TV. Give us a thumbs up.' I gave them a thumbs up. We went through all 10 rounds and in the 10th round we took the only Olympic gold medalist in that draft, Carl Lewis. It probably was for publicity. Most say Michael, but the Olympics hadn't happened yet."

Brown flew back to Chicago and back to the phones. So what did the Bulls really have?

"When I came back from the draft I had a conversation with Mike Thibault (now Washington Mystics coach), who was our only scout at the time," said Brown. "I asked Mike, ‘This Jordan kid; how good is he?' He said, ‘Within a year or two, he'll be a perennial all star.' Within a game or two he became a perennial all star.

"When camp started we were in the conference room having lunch the first or second day of practice at Angel Guardian gym," recalls Brown. "It's around noon and (coach) Kevin Loughery comes walking in. Rod Thorn looks down at his watch and asks him what he's doing there. He knows the team is practicing. Kevin says, ‘I had to cut practice short.' Rod says, ‘What do you mean?'

"Kevin Loughery says, ‘That kid Jordan, every single trip down the floor he steals the ball on defense. And every trip on offense he dunks the ball. He was demoralizing the team. So I had to cut practice short.'"

Keith Brown, far right, poses with the NBA championship trophies from the first three-peat

Brown got to witness it all, the climb past the Pistons to the championships, the new arena, the legendary wins and losses. And now it's a chance to lean back and enjoy. Brown was instrumental in the Bulls remarkable run of 631 straight sellouts. And perhaps even more amazing in the first decade of the 2000s when the Bulls were top two in attendance every year despite the worst record in the league.

"That demonstrated what a great sports market Chicago is and what a wonderful brand the Bulls have and a wonderful building," said Brown. "After 37 years, the time is right. I want to travel the world, enjoy some golf and family."