The "The Last Dance" Thread

That would be paid MLB employee Tom Verducci, yes?

 

Maybe so, but that's a good article. I was in B'ham for Jordan with the Barons. He wasn't that good a player, but there were flashes when he showed what he could have been. The publicity was a complete circus, but he was an old hand at that. There would often be a hundred people hanging out in the parking lot after a game, hoping to for a chance at an autograph. Those clubhouse card games made his life much easier, as did living in Greystone behind gates.

The only time I ever saw Jordan live other than on the baseball field was at the Bruno's Senior Tour Pro-Am, which was played at Greystone, the course where he lived. My father-in-law's company had several sets of tickets, and since it was on a weekday some were up for grabs. I got a pair and took my ten year old son. He was very excited and insisted on taking a baseball and sharpie with him, because he wanted Jordan's autograph. I told him (repeatedly) that Jordan was there to play, not to deal with autograph seekers, and that he would probably simply ignore him, but he wasn't having that. I shrugged, figured "What the hell, if he tries Jordan will shake his head or completely ignore him", and let it go with a "Ok, you can try, but if he says no, let it go and don't pester the poor man about it while he's trying to play".

We got there a little late, because my kid was ten and I figured that he'd get bored fairly quickly. There were two groups with tons of spectators. One was, IIRC, Gene Stallings, another former 'Bama head coach, and a name pro. The other was Jordan, Charles Barkley, Lee Trevino, and a couple of the Bruno brothers who sponsored the tournament. Jordan's group had just headed out, and you could see this huge gallery following them around. I told my son, "Look, if we just follow them you can see how packed and crazy it is. You'll never get close. Let's go find a hole ahead of them, pick a good spot, and wait for them to come to us", and we did. I grabbed a spot on the rope by the green and we staked it out. We watched several foursomes play the hole and move past.

Watching as Jordan's fivesome approached gave me an idea of what life was like when you're Michael Jordan. We watched as the hole before us suddenly grew hundreds of spectators as Jordan's group was on the hole before that. Then that crowd swelled to probably five times as many people as they got to the tee and people began running ahead, swarming around our spot. It was like watching a column of army ants coming toward us, thousands of people all trying to get close to Jordan. My son decided that his best shot was to get on the path from our green to the next tee box and he moved over there. I stayed where I was, because it was a prime spot. They were using golf carts, and Jordan pulled up and parked maybe eight feet from me. They putted out and suddenly the crowd was just gone, poof! Jordan had walked past my son with no sign that he even knew that he was there. Oh, well. We agreed that given the sort of crowd he was dealing with he couldn't stop without being mobbed, so he was pretty cool about it.

We hung for a little while, but watching a number of groups play the same hole got boring for him. We followed Chi-Chi Rodriguez for a couple of holes, then we cut over to 18. Our tickets got us into a sponsored pavillion overlooking 18, with a roof for shade, ceiling fans, A/C, and free soft drinks, so we hung out there for a while and waited for Jordan to come in. I figured that we'd go home after that, the kid had gotten kinda tired. We had seats right on the rail, maybe six or seven feet above the green, and my son, being the outgoing sort, promptly made new friends around us. There was a lady a few seats over who had had several drinks, and she wasn't shy about engaging the incoming players. She'd pester them to throw their golf balls into the crowd, heckle bad putts, she was a live wire.

So Jordan's group comes in. Again, the green was suddenly swarmed. Approach shots, putts, handshakes and back slapping. Barkley tosses his ball, so does Trevino. Jordan's just walking on and this lady starts calling out that he ought to toss his ball too. He ignores her and she gets louder, giving him hell about it. He looks up, shrugs, and suddenly tosses his ball up in our direction. No one is ready, and it tinks off of the rail in front of us and falls down on the apron of the green below our feet. My kid is leaned over the rail but the drop is too big from him to go after it. Ball's just sitting there, and this photographer is eyeing it and starting to sidle over. Barkley walks up and scowls at the guy, picks up the ball, and looks up at my son, who is bugeyed by now, and says "If I toss this up, are you going to catch it? I'm not throwing it twice." Randall looks like a bobblehead on speed he's nodding so fast. Barkley grins and tosses the ball straight up in the air in front of us and Randall snatches it out of the air. His day is made, he's got Jordan's ball from Charles Barkley's hand. People around us are cheering and laughing, I tell Charles "Thank you" and he grins. Life is good. Shortly later we head out. We're riding the shuttle tram out to the parking lot and Randall is telling everyone around him about getting Jordan's ball. A guy sitting close to us offers him $20 for it, and the answer is a derisive snort and "A hundred!"

Of course, being ten years old he takes it around, shows all his friends, and eventually loses it. Oh well. That's a memory that I'll never lose. Anyhow, I don't think that I would ever want to live life in an aquarium the way that Jordan did. It was completely insane, and this was a slow day and a small crowd for Michael.

 

Great story!

 

Helluva wall of text for no more than that, but yeah, it was a lot of fun.

 

Great story... you know Chuck throws that one as many times as needed.

 

So, in the Jordan doc, we were all waiting for the Kerr story, LaBradford story, Dad story...

In the James doc, we will all be waiting for the Delonte West/Mom story...

 

LeBron's mom punched Steve Kerr
LaBradford made up the Delonte West story
Jordan's dad was the most important person in LeBron's mom's life

 

'Last Dance' director Jason Hehir responds to Ken Burns's criticism of Michael Jordan having too much influence 'Last Dance' director Jason Hehir responds to Ken Burns's criticism of Michael Jordan having too much influence

 

I didn’t walk into this expecting journalism.

I walked in expecting to be entertained.

This is like a biography with the subject getting final editorial rights after giving exclusive interviews.

 

It’s not like it, it’s exactly what it is.

 

This was never going to be journalism. Jordan and people like him want to remain in control of their own story and legacy and that's what has happened here.

 

Michael Jordan never lost in the NBA Finals, unlike LeBron “taking my talents to South Beach” James. I call him “Queen” Janes.