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KSR Roundtable: "The Last Dance" Episodes Three and Four

On3 imageby: KSR04/27/20
jordan-rodman

Last night, we were treated to Episodes Three and Four of “The Last Dance,” ESPN’s 10-part documentary on Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls. Since we have no actual sports to talk about, we’ll be recapping the series each week in a KSR Roundtable. If you missed it, here’s our recap of Episodes One and Two.

TYLER

I need a “30 for 30” about the Puerto Rican Basketball League

Episode Four focused on Phil Jackson, who got his coaching start in Puerto Rico’s Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN) League, which sounds both fascinating and terrifying. Jackson said fans would light fires outside the arena and throw rocks at cars, with one town’s mayor going as far as to shoot an official in the leg over a call (his only punishment was not being allowed to attend home games the rest of the season). Teams were in on it too, sacrificing chickens in graveyards and pouring the blood on the opposing team’s bench. That is a whole other level of savage, and the league proudly shared the clip on Twitter last night:

Dennis Rodman: Not a Nashville fan

There are a LOT of great moments in Episode Three, which focused on Dennis Rodman, but I had to laugh at Rodman’s response to a fan who suggested he visit Nashville.

https://twitter.com/cjzero/status/1254590006343147520

To be fair, he was talking about 1998 Nashville, which is very different than 2020 Nashville; however, I have the same reaction when people ask me to go to Broadway, so touché.

The scene of Rodman leaving for Vegas is iconic

Episode Three ends with Rodman leaving for his 48-hour Vegas vacation. Because he’s Dennis Rodman, that means walking out of the arena, crushing a Miller Lite, high-fiving a cop, and hopping on a motorcycle.

How many of you are dreaming of doing this when quarantine’s over?

DREW

I really respect Doug Collins’ honesty in postgame press conferences.

Here’s a head coach in the playoffs being asked what he drew up on the final play to win the game and he says, “That was ‘get the ball to Michael, everybody get the f*** out of the way.'”

We’d never hear anything close to that today.

Michael Jordan REALLY hates Isaiah Thomas.

Jordan wasn’t having it with any excuses or any change of heart from Isaiah Thomas when the producers tried to tell Jordan the explanation Thomas gave for the Pistons leaving the court without shaking hands in the first round of the 1991 NBA Playoffs.

“You can show my anything you want, there’s no way you’re going to convince me he wasn’t an asshole.”

Horace Grant doesn’t think too fondly of the Pistons either.

It was good to see Ho Grant again.

Poor Craig Ehlo

It’s bad enough that one of Jordan’s most iconic moments was in your eye, now you have Jordan saying it was a mistake for the Cavs to put Ehlo on him and it should’ve been Ron Harper instead. Then Harper chimed in to say, “yeah, ok, whatever, f*** this bulls***,” about his thoughts on the decision to put Ehlo on Jordan at the time.

So nobody thought Ehlo should be guarding Jordan in the first place; he’s down one with three seconds to go and the fate of the season at stake; and Jordan ate his soul at the buzzer in the deciding Game 5.

Poor Craig Ehlo.

JACK

Rodman’s love interests were fascinating

Rodman’s high-profile love interests during his playing days have been well documented over the years, with the former Bulls star dating the likes of Madonna in 1994, Vivica A. Fox in 1997, and Carmen Electra in 1998.

They touched on the Madonna relationship – though they left out the singer’s alleged $20 million offer for Rodman to have her child, which he explained in detail in an interview with The Breakfast Club – but his time with Electra was discussed plenty. And ‘crazy’ doesn’t even begin to tell the entire story.

One of the key moments of episode three was Rodman’s need for a 48-hour vacation during the 1997-98 season, which unsurprisingly ran a few days long as he partied day and night in Las Vegas with Electra.

“It was definitely an occupational hazard to be Dennis’ girlfriend,” Electra said of her relationship with Rodman. “He was wild.”

After failing to return in 48 hours, Jordan went to find him in his hotel room so he could bring him back to practice. As Jordan puts it, he wouldn’t tell who was there with Rodman or the craziness going on in the room.

As Electra puts it, she heard Jordan knock on the door and immediately hid behind the couch.

“There’s a knock on the door, it’s Michael Jordan, and I hid,” she said. “I didn’t want him to see me like that, so I’m just, like, I’m hiding behind the couch with covers over me.”

“‘Come on, we’ve got to get to practice,'” Electra said of Jordan coming to Rodman’s rescue.

The art of rebounding

Rodman is seen as one of the greatest rebounders in NBA history, averaging 13.1 boards over the course of his 14-year career. In other ridiculous statistics, the former Bulls star managed five games of 30-plus rebounds, he had two separate 7-game streaks of 20-plus rebounds, and he led the NBA in rebounds per game for seven consecutive seasons, averaging 16.7 in that span. No player has topped that average since.

So how did he become such a force on the glass? By studying film of other players and their shots. By learning their usual mechanics and the spin of the ball, he could usually tell where the ball was going to end up. It developed into a science for the player Jordan said was one of the smartest individuals he had ever played with.

“I just sit there and react, react,” Rodman said. “I just practice a lot with the angle of the ball and the trajectory of it. You got a Larry Bird? You know it’s going to spin. You’ve got a Magic [Johnson]? It may spin. When Michael shoots over here, I know I have to position myself right there. Now when the ball hits the rim, it’s ‘boom.'”

“I just started learning how to put myself in position to get the ball.”

https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1254582796183408640?s=20

Jerry Krause got a second chance to fix things and still blew it

On the first night of the documentary last weekend, former Bulls GM Jerry Krause’s status as the “villain” of the Jordan era became known rather quickly. Instead of mending fences with legendary coach Phil Jackson and solving the situation with disgruntled star Scottie Pippen, Krause instead decided to make it known that the franchise would never be the same after The Last Dance, with several key pieces expected to go their separate ways by his call.

With more time to think about his choice of words and potentially change his stance midway through the season, Krause doubled down on the fact that Jackson would not be welcome back in Chicago the following season.

After being non-committal about his basketball future all season long and leaving the door open for a potential return with ‘you never know’-type answers, Michael Jordan slammed that door shut when Krause announced yet again Jackson would be gone. With no Jackson, Jordan refused to return to the Bulls and would instead retire after the 1997-98 season.

In essence, Krause was comfortable letting arguably the greatest player to ever pick up a basketball leave because of his beef with Jackson.

At least we got this moment with drunk Jerry and Pippen dancing on the plane after beating the Pistons in 1991.

https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1254611298966372352?s=21

NICK

Is there a better Michael Jordan quote than this?

The most quoted line from Michael Jordan/Wayne Gretzky/Michael Scott is, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” One from this documentary feels much more appropriate. While transitioning away from Doug Collins’ Jordan-first approach, Phil Jackson’s triangle offense emphasized ball movement, taking it out of the star’s hands more than ever before.

Naturally, Jordan was pitched, “There’s  no ‘I’ in team,” to which he responded without skipping a beat, “But there’s an ‘I’ in win.” Beautiful.

Mixed Emotions on the Bad Boys

I have always been a proponent of fighting in sports. Is it immature of me? Maybe, but I believe emotions are a big part of the sport and I love to see them reach a boiling point. For this reason I have always been a big fan of the Detroit Pistons’ Bad Boys. Last night I understood the other side of the coin.

Trash-talking advocates will say it can be used an advantage to mentally take an opponent out of the game (see: Horace Grant). Critics will say it’s used to make up for a lack in talent. In different moments during The Last Dance the Pistons were portrayed as nothing more than bullies, especially once the two-time defending champs saw the writing on the wall in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals.

Isiah Thomas and a handful of other Pistons left the court before the final horn and it’s still a point of contention to this day. It’s not the single reason why Thomas was left off the Dream Team, but you better believe it played a part.

Jordan’s thoughts on Thomas are exactly how I feel about his college coach, Bob Knight. “There’s no way you can convince me wasn’t an asshole.”

Gains

The Pistons may have been just a bunch of bullies. If that was the case, the consequences of bullying aren’t always negative. In order to be the man, the Bulls had to beat the man. To do so they hit the weights. They are not the first team to ever put in extra work in the offseason to avenge the loss from a foe. What’s shocking is that this was the first time Michael Jordan ever really lifted weights. How does somebody do this without lifting a weight. HOW?!?!?!?!?!

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2025-08-02