The Last Dance: Week 1 coverage recap of Michael Jordan documentary

With episodes 1 and 2 of The Last Dance in the books, let’s go back and recap the coverage of the first week of the Michael Jordan documentary here at Hoops Habit.

We’re over a month into the NBA’s hiatus, and sports fans across the world are starved for some action. ESPN obliged our thirst and decided to give an early release to The Last Dance, their 10-part docu-series focusing on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.

Here at Hoops Habit, we’ve been on top of the event for the past week, breaking things down in real-time as revelations come to light in the documentary and in-depth in the following hours and days after episodes 1 and 2 aired. In order to provide you with a comprehensive guide to our coverage of the first two episodes, we’ll list them here for your convenience as you prepare for week 2’s revelations.

Jerry Krause was HOW eager to move on from Phil Jackson??

In the first episode, the late Jerry Krause was the villain of the hour. The former Bulls’ general manager had his faults explored for all the world to see. One of those faults: The decision before the 1997-98 season that Phil Jackson would not return as head coach of the Bulls even if they went 82-0.

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Michael Jordan: The original minutes restriction

On night one, it was divulged that Michael Jordan was held to perhaps the most ridiculous minutes limit of all time: seven minutes in the first half and another seven in the second half. Maybe this is why he’s so anti-load management, resulting from what he still considers to be a preposterous restriction.

Scottie Pippen: A contract that was a little too team-friendly

Scottie Pippen was signed to a seven-year, $18 million deal for the majority of the Chicago Bulls’ dynastic run. He was the sixth-highest paid player on his own team in that final year of the run in 1997-98. In retrospect, it’s hardly believable when you compare it to the contracts of today.

3 leading characters from night 1 of The Last Dance

There was a clear cast of characters in the first night of action. Krause was a solid constant from start to finish (and will likely continue to be), and Jordan and Pippen were in the mix (with Pippen being one of the heaviest presences in the second episode). Seeing how these characters related in this production will be one of the most fascinating lessons we learn over the course of the run.

What did we learn in summary?

There was plenty that was widely known in the first two hours of The Last Dance, but there were some delicious secrets as well. Take a look at our rundown of the six things we learned on the first night of the series.

What can we look forward to learning?

We’ve only just begun as eight more episodes of The Last Dance remain. There’s been no shortage of revelations so far, but the surface has only been scratched, and we remain entranced. Check out what we most want to learn over the course of the run of the documentary.

If you’re as excited about this docu-series as we are, check back often as we continue our coverage of The Last Dance.