The new MJ doc, The Last Dance, pressed on Sunday night, revealing Michael Jordan’s keen awareness to everything around him, including Chicago Bulls reporters
Coming into the first round of the 1989 NBA Playoffs, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls were seen as the underdog to Larry Nance, Ron Harper and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
A fair amount of analysts had pegged the Cavs to be the favorites, having beaten the Bulls in each of their six meetings throughout the regular season. In fact, three of the most prominent Chicago sports journalists predicted the Cavs would win the series.
Sam Smith, who wrote about the Bulls for the Chicago Tribune and now covers the team for Bulls.com, recanted a time where Jordan called out him and two other reporters for being dead wrong about the first round of the 1989 playoffs in Sunday’s episode of The Last Dance.
"“The game’s about to start and there was two other beat writers: the beat writer from the Sun-Times, Lacy Banks, and Kent McDill from the Herald and me. And Lacy’s picked Cavs to sweep in three. Kent’s picked the Cavs to win in four and I’ve picked the Cavs to win in five. So Michael — the game’s just about to start — and Michael walks over to Lacy and says ‘We took care of you,’ then he looks at Kent and says, ‘We took care of you,’ and he looks at me and says ‘We take care of you today.’”"
“Take care of” Smith they did, as the Bulls would win Game 5 in the best of five series by one point off of a huge finishing shot from Jordan.
It was such an iconic play, it’s now known as simply The Shot.
Jordan recalled the shot during episode 3 of The Last Dance, saying:
"“They had Craig Ehlo on me at the time, which, honestly was a mistake because the guy that played me better was Ron Harper”"
Jordan’s comments to Smith, Banks, and McDill were just plain cold. Not only does it flex the fact that the reporters were wrong about the outcome of the game, but it also shows just how aware Jordan was while playing for the Bulls. Aware of his opponents and his surroundings on the court, yes, but being so aware so as to know and recall each reporter’s predictions for the series, that’s some pretty high-level pettiness.
It’s an epic picture, Jordan walking down press row calling out reporters for what they wrote, holding them accountable for their wrongs. It’s the equivalent of “receipts” today.
It’s pretty hard in modern days to avoid criticism and call-outs for NBA players. Columns get blasted on social media and there are no more walls between reporters, fans, and players with Twitter.
Back then, Jordan had to go out of his way to know what each reporter said and to get their prediction.
You have to think the doubts fueled him, at least a little bit.