The Last Dance: Things left to explore after episodes 3 and 4

The Dream Team

The half of the series’ dedicated to a historical look at Michael Jordan’s career left off with him finally breaking through to beat the Bad Boys and the Los Angeles Lakers en route to his first championship. Though the 1992 Finals will certainly be discussed, the next most-interesting event chronologically is the 1992 Summer Olympics.

Those Olympics are largely remembered for the creation of the Dream Team, which is still arguably the greatest compilation of basketball players ever to share a court. But the drama surrounding that time period in the context of Jordan’s career brings all sorts of possibilities.

Following Michael professing his hatred for Isiah Thomas and how the Detroit Pistons walked off the floor after being swept in 1991, Thomas’ exclusion from the Dream Team is a logical topic to explore.

It’s long been rumored that Thomas was left off the team because Jordan refused to play if that happened. After being brutally honest about how he felt about Isiah in 1991, it would only make sense for the silence surrounding the summer of 1992 drama.

Also interesting is the topic of Toni Kukoc. The Croatian forward was a key part of the Chicago Bulls’ legendary run but he has been notably absent from the documentary. Kukoc had signed with the Bulls just prior to these Olympics and Jordan and Scottie Pippen seemingly made a point of embarrassing him on the court. Perhaps we will gain a bit more insight into just why Kukoc hasn’t played any sort of role in the series to date.