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

The Return

“I’m back.”

Those were the immortal words in March 1995 that announced Michael Jordan’s return to the NBA.

A combination of poor performance in the minors and the Major League Baseball strike brought an early end to any baseball aspirations for the Chicago Bulls legend.

Jordan donned a Bulls jersey the day after the announcement of his return, but in doing so he left behind his legendary number 23 in favor of the 45.

The dynamics of that 1995 year should make for a fascinating story. Circumstances forced Jordan’s hand a bit, but did that weigh more heavily than his failures as a baseball player? If the strike hadn’t happened, would he have ever returned?

And what exactly did the training regimen look like leading up to his return? Though he likely was still in great shape due to his baseball experiment, surely a separate approach was necessary to prepare for a completely different sport. We’ve already heard one legendary story about a self-created rehab program, will we learn about another?

Then there are the failures of the 1995 playoffs. Nick Anderson stripped Jordan in a crucial moment in Game One of the Eastern Conference Finals leading to the Orlando Magic winning the series in six.

Facing his first significant basketball hiccup in five years, it will be interesting to see some insight into how that factored into the second 3-peat.