The Last Dance: Things we learned from episodes 7 & 8

We’re slowly winding down on The Last Dance’s dynastic Bulls-like run through television airways. Last Sunday marked the 7th and 8th editions of the documentary’s installments. So, what did we learn from the episodes?

Michael Jordan‘s emotional soliloquy to close the seventh episode of ESPN’s The Last Dance was the perfect encapsulating epitome of what the show was all about: Jordan’s insatiable appetite for recurring greatness.

At any given moment, it would be nearly impossible to find Jordan satisfied with the achievements he had already previously attained, and it was his constant longing for the furthered ascribing of successful accolades towards his resumé that ultimately kept him atop the league’s hierarchical status leaderboard for such a sustained period of time.

Good was never good enough.

And if you have any inklings of a differing point of view, then by Jordan’s labeling: “that’s because you never won anything.”

The full quote, which came in response to director Jason Hehir’s direct inquiry of whether or not he sacrificed being viewed as a “nice guy” in lieu of his sadistic conquering mentality, was unapologetically blatant.

"“Winning has a price. And leadership has a price. Once you join the team, you live in a certain standard that I played the game. And I wasn’t gonna take anything less – and if that means I have to get in your ass a little bit, then I did that. One thing about Michael Jordan, he would never ask you to do something that he didn’t f****** do.” “When people see this, they’re gonna say ‘well, he wasn’t really a nice guy, he may have been a tyrant.’ I wanted to win, but I wanted them to be a part of that as well. It is who I am. That’s how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you don’t want to play that way, don’t play that way. Break.”"

Jordan visibly choked back tears as he forcefully brought the interviewing process to a standstill, and it was more than clear that his rigorous regimented attitude during the time still had a deeply-rooted effect on his inner psyche.

And that’s been the mantra of The Last Dance – that Jordan’s greatness did not come as a result of pure happenstance. He manifested it all – through not only pushing his body to its strenuous physical extreme but in driving his mental dexterity even further past any predestined maximums.

We’ve been able to gradually mature into full comprehension of the man’s unstoppable drive throughout each of The Last Dance’s captivating episodes, and while the overall theme of Jordan’s near invincibility still persists, there have been countless other discoveries we’ve uncovered along the way. Episodes 7 and 8 were no different.

These are the most considerable things we gained from this past week’s episodes.