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

1. The Kerr-Jordan faceoff

The NBA’s greatest all-time regular season record wasn’t the only thing Michael Jordan and Steve Kerr had battings over during their respective NBA tenures.

Kerr was a part of the timeless ’95-96 Bulls squad that historically rampaged through the NBA en route to the association’s best ever record, and his presence at the coaching helm of the ’15-16 Golden State Warriors’ venturings towards shattering the record created news storylines for the ages.

73-9 was their overall mark that season, and this was largely in part due to Kerr’s competitiveness and mental savvy in orchestrating the drawings behind one of the league’s most high-profile offensive onslaughts of all-time.

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Kerr displayed this fiery disposition on several occasions throughout the season, breaking multiple clipboards in frustration in rare instances of poor team play.

But this aggressiveness did not grow on him was a result of a newfound leadership role on the sidelines.

Kerr was a ferociously gritty ballplayer, and when you compete alongside a guy like Michael Jordan, that quality is bound to surface at some point.

That it surely did.

Jordan himself was a notorious trash talker during Bulls practices (and we’ve seen full-on uncensored footage instances of it thanks to the Last Dance), and he reveled in enjoyment at the opportunity to get under the skin of his teammates. This was, of course, a form of reverse psychology in efforts to quell their drive on the court, but some were more receptive to it than others.

Kerr was in a category of his own in this regard.

On one specific occasion, Jordan’s torments were becoming too much, and after minutes (which I’m sure felt like hours I’m sure for Kerr) of repeated blasts, mocking and “he can’t guard me” comments, Kerr had enough.

After one specific berating, Kerr whipped around and let his pent-up anger explode outward, delivering a chilling blow to Jordan’s chest. Jordan received it, stopped in surprise to analyze what had just happened, then clocked Kerr right in the jaw.

The practice abruptly ended at that point, and after returning to his quarters, Jordan called Kerr to express remorse for striking him, especially, as self-professed by Jordan,  due to the fact that he clearly had a size advantage over his smaller teammate.

But the exchange actually grew the two’s relationship far more than it ever could have damaged it, and with temporary anger aside, they developed a mutual understanding that both would never be quick to back down from the other. Which in turn signaled that for outside opponents, any occurrence of cowardice would be few and far in between. This proved precisely true, as they went on to smash the NBA’s previous regular-season record that year.

Jordan himself reminisced that he never felt any lack of respect for Kerr from that day forward.

Three more coaching championships later to for Kerr’s resumé, and I’d say that respect has propelled itself to near indescribable levels.