CHICAGO _ Every superhero movie needs a good villain, and even though it's a documentary, "The Last Dance" is no exception.
The first two episodes of the 10-part series make that perfectly clear.
Michael Jordan naturally plays the lead role of the superhero, a lovable, good-hearted man who writes letters to his mother in college and is intent only on keeping his merry gang together against the forces of evil.
The designated bad guys trying to disband our superhero's crew to start their own rebuild are Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and his loyal henchman, general manager Jerry Krause.
Or think of Jordan as James Bond, Reinsdorf as Goldfinger and Krause as Oddjob, the guy doing the dirty work for his boss. You couldn't ask for better characters, which is why we're so excited to see how it all plays out, even though we already know the ending.
Krause obviously will serve as Jordan's primary antagonist throughout the series, which makes sense because he's so well-suited for the role. His not-so-subtle hatred of coach Phil Jackson sets the story in motion, forcing our hero to use his athletic superpowers in hopes of foiling the plot to break up the greatest team ever.
The documentary's producers couldn't have scripted a more telling scene than the one in which Krause sits silently in the front row of the team bus, shifting his eyes sideways at the boarding players while looking straight ahead. Krause looks like he's up to no good.
It's a shame Krause no longer is alive to get a chance to refute the many allegations, including a scarred childhood _ filled with teasing about his height _ that allegedly fueled his anger and resentment as he rose to a position of power. You almost feel sorry for him at times, but then you remember Krause was the one who told Jackson he wasn't coming back even if the Bulls went 82-0, a quote replayed in the opening credits.
Reinsdorf at least gets a chance to defend himself and the team's decisions. He suggests that a rebuild after 1998 was necessary because the Bulls players, besides Jordan, wouldn't be worth keeping around at that stage of their careers. He explains that he advised Scottie Pippen not to sign the ludicrous long-term contract that made Pippen so bitter and hostile, even his teammates took note.
But the part that really made me cringe was when Jordan wanted to come back from his foot injury late in 1986 to help the team make the playoffs. A doctor said there was a 10% chance of re-injuring the foot, a risk Jordan was willing to take. Reinsdorf was against it and explained the Bulls weren't going anywhere anyway, so why risk it? They wound up making the playoffs in spite of limiting Jordan's playing time against his wishes.
We then were treated to Jordan's glorious 63-point performance in a double-overtime loss to the Celtics at Boston Garden, one of the more enjoyable _ albeit heartbreaking _ games in Chicago sports history.
If Reinsdorf and Krause had their way, that moment never would've happened. The two Jerrys preferred getting a higher draft pick to making the postseason.
It reminded me of the memorable comment Reinsdorf made in the summer of 1997 that anyone who thought the White Sox could catch the Indians was "crazy." The Sox were only 3 { games behind at the time, but because Reinsdorf and general manager Ron Schueler had no faith in the team, it led to the infamous "White Flag" deal at the July trade deadline.
Imagine if the 2019 World Series champion Nationals had given up when they were .500 and treading water near the end of June.
"The Last Dance," at least so far, makes it apparent Jordan would do anything to win, even risking his own health, while Reinsdorf seemingly was more concerned about his financial investment than actually winning games.
Money also seems to be a thematic motif in the documentary.
Being underpaid affected Pippen's attitude so much, he decided to wait until the start of the 1997-98 season to have ankle surgery, hurting the team. In his interview, Pippen casually admits: "I'm not gonna (bleep) my summer up trying to rehab for the season." Jordan calls Pippen's decision "wrong" and "selfish." A substandard contract also played a huge factor in the divide between Krause and Jackson, who coined the season "The Last Dance," giving the documentary its title.
While Jordan also was vastly underpaid throughout most of his career, Reinsdorf made up for it after the 1995-96 season by giving him a one-year, $30 million deal that by far was the biggest in NBA history at the time, dwarfing Patrick Ewing's $18.7 million salary.
The contract brought back memories of White Sox spring training in Sarasota, Fla., in 1996. I was the Sox beat writer a few years after being a Bulls sidebar writer during their first two title runs. Reinsdorf, as was his tradition back then, took the traveling beat writers to dinner at a nice restaurant in downtown Sarasota.
I wound up seated across from the chairman, who loved to engage in spirited debate with writers. But the conversation at the table turned to a recent report Jordan was going to ask for $25 million to return in 1996-97, a figure that seemed astronomical even for the world's greatest player.
"Well, looks like you'll have to pay him whatever he wants," I told Reinsdorf.
"No," he replied. "I don't."
"Yes, you do. It's Michael Jordan. You can't let Michael Jordan leave Chicago. They'll never forget it."
"I don't have to do anything," he said, ending the discussion.
The Bulls wound up winning their fourth title, and Jordan got his deal done quickly in July.
"This is something Jerry (Reinsdorf) and I agreed upon," Jordan told the Associated Press. "It really didn't take any negotiations, which is the way I wanted it. I'm very happy with the agreement we have. This team could have a good chance of winning the championship again. Then after that, you don't know. They may want to take a business approach to it and change the team. And I want to give them the flexibility to do that."
After the fifth Bulls title, Jordan's view on giving management the "flexibility" to rebuild the team obviously had changed.
Good thing, or else we never would've been treated to the exquisite drama "The Last Dance" provides.
