The highly anticipated “Last Dance” documentary will give us an up-close and personal look at Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls team that made history.
But according to Jordan himself, what we see in that film won’t always be pretty. According to some things he told director Jason Hehir, there are some parts that don’t make his airiness look very nice.
During one stretch, MJ rode this one player for almost an entire season.
(via The Athletic)
‘When you see the footage of it, you’re going to think that I’m a horrible guy. But you have to realize that the reason why I was treating him like that is because I needed him to be tough in the playoffs and we’re facing the Indiana’s and Miami’s and New York’s in the Eastern Conference. He needed to be tough and I needed to know that I could count on him.”
“When people see this footage, I’m not sure they’re going to be able to understand why I was so intense, why I did the things I did, why I acted the way I acted, and why I said the things I said,’” Jordan said.
Of course, Jordan is notorious for his “killer” attitude on the basketball court. He demanded the best from himself and from his teammates and wasn’t afraid to call them out, even if it stepped on some toes.
“Look, winning has a price. And leadership has a price. So I pulled people along when they didn’t want to be pulled. I challenged people when they didn’t want to be challenged. And I earned that right because my teammates who came after me didn’t endure all the things that I endured. Once you joined the team, you lived at a certain standard that I played the game. And I wasn’t going to take any less. Now, if that means I had to go in there and get in your ass a little bit, then I did that. You ask all my teammates. The one thing about Michael Jordan was he never asked me to do something that he didn’t f–king do.”
Indeed, the heart of a champion is commonly misunderstood. Winning has a price, and not everyone is willing to pay it.
For Jordan to what he has done, it requires strong will and incredible sacrifice. For the first time, we may finally begin to understand just what that entailed when “The Last Dance” debut’s on April 19th.
