Flu games, push-offs and six rings: NBA world reacts to the final episodes of 'The Last Dance'
ESPN aired Episodes 9 and 10 of "The Last Dance" on Sunday, the end of the documentary series that featured Michael Jordan's final season with the Chicago Bulls.
The series finale shed light on how the 1996-97 NBA season went for the Bulls -- which included their first NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz--as well as the 1998 Eastern Conference finals against the Indiana Pacers and 1998 NBA Finals against the Jazz.
Here in 2020 on Sunday night, the NBA network went online to react to the end of what has been a five-week phenomenon.
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Some of you remember the 1990s, so even before the episodes hit, the anticipation was high.
Episode 9 started with the beginning of the 1998 Pacers-Bulls series, which was tied 2-2 after Reggie Miller's Game 4 3-pointer on Memorial Day. Might or might not have been a shove there. Game 1 of the 1997 Finals ended with a Jordan game winner over Bryon Russell. Cue foreshadowing.
Turns out the "flu game" was more like a "food poisoning game" for Jordan in the 1997 NBA Finals.
Steve Kerr shared his story of how he experienced the loss of his father as a teenager and had to earn Jordan's trust. That bond between Kerr and Jordan culminated in Kerr's game-winning field goal on a pass from MJ to win Game 6 of the 1997 NBA Finals, clinching Chicago's fifth championship.
Episode 9 concluded with the Bulls beating the Pacers in Game 7 -- and Jordan getting the game ball for late Bulls security guard Gus Lett, who was a father figure to Jordan.
Episode 10 opens with the Jazz winning Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals. The Bulls would steal Utah's home-court advantage in Game 2, though, and that was followed by an unholy shutdown of historic proportions in Game 3. But then,Rodzilla! Dennis Rodman skipped a Monday practice to appear with the New World Order on WCW that night.
The Jazz would win in Chicago in Game 5 to force Game 6 in Utah. That's where Jordan hit his final, iconic, game-winning field goal with the Bulls.
The series concludes with something of a twist -- Jordan says he would have returned to defend the 1998 title with the Bulls. But it didn't happen. The Bulls broke up -- and the franchise has yet to return to the NBA Finals.
MORE: Three stories from the end of the Bulls' bench
