With the coronavirus pandemic shutting down American sports for the better part of two months now, sports fans haven’t had much to look forward to. To fill that void, an ESPN/Netflix 10-part documentary series has taken fans back to a time when everyone wanted to “Be Like Mike.”
In “The Last Dance,” the Chicago Bulls’ glory days of the 1990s – a time in which they won six NBA championships in eight seasons, led by Hall of Famer Michael Jordan – are remembered by the people most responsible for the success. Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, and many of their teammates and foes are interviewed as the documentary examines the 1997-98 season, the final season for the Jordan/Pippen-led squad.
While the championships happened in Chicago, there were many connections to the Capital Region for many of the figures involved in “The Last Dance.”
Phil Jackson
The architect of the Bulls’ “triangle” offense that later also won three consecutive NBA championships for the Los Angeles Lakers, Jackson’s coaching career came through Albany, where he won his first championship on the sideline. Jackson’s 1984 Albany Patroons won the CBA championship. Three years later, the former New York Knicks player would return to the NBA as a coach, an assistant under Doug Collins with the Bulls. He’d become Chicago’s head coach in 1989, and his first NBA crown as a coach came in 1991.
Sam Perkins
That 1991 Bulls championship came at the expense of the Lakers, then in the twilight of the “Showtime” era that won them five NBA championships between 1980-88. Perkins, a Shaker High School product who graduated in 1980, was on that ’91 team as a power forward. That wasn’t Perkins’ first run-in with Jordan, though; the two were teammates at the University of North Carolina, winning an NCAA championship together in 1982. Who took the last shot of that championship game? Click here and let MJ tell you.
George Karl
Following Jordan’s retirement and foray into baseball after winning three straight championships from 1991-93, the Bulls returned to championship form in 1996 with a record-setting 72-win season and Ring No. 4 for Jordan, Pippen, Jackson and company. Their NBA Finals foe: the Seattle SuperSonics, coached by Karl, another veteran of the Washington Avenue Armory. Karl coached the Patroons for two stints in the late 1980s and early ‘90s before bouncing back to the NBA and finding success with the Sonics.
Jason Hehir
The director of “The Last Dance” doesn’t have roots in the Capital Region, but before he directed a number of ESPN “30 For 30” films like “The Fab Five,” Hehir honed his craft collegiately at Williams College in the northern Berkshires. Hehir graduated from Williams in 1998.