The Last Dance Episode 7 recap: For Michael Jordan, retirement meant freedom

July 24, 2024

Episode 7 of “The Last Dance” will go down as the documentary’s most memorable hour because it explored in detail two earth-shattering events that shaped Michael Jordan’s career and life: the murder of his father in July 1993 and his first retirement from basketball three months later. During his 17-month exile from the NBA that followed, Jordan played minor league baseball, rekindled his love of hoops and honed his philosophy of competition that would drive the Chicago Bulls’ second three-peat.

Jordan was and is a masterful communicator, but he has never cared much for public introspection. Through six episodes, his most illuminating interviews concerned his rivalry with Isiah Thomas and his vendetta against Bulls General Manager Jerry Krause. He came up largely empty on the subject of politics, and his family life — including his 1989 marriage to Juanita, his first wife, and the births of his first three children — has been ignored. By rule, Jordan is far more interested in exploiting his opponent’s weaknesses than revealing his own.

Yet the “Crying Jordan” meme exists for a reason: When Jordan has shown emotion, such as during his eulogy to Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, the floodgates have opened all the way. Here, the subject of James Jordan, whose affection Jordan sought throughout his childhood, brought the Hall of Famer nearly to tears.

James Jordan’s murder, which authorities concluded was part of a robbery, shocked the Jordan family. One minute, they thought the patriarch was playing golf in Hilton Head, S.C. The next, he was missing — and his red Lexus was found without him. His body was eventually discovered in a creek. He had been shot once, and two teenagers were charged with murder and robbery.

Father and son were especially close. James Jordan attended many Bulls games and was a regular presence throughout his son’s rise. Jordan referred to his father as “my rock,” and James Jordan had come to his defense when questions about his gambling arose during the 1993 playoffs. Jordan credited his father with fueling his hunger and for giving him a tough-love speech in ninth grade.

“I got suspended three times in one year,” Jordan said. “My father pulled me aside that summer and said: ‘You don’t look like you’re headed in the right direction. If you want to go about doing all this mischievous stuff, you can forget sports.’ That’s all I needed to hear. From that point on, it was like tunnel vision. He was the voice of reason that always drove and challenged me.”

Grief turned to anger and outrage when media members began speculating that Jordan’s gambling might have led to his father’s murder. For Jordan, already mentally drained by three straight title runs, the summer’s events and fallout sapped him further.

“I fulfilled my responsibility to the city, to the Bulls, to my teammates,” Jordan said. “I told [Coach Phil Jackson] that I’m about done. I have no more challenges. I have no motivation. I was done.”

Jackson didn’t push back. By October 1993, Jordan had decided to retire. The news broke on the night before his scheduled announcement, leading high-profile journalists — including Tom Brokaw — to attend a news conference that drew at least 100 cameras and 300 reporters. Flanked by his wife, Jackson, Krause, Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf and even NBA commissioner David Stern, Jordan declared his intention to step away at age 30. Across Chicago, fans watched through tears and in stunned silence.

“The biggest positive thing I can take out of my father not being here with me today is that he saw my last basketball game,” Jordan said at the news conference. “That means a lot. The word ‘retire’ means you can do anything you want from this day on. If I desire to come back and play again, maybe that’s what I want to do.”

Charles Barkley had the worst possible timing — ‘The Last Dance’ is the latest reminder

Other high-profile athletes, such as NFL star Jim Brown, had retired at the height of their powers, but Jordan’s decision reverberated around the world. Magic Johnson had retired in 1991 after contracting HIV. Larry Bird had retired in 1992. After taking the baton from those stars at the 1992 Olympics, Jordan was passing it on a year later to … no one. Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson paled in comparison, and Shaquille O’Neal was only 21.

Another round of speculation, which persisted for decades among conspiracy theorists, followed Jordan’s retirement. Had the NBA secretly suspended him as punishment for his gambling?

“The urban legend that I sent him away because he was gambling [is] ridiculous,” Stern said in an interview. “No basis in fact — whatever.”

Jordan insisted he simply “needed a break,” adding that his father had encouraged him, during their final conversation, to pursue his first sporting love.

“Me and him were debating about me playing baseball,” Jordan recalled. “ ‘Dad, I want to go play baseball.’ He was saying, ‘Do it, do it.’ He got me started in baseball [as a child].”

Best quote: “Winning has a price.” — Michael Jordan

Jordan didn’t stay away from basketball long. By March 1995, he was back on the court with the Bulls. Baseball might have been a necessary distraction, but it was also humbling.

When Jordan told Jackson that he was going to retire, the coach recalled thinking that his superstar was “denying a gift to society.” Jordan was also denying a gift to himself; once back on familiar ground, he was more focused than ever.

“The Last Dance” chronicled his demanding ways, with footage of Jordan screaming profanities at his teammates in practice and roasting them after poor performances. Will Perdue, who was once on the receiving end of a Jordan punch, called Jordan “an a------” and “a jerk” who “crossed the line numerous times.” Jud Buechler said the Bulls “were afraid” of Jordan. Steve Kerr’s description of Jordan’s approach — seeking to toughen up his teammates for the playoffs — sounded like a hazing ritual.

Confronted by a reputation that has followed him and troubled some observers for decades, Jordan offered no apologies. Instead, he laid out, passionately, his philosophy of leadership and, by extension, his way of life.

“Winning has a price,” he said. “Leadership has a price. I pulled people along when they didn’t want to be pulled. I challenged people when they didn’t want to be challenged. I earned that right. My teammates who came after me didn’t endure all the things I endured. Once you join the team, you live with a certain standard of how I played the game. I wasn’t going to take anything less. If that means I have to get in your a-- a little bit, then I did that.”

Jordan defended his actions by arguing that he led by example throughout his career and that his goal was team success, not individual accolades.

“You can ask all my teammates: ‘One thing about Michael Jordan, he didn’t ask me to do one thing that he didn’t f------ do,’ ” he continued. “When people see this, [they will think]: ‘Well, he wasn’t really a nice guy. He may have been a tyrant.’ No. That’s you. You never won anything. I wanted to win, but I wanted [my teammates] to win and be a part of that as well.”

In Jordan’s striking and unforgiving binary, mankind is composed of winners who are willing to invest themselves completely and losers who aren’t. He continued by asserting that he never felt he had a choice.

“I’m only doing it because it is who I am,” he said, seemingly revolted by any alternative. “That’s how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you don’t want to play that way, don’t play that way.”

Emotionally overwhelmed by this rare dive into his strongly held views on right and wrong, Jordan turned to the documentary’s director and asked for the cameras to be turned off. In the end, this monologue was as close to a definitive look into Jordan’s soul as the public will probably ever get.

Funniest moment: Jordan’s foray into minor league baseball offered a brief flash of joy in an otherwise heavy episode. Away from the NBA’s glare and expectations, he played table tennis and doused his much younger teammates with water during clubhouse celebrations.

The documentary included a number of interesting nuggets about his time with the Birmingham Barons. Reinsdorf, who also owned the Chicago White Sox, continued to pay Jordan his NBA salary of $3 million per year. Jordan was assigned to the Class AA team because lower-level affiliates couldn’t handle the media crush that followed him. And, after more than a decade away from the sport, he had a 13-game hitting streak before opposing pitchers realized he couldn’t handle curveballs.

The unusually tall rookie right fielder’s daily routine included four rounds of batting practice that gave him, as he recalled proudly, “f------ blisters.”

While media outlets such as Sports Illustrated panned Jordan’s play, Terry Francona, his minor league manager, was convinced that Jordan could have graduated out of the Southern League.

“I can’t believe he actually hit .202,” said Francona, who went on to win two major league titles with the Boston Red Sox. “He drove in [51] runs. We had a lot of good prospects that didn’t drive in 50 runs. In my opinion, with 1,500 at-bats, he would have found a way to get to the major leagues.”

Most revealing scene: Aside from footage dealing with the death of Jordan’s father and his retirement, the most revealing scene focused on Scottie Pippen. In Jordan’s absence, the 1993-94 Bulls were a harmonious bunch that surprised pundits by winning 55 games and reaching the second round of the playoffs. Pippen finished third in MVP voting, Toni Kukoc arrived in the NBA, and Jackson leaned more heavily on his role players and integrated some new faces.

But Chicago missed Jordan’s shot-making and decisiveness in Game 3 of a second-round playoff series against the New York Knicks. In the closing seconds of a tie game, Jackson drew up the final play for Kukoc rather than Pippen, who was instructed to inbound the ball.

In a move that drew significant criticism at the time, Pippen refused to enter the game because of the perceived snub. Kukoc hit the shot anyway, giving Chicago the win and plunging Pippen into an awkward position.

“I felt like it was an insult coming from Phil,” said Pippen, who surely knew Jordan never would have been passed over in a similar manner. “I was the most dangerous guy on our team. Why are you asking me to take the ball out? I wish it never happened. If I had the chance to do it over again, I probably wouldn’t change it.”

Pippen’s wounded pride had immense repercussions. Kukoc was “happy for making the shot” but realized the team was “pissed that things aren’t right.” Kerr said the Bulls “couldn’t believe” Pippen had “quit on us,” and Bill Cartwright broke down in tears while chastising Pippen in a locker room speech.

The Bulls tried to move on after Pippen apologized, but they ultimately lost the series in seven games. Even Jordan, following along from Birmingham, couldn’t believe what had happened.

“I don’t know if Scottie is ever going to live this down,” Jordan told Jackson by telephone the following day. “It’s always going to come back to haunt him at some point in some conversation. Pip knows better than that.”

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