COLUMN: The Last Dance

     I just finished wrapping up episodes seven and eight of ‘The Last Dance’ Sunday night and after each show, I’ve found myself impatiently waiting for more. Now the final two episodes will air next Sunday night and I am sure I’ll be wishing this story never came to an end.

     Each week I am finding out tidbits that either I did not know or have forgotten over time. I totally forgot that Michael Jordan’s father was murdered. I did not know he was missing for three weeks. I also forgot the Bulls clinched against the Seattle Supersonics on Father’s Day and how emotional Jordan was after that victory, in the locker room.

     One of my favorite all-time Hawkeye basketball players is B.J. Armstrong. I loved it when he was drafted by the Bulls in round one in 1989. What I had forgotten was he was selected by the Toronto Raptors in the 1995 NBA expansion draft. He refused to report and was traded to the Golden State Warriors.

     All these years I had thought Armstrong was a lifetime Chicago Bull when in fact he also played for Charlotte and Orlando before returning to the Bulls in 1999. In Sunday nights show he was featured in a segment that told the story of how he got the best of Jordan, hitting the game winning shot with the Hornets in a 1998 playoff game.

     That would be the one and only time Armstrong bested Jordan. I was also surprised to find out Armstrong was an All-Star in 1994 and even more surprised to learn that it was B.J. that invited Michael to attend a practice, just to see the guys, during the MLB baseball strike. Before long Jordan ended his first retirement.

     There is so much that I’ve liked about Jordan over the years, his love of golf, his attempt to become a baseball player and of course, the many titles he helped bring to the Bulls. But of all his traits, the single most thing I like about MJ is his ability to take a slight and turn it into motivation against his opponents. And even admittedly, he may have made up some of those perceived slights over the years to accomplish that!