Sports Biblio Digest, 5.17.20: Michael Jordan and the Art of Leadership
News, Views and Reviews About Sports Books, History and Culture
Also In This Issue: Lance Armstrong; The Disintegrating Sportswriting Profession; The Return of the Remote Sports Broadcast; 60 Joyous Baseball Moments; Reilly Opelka; Jeremy Schaap; The Morse Hockey Stick; Remembering Bob Watson, Phyllis George and Pepper Rodgers
********
Two more hours remain in the 10-part epic Michael Jordan documentary, “The Last Dance,” that’s riveted the American sports world with no live games to follow.
The final two episodes air tonight on ESPN, but installments 7 and 8, shown last weekend, might well have been the climactic segments of what’s become an intriguing revisitation of a melodrama, more than 20 years after the Chicago Bulls won the last of their six NBA titles.
Those two episodes explored Jordan’s sudden retirement following his father’s murder in 1993 and his pursuit of a baseball career that ended the following year, due to the players’ strike and his inability to hit breaking pitches.
As Jordan is welcomed back by the Bulls, we see a team in disarray, led ostensibly by loyal sidekick Scottie Pippen, who possesses all of the likeability and none of the nastiness of Jordan.
“The Last Dance” generally feels like hagiography, especially when Jordan is given ample time to respond to his critics about his brutal verbal abuse of teammates, opponents and front office executives. At several points, interviewers hand an electronic tablet for Jordan to watch them talk about him and his near-homicidal competitiveness.
(Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns has expressed grave reservations about the film, which uses footage from Jordan’s film production company, saying "that’s not the way you do good journalism … and it’s certainly not the way you do good history, my business.")
Jordan is unapologetic being interviewed now, although in his mid-50s, he is attempting something of an effort to smooth over those rough edges.
The film doesn’t delve as deeply into just how ruthless Jordan could be, compared to what Chicago Tribune beat writer Sam Smith wrote in his 1991 classic, “The Jordan Rules.” Ripping away the veneer of the Jordan myth just as the Bulls were reaching the top was pretty gutsy, and Smith’s fearless reporting still holds up 30 years later.
In this film, Jordan is even more abrasive than I first thought. He justifies his trash-talking and rough treatment to prepare his teammates for the rigors of the playoffs, and to meet his incredibly high standards.
Though his teammates are awfully considerate explaining what they thought of all this, Jordan gives off the impression that they are a burden to him that he must carry along to greatness.
Yet what can explain Jordan’s regrettable speech as he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame? He spoke as if he just came in from a 72-hour binge at Caesar’s Palace, trashing John Stockton, of all people, sitting in the audience as a fellow inductee.
Following stirring, humble speeches by Stockton, Jerry Sloan and Vivian Stringer, Jordan came across as a jackass, especially taking a shot at Bulls general manager Jerry Krause.
There was plenty of heartfelt charm and emotion expressed, to be sure, but Jordan the man leaves quite a bit to be desired. I don’t expect anyone in his stratosphere to live a life of moral rectitude, but he seems oblivious to—or arrogant about—nearly everyone who stepped on a basketball court with, or against him.
Hells bells, for once I even agree with Dave Zirin about something.
(Also to be sure, Jordan is my GOAT, leading an all-time NBA starting five of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird/Oscar Robertson—can’t decide the last one.)
Although Rod Thorn was the Bulls general manager who drafted Jordan out of North Carolina in 1984, Krause was the architect of the dynasty built around Jordan.
Jordan resented every moment of it, and never respected Krause, who died in 2017. Neither did Pippen, and that animosity filters through each episode of “The Last Dance,” leading to tonight's finale as the Bulls seek additional titles amid an atmosphere that the franchise is about to be blown up.
Krause saw a diamond-in-the-rough at small-college Central Arkansas in Pippen, and when he came to the Bulls, Pippen and Jordan meshed instantly.
Krause hired Tex Winter, a successful college coach and master of the constant-movement “triangle offense,” to spread the offense and take the pressure off Jordan.
Jordan hated it, and when Doug Collins was brought in to coach the Bulls, Winter was shoved to the sidelines during practices and press row during games, charting plays.
When Collins was axed in favor of Phil Jackson, the triangle came back into vogue, and Jordan grudgingly saw how much better the Bulls became offensively.
The Bulls had never reached the NBA finals until then, and when they did, won three championships in a row.
What has been revealing about “The Last Dance” is exactly how instrumental the “role players” around Jordan have been to the franchise’s success.
Even now, Pippen is underappreciated, and served as a vital buffer whom many thought was a better leader than Jordan.
Sam Walker, author of a leadership book that draws lessons from sports figures, interviewed Bill Cartwright, another Bulls’ player Jordan abused, and finds the former the prototype of the quintessential leader:
A quiet, grinding, mature individual who had the ear, and respect of teammates in an undervalued way. Jordan, on the other hand, carried an unbelievably heavy, self-imposed burden to the end. As Walker notes:
“He wanted to light a fire and shove his teammates into it. So, he played the bad cop, the merciless agitator. He buried every emotion that wasn’t aggressive or propulsive.
“It’s hard to imagine how lonely that must have been. The rest of the Bulls could lean on Bill Cartwright for emotional support, but Jordan was on his own. He was pretending to be a gargoyle, and gargoyles don’t show vulnerability. They don’t always look cuddly on television, either.
“Michael Jordan’s leadership wasn’t enough to turn the Bulls into champions. And sometimes, he pushed too hard. But I never appreciated its cost; how selfless and isolating it was, and how much discipline it required.
“I finally understand why he never apologized for any of it."
A Few Good Reads
If you can’t wait for another documentary on an obnoxious elite athlete to air on ESPN, sit tight. A new “30 for 30” is dropping on May 30, in which Lance Armstrong is promising to tell “my truth;”
Live sports is starting to creep back into the plans of television networks crushed by non-existent ratings, and along with this weekend’s no-fans NASCAR event will be a remote broadcasting team for Fox that could become trendy;
Reilly Opelka, a 6-foot-11 ATP pro with a 140 mph serve, talks with Racquet Magazine about how he’s holding up, and staying shape, for the return to competition;
Timmy Brown, who twice led the NFL in total yardage for the Eagles, died April 4 at the age of 80 and even in his later years took pains to mask the dementia his family believes was caused by brain trauma absorbed on the gridiron;
With baseball still in limbo, Joe Posnanski has been dusting off his “60 moments,” his favorite stories of baseball history (including Buck O’Neill, natch), as an addendum to his massive The Baseball 100 project that was leading up to the start of the season. I haven’t read all of these profiles, but the handful I have read are well worth your time and given the current state of affairs, you may have time to reread all of this again before any games are played in Major League Baseball;
As newspaper and media layoffs mount, another grim look at the sportswriting profession, and in local markets in particular, in major metropolitan areas as well as small towns and rural enclaves.
Now Hear This
At the Tourist Information podcast (new from the editors of Ring Magazine), author Brin-Jonathan Butler talks to ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap about his Emmy-winning career, his father Dick Schaap and more. Previous guests have included writers S.L. Price, Tom Junod and Tommy Tomlinson;
From Only a Game comes the story of a hockey stick being auctioned this weekend, but it’s not an ordinary hockey stick. A Vermont couple is selling what’s called the Morse Stick, dating back to the 1850s-1870s, and it’s regarded as the oldest existing piece of puck lumber in existence has been appraised in the low seven figures.
Passings
Bob Watson, 74, an All-Star slugger nicknamed “The Bull,” later became a baseball executive and was the first black general manager of a World Series champion with the Yankees in 1996. In March, he was present as the Bob Watson Education Center at the Astros Youth Academy was opened in Houston;
Phyllis George Brown, 70, was famous as a former Miss America when she stepped on the set of “NFL Today” in 1975 to become one of the first women to be a co-host for a sports pregame show. She later became First Lady of Kentucky, was mentioned as a possible U.S. Senate candidate and had been suffering from leukemia;
Pepper Rodgers, 88, was a football star for two SEC championship teams at Georgia Tech and was a colorful figure as a coach, leading his alma mater as well as Kansas, UCLA and Memphis and working in professional football.
Spring Break
I’ll be taking at least the next two weeks off, to dive into some new reading (my bookstores just reopened!), and to finally enjoy the (ever-so-gradual) lifting of our lockdown here in Georgia (the parks are open again too!) and some gorgeous weather for the Memorial Day holiday weekend and beyond.
Thanks so much for your readership, and for staying in touch. We’ll be back in June, and until then, happy reading!
* * * * * * * *
The Sports Biblio Digest is an e-mail newsletter delivered on Sunday. You can subscribe here and search the archives. This is Digest issue No. 205, published May 17, 2020.
PLEASE NOTE: This newsletter will be on hiatus until June.
I’d love to hear what you think about the Digest, and Sports Biblio. Send feedback, suggestions, book recommendations, review copies, newsletter items and interview requests to Wendy Parker at sportsbiblio@gmail.com.