Michael Janora and Alex Walinski
Staff Writers
The much anticipated documentary following one of the top, if not the top players to ever play basketball, Michael Jordan, was just recently released. They released two episodes a week following the build-up and fall down of the Chicago Bulls dynasty. There was a special access camera crew there for the teams last season together before the coach got fired and some players were to leave. Many people had many different feelings on the documentary, most being positive from fans and current players as they voiced their opinions on twitter. But most players that played back in the Michael Jordan era had some issues with the documentary. Some responses that were voiced were upset that the documentary showed and talked about one scene where Michael Jordan explained how he saw his teammates doing different illegal things such as drugs or other activities that he mentioned. Others that had to play against Michael Jordan said things like how they didn’t focus on the team and just focused on Jordan and portrayed him as some basketball god. Others were upset about some of the comments that Jordan made, Specifically Horace Grant, who was upset that Jordan said he thought that Grant “snitched” to the media secret things about the team to a book writer who wrote a very personal book about Jordan and the team called ”Jordan Rules” which is a name he got from the infamous Jordan rules that the Detroit Pistons had to attempt to stop or at least slow Jordan.
The documentary followed every part of Jordan’s life from high school all the way to the NBA and most of his career there. The Chicago Bulls dynasty was the best team ever at the team and still can be argued as the top of list. The documentary was very interesting as it had a lot of never before seen footage. Also, many kids my age don’t really know about Jordans whole career and what went on during the Bulls dynasty. Many just hear about the two three-peats and how great Jordan was. This documentary showed me some very interesting information that I would have never known. Michael Jordan was loved worldwide, sometimes a little too much. Most people would think that this wouldn’t be possible, but as shown and explained, Jordan couldn’t go anywhere without cameras and fans in his face trying to get pictures or autographs from him. He would explain about how his most peaceful times were when he would sit alone in his hotel room and just think to himself and just relax. But the second he walks out of his room he would be bombarded with cameras and questions.
But Michael Jordan’s winning and success came at a price, mostly for Jordan’s teammates. This is never talked about so without the documentary not a lot of people would have known about this whole situation. Jordan got in multiple fights with teammates at practice and there were multiple interviews of teammates saying they were scared of him. In Jordan’s eyes he saw it as the fact that winning comes at a price. He always would push his teammates to their limits and try to get the best out of them, but a lot didn’t like that because it was out of their comfort zone. Jordan explained how he thought a lot of people might not like him after the documentary is released and as he says in one of his interviews, a lot of people may have thought it was too much, “But that’s you, and you have ever won anything.”
Another part that I found really interesting was the many issues that went on in Jordan’s career. I never knew there was a foot injury that Jordan suffered at the start of his career, and to make things worse he played on it risking his whole career while he was at the University of North Carolina taking a break from the team. If he were to get re-injured then no one would have known Michael Jordan as the greatest player of all time, but what could have been. Obviously, as he is still being talked about today that did not happen and he played out a full career with many achievements. But there were still some other times where Jordan’s character was questioned. At one point everybody thought Jordan was struggling with a gambling addiction and could have potentially been betting on games. This is still a grey area in some spots, Jordan has said he likes to bet and there were many stories where on team planes Jordan would play poker in the back of the plane with a couple teammates for absurd amounts of money. It was also said that he would put major money on his own golf matches. He said he would do this because he liked to make it more competitive. To make matters worse he was seen and recorded paying major amounts of money to a shady man that was known for betting, and some other issues. The man was later put in jail for other unrelated charges from Jordan, but this still makes Jordan’s potential gambling issue seem a little more realistic.
Overall, we both thought it was really interesting covering the ups and downs of Michael Jordan’s career with the Bulls and what he really had to go through just living life. It showed some of the struggles with the teams front office and what their problems were. But most importantly for us it was really eye opening on how great this man really was. Stories and comments just don’t do it justice. There was time after time where Jordan would play and have an unbelievable game. The documentary didn’t even cover every great game he had and it was still amazing to see how consistently good he was. We both though the documentary was a great watch and can’t wait for there to be more documentaries about others such as Kobe Bryant or the Golden State Warriors.
