Call it quarantine induced boredom, or call it starved Jordan fandom, I primed my kids for ESPN’s The Last Dance all day on Sunday.
I made them rest in the afternoon because it was going to be a late night for us. When my oldest brought up LeBron James’ superiority, I aggressively stepped on his opinion. How could we bring up James on MJ’s day?
By 9 p.m. EST on Sunday, sitting with my three boys on the couch, I watched them take in Michael Jordan – a player, according to their dad, unrivaled in greatness.
As we watched, I learned from them through a few questions they asked.
There was no 3-point line?
Jordan’s arrival onto the national stage took place in his freshman year at North Carolina – my sons seemed to know that. They were taken aback, though, by two things about Jordan’s NCAA game-winner.
First, they were shocked that there was a time that no three-point line existed. My 12-year old exclaimed, “But, Dad, Jordan just shot from that far without getting three?”
Next, my kids mentioned that that Jordan was wearing fairly plain Converse mid-tops. The idea of MJ donning anything but Nike was a foreign concept.
He was cut from the high school team?
My kids know the story of MJ getting cut from the high school basketball team as an underclassman. Come on, it is the go-to dad version of “if you work hard, you can do anything” motivational speech.
What my kids didn’t know, though, was that Jordan grew into a 6 foot 6 inch shooter with point guard handles between getting cut and becoming so skilled that Dean Smith’s coaching staff took notice.
The Chicago Bulls sucked?
It became clear to me that my children thought the Chicago Bulls began their championship runs immediately after Michael Jordan arrived. They had no idea he’d been drafted in 1984 and won his first title in 1991. To my three boys, seven years is a unfathomably long period of time.
Also lost on my children was that an all-time great player, like MJ, could score sixty points but lose a game. My boys had no concept of the how a transcendent player could be limited by those around him. My 7-year-old, Everett, developed a better strategy, saying, “Dad, I know what they should have done. Jordan should have tried to score 100 so they could win.”
Jordan smokes, drinks and uses the F word?
Kids are so refreshingly and blindly naive. This quality was on full display as my boys were astounded that, during the open scene of The Last Dance, smoked a cigar.
Then, framed into the sit-down interviews with Jordan, a drink sat at his immediate right. “I can’t believe the best players drink!” my oldest laughed at the thought.
Last on the parade of jaw-dropping moments was MJ’s swearing – during the interview, in practices and on post-game footage. I’m no saint, my kids hear curse words all the time. They, for some reason, didn’t assume that the greatest player of all time needed such words to drive his points home.
Seems like Jordan is a jerk, right?
Two scenes stuck out to my kids that others might not have noticed.
(1) During the Bulls publicity trip to Paris in 1997, there was a camera shot of a television producer mic’ing up the G.O.A.T. Jordan seems amicable until the gentlemen awkwardly asked him for his autograph. MJ did not reply at all, seemed annoyed and turned to a handler who refused on his behalf.
“Dad, that was weird. Jordan didn’t even acknowledge the guy,” Lynden, my 12 year-old, sat back into the couch, feeling bad for the producer who should have known better.
(2) The interactions between Bulls G.M. Jerry Krause and MJ bothered my children. Maybe, I gather, they have been schooled to recognize the difference between bullying and trash talking. Or, maybe, Krause’s 5’6″ frame has them thinking that is how MJ might treat other, more “normal” people.
My oldest, particularly, noticed the poking dialogue and called MJ a “jerk” after several of his interactions with Krause.
No matter the questions my sons asked during The Last Dance, or the observations they voiced during the episodes, watching icons from my childhood with my young kids opened my eyes to the blinders that fandom and nostalgia often apply.
I idolized Jordan and grew up during his prime. I cherish the memories of those Bulls rivalries and championships. Maybe I coveted those recollections so much that I had never recalled aspects of MJ that my kids aptly pointed out –
- That MJ was a jerk, he had faults.
- Greats, like Jordan, aren’t born, they’re made.
- Greatness, like Michael Jordan’s, is not immune to struggles with humanity most of us consider normal.
My kids are looking forward to the next episodes. I can’t wait to learn more from watching them take it in.
I hear that the next episode is “the Rodman one”, so I’m assuming they may get used to superstars using the F word.
