The Bulls' intensity limit

Doug Collins had enough intensity for everyone. When he was replaced by the Zen Master, Jordan picked up the hard-ass slack.

Apr 27, 2020

Good morning. Let’s ask MJ more questions about Isiah Thomas, that will go well.

The Course of Empire: The Savage State, Thomas Cole

Sunday’s third and fourth episodes of The Last Dance dug into Dennis Rodman and Phil Jackson. There are now clearly two parallel timelines happening in the documentary, not counting the frequent lookbacks into individuals’ back stories. In the dynasty-building timeline, during these episodes we went through Doug Collins being hired as coach and within three seasons getting the Bulls to the East Finals, then getting replaced by Phil Jackson, who in two years leads the Bulls to their first title. In the 1997-98 timeline, we’re at the All-Star break with Scottie Pippen back on the floor and Dennis Rodman having taken his mini-vacation to Vegas already.

My main takeaway from these two episodes is that Gary Payton and Ron Harper are incredibly efficient with their time on camera.

Awful Announcing @awfulannouncing

"Dennis Rodman was the fuck-up person. He just fucks everything up. He's a pest, shuttin' down whoever he wanted to. It was always a challenge."- Gary Payton #TheLastDance

Awful Announcing @awfulannouncing

Ron Harper on the Cavs going with Craig Ehlo to guard Michael Jordan on The Shot in 1989: "I'm like, yeah, okay. Whatever. Fuck this bullshit." #TheLastDance

My secondary takeaway is that Doug Collins got a raw deal, and Krause is pretty lucky that the rather anonymous coach he chose to replace him turned out to be one of the greatest ever.

The Collins era is framed as one in which the ball was in MJ’s hands so much that it was a detriment to the rest of the team. MJ won the scoring title every year he played under Collins in Chicago, and it’s true that Pippen fully blossomed as a passer only after Jackson took over (in Pippen’s third season). But Jordan averaged eight assists per game in 1988-89 (Collins’ last season), 10th in the league. His scoring average had dropped. That season, Jordan’s usage rate was what it would end up being for the entirety of the ‘90s. In fact, Jordan still won the scoring title every full season he played under Jackson!

The offense did improve mightily under Jackson as Pippen bloomed into a top-10 player. But Jordan didn’t exactly take a backseat. There’s more there in the Collins’ dismissal that we didn’t quite get. There are hints of Krause wanting Collins to listen to Tex Winter, and clear animosity from Collins at being pushed to adopt a weird offense he doesn’t want to run, and perhaps even some knowledge that Krause is trying to groom Jackson to replace him. That’s not really addressed in the documentary. Neither are some of the more interesting particulars of the series against the Pistons, like the game in which Jordan took eight shot attempts in 46 minutes, which should be impossible but somehow wasn’t.

We get that Jordan wasn’t thrilled with the coaching move but quickly embraced Jackson and the concept of pushing his teammates. Collins was a hyper-intense hard-ass. Jackson was the opposite. So in a way, Collins’ absence allowed Jordan to morph into the team’s hyper-intense hard-ass. And being the star player — the best player in the world — instead of the coach allowed Jordan to be way harder on his teammates. And we see the results in 1991.

Jordan was already the best player in the world, so it’s quite hard to argue he improved under Jackson. But a key aspect of his legend — the intensity and leadership as a teammate — was only possible because of Jackson’s chill. Had Collins stuck around, or had Krause hired another intense coach, Jordan would either have not had space to be the locker room drill sargeant or the volume would have been way too high to the detriment of the team. Jordan filled the intensity gap created by the coaching change. And that adjustment became core to Jordan lore.

Eventually, Jordan was so closely bonded with Jackson that (as we are reminded in the 1997-98 storyline) he said he would not return to the Bulls in 1998-99 if Jackson weren’t back. But it’s worth noting who Michael Jordan hired as the Washington Wizards’ head coach when he came back out of retirement in 2001: Doug Collins. He did not, unfortunately, win the scoring title every season of that run.

#NeverForget #Justice4AaronGordon

You may remember three thousand years ago when the 2020 NBA Dunk Contest ended in terrible controversy and potentially conspiracy. The theory goes that with the judges seretly agreeing to end the contest in a tie between Derrick Jones Jr. and Aaron Gordon (something that is on record), Dwyane Wade then secretly changed his score to ensure Miami’s Jones, his former teammate, won. In other words, Wade tricked the other judges into awarding the proper scores for a tie, but then Wade dropped his own score for Gordon by a point, ensuring Jones’ victory. Super dirty if true!

Gordon apparently believes this is true and has released a diss track (with video) targeting Wade.

In this song, Gordon:

says Adam Silver told him he should have won,
says Rev. Jesse Jackson (!) told him he should have won,
reveals a backstage comment from Wade before the contest,
name-checks Queen Latifah,
says he’s still coming after Shaq for robbing him in a previous controversial Dunk Contest judging incident,
and confirms he will never compete in the Dunk Contest again.

Gordon also appears to be drinking Wade Cellars’ Sauvingnon during the video. I just adore that during quarantine one of Gordon’s people had to do a pick-up at BevMo or order a bottle of Dwyane Wade’s wine online for a diss video. Incredible.

This is perfect in every way except that Gordon really should have waited at least 24 hours after The Last Dance to release it. Don’t compete with Gary Payton and Ron Harper!