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The Best Villains have Two Things in Common
A Reflection on Jerry Krause and Michael Jordan
I was enthralled with ESPN’s The Last Dance, a docu-series on the Chicago Bulls’ basketball dynasty of the 1990s.
The series gets its name from then Bulls’ coach, Phil Jackson who had a theme for every season.
Jackson was given a one-year contract extension for the 1997–98 season, and because he and everyone knew that this was the last time they would all be together as a team, he titled the season, “Last Dance.”
It was hard to imagine that a guy who won five NBA championships would be given a measly one-year extension. Who would be dumb enough to make such a foolish offer? Not only would you lose arguably the best basketball coach ever, you would lose the best player ever.
Michael Jordan said after the 1996–97 championship that he would never play for another manager. Maybe he said this to encourage the front office to keep Jackson, and maybe that is why he received that extension. The series doesn’t give a clear answer, but I’m sure it played a role.
If you watched the series, you know who public enemy number one was, and I’ll get to him in a bit. But when I watched the series, I saw a number of villains. I’ll focus on two. They all had the same traits, they all…
