Some thoughts from the first two episodes:
- What a great documentary so far. I loved the backstories running in parallel to the drama of the 97-98 season. I've read about MJ all my life growing up as a kid but getting those perspectives from the brothers, his Mom, Roy Williams, Dean Smith was awesome. Interesting how they introduced the backstory of the other key members (Scottie in EP 2 and Rodman in EP 3).
- Michael Jordan is what athletics should be about. No doubt in my mind that the Bulls were holding out trying to better their chances for a lottery pick Jordan's second or third season there. And he clearly wanted nothing to do with throwing games away. Just love that he wanted to play. He was driven by the purpose of sport in the purest sense - to compete and win at all costs. Nothing else mattered. It was truly binary with him and that's something that is missing from the NBA today and really diluting it as a product in my opinion. The "depends on how big the f'n headache is" quote was awesome.
- Watching the Scottie Pippen backstory made me feel somewhat sorry for Scottie. I know people will watch that and vilify him for holding out. I agree that he did not go about it the right way. There should have been other avenues to express his disagreement about his contract without hurting the team's chances at achieving history. But to be a Top 50 Player of All Time and be the 6th highest paid player on the Bulls was ridiculous. Just a joke. Plenty of fault to go around in that situation. Also, Scottie was shown to come from a much more humble and modest background than Michael. I think money would have mattered more to the Pippen clan than to the Jordan clan, especially given how much MJ was raking in from endorsements. I mean, Luke f'n Longley was making more $$ than Pippen.