The Last Dance

Michael Jordan has said it many times.

He considers Madison Square Garden to be the mecca of basketball.

If, in fact, this is his final NBA All-Star Game,

it's a perfect place to make a last statement.

On the verge of a repeat three-peat,

Michael Jordan is playing his last year.

Bulls GM Jerry Krause swore on Wednesday

that Phil Jackson would not return next year,

and said if Michael chooses to leave

because there was another coach, then it's his choice.

- Boy! Hey! - What's up?

Hey, your feet look good!

Kobe Bryant, the youngest All-Star in history

- at 19 years, five months. - I've talked to him.

It's the same thing. He's a 19-year-old kid.

They're saying, "Kobe, you look ready to be the man at the All-Star Game."

You can't forget the king is still on the court.

Michael's going here?

- There you go. - You get the chair.

Man, I must be the old guy. I remember I used to be way in the back.

We gave you a nice, comfortable chair.

So you're feeling all right, huh?

I guess so, since you're gonna play me 40 minutes.

You better be ready.

Good shots out there.

If you don't have anything in the middle, kick it out,

make that extra pass, somebody should be wide open for a three.

While we're here, we might as well win.

- Yeah. - Right?

That Laker boy's gonna take everybody one-on-one.

I know, right?

- Yeah! - Who, Kobe? Yeah.

He don't let the game come to him. He just go out there and take it.

I'm going to make this shit happen. I'm gonna make this a one-on-one game.

I figured after the first four attempts didn't go in, he was gonna chill.

What?

After the first four attempts?

If I was his teammate, I wouldn't pass him the fucking ball!

You want this ball again, brother, you better rebound.

- This is the East locker room. - Hold up, hold up.

- Got nothing to do with the West. - Hold up.

He got nothing but his damn Laker colors on.

Yeah, yeah, like he coaching.

Now, I'm with the old motherf... Oops!

- The old mugs. - There ain't many of us here.

That's why I come to say "What's up?" to my boy.

- What's happening? How you doing? - How you feeling?

Damn!

Good, man.

- Michael... - I'm lovin' it.

Would you like to have some of his ass today?

Hey, you know I'd be coming at him, Larry.

Just like I used to come at both of y'all.

Just about tip-off time at Madison Square Garden

for the 48th NBA All-Star Game.

And there you see Kobe Bryant in the foreground,

the man many have dubbed the next Michael Jordan.

I got Mike, I got Mike.

- Here is Michael. - Ah!

Count it, plus the foul for Jordan!

I grew up watching Michael on TV,

and now you got a chance to go face-to-face with him.

You get a chance to really see and touch and feel...

the strength, speed, quickness. And, um...

It was fun to be out there.

He's got the ball in his hands again.

To Garnett. Back to Kobe!

Oh!

He just wants to get to the offensive end and go one-on-one.

I'm gonna make his ass work down here.

He make it out, we gotta get back!

He hauling ass.

I ain't tryin' to be down there on a poster, dog.

I ain't jumpin' with him. No.

It was a rough couple of years for me, coming to the league.

At the time, the league was much older. It's not as young as it is today.

So, nobody was really thinking much of me.

I was the kid that... shot a bunch of air-balls, you know what I mean?

And at that point, Michael provided a lot of guidance for me.

I had a question about shooting his turnaround shot,

so I asked him about it.

And he gave me a great, detailed answer,

but on top of that, he said, "If you ever need anything, give me a call."

He's like my big brother.

I truly hate having discussions about who would win one-on-one,

and fans saying, "Kobe, you'd beat Michael one-on-one."

And I feel like, "Yo!

What you get from me is from him."

I don't get five championships here without him,

'cause he guided me so much and he gave me so much great advice.

Kobe had challenged Michael.

Michael comes out and he's saying, "Not tonight, young fella. Uh-uh, Kobe.

I got some more tricks left in my bag."

He's not ready to leave yet, folks.

Great job, guys. Hey, Jordan, you're my boy.

Thank you. You know it, you know it.

- I'll see you down the road. - Cool.

- Congratulations. - You're my boy.

See you in the Finals. Hopefully.

- Y'all gonna be there. - I know we will.

I ain't that soft!

Big Daddy!

I'm only gonna allow him to have his trophy

if he promises to come back and do it again.

The All-Star of All-Stars, the MVP, Michael Jordan.

If there was ever any doubt

that he could've kept playing at an MVP and championship level...

there's the All-Star Game, he's the MVP.

He's still the star among stars.

Even though there were explanations offered,

people couldn't understand why he was gonna step away.

The public wanted him to keep going.

A spectacular move!

The game's over!

Chicago Stadium is going wild!

First of all, there's no backstabbing going on here.

It's time for me to move on.

This will be Phil's last year as coach of the Bulls.

- Are the expectations too high? - Where do we go from here?

The only question: how long can it last?

Knowing this is the last dance, unless something actually changes,

I went into Madison Square Garden,

"This is the last time I'm gonna be playing here."

And that was my favorite place to play.

Went back and grabbed an old pair of Jordan 1s.

It's the first shoe I wore in the Garden,

so this was gonna be the last shoe,

being that this was the last time I'd play in the Garden.

Sweet. You laced those.

Toni, you weren't around. You was a baby when I broke these out.

What was the year?

- '84. How old were you? - That's when I started.

You were 12 years old.

Toni was still in diapers.

You look at these shoes,

you put these shoes on then put on some of them...

Innovation has taken a long turn.

I first met Michael Jordan in 1984. I went to North Carolina

to interview Michael and his family to represent him.

His parents asked great questions.

They were very intelligent, extremely personable.

Our firm, ProServ, had a lot of very high-profile tennis clients,

like Jimmy Connors, Stan Smith, Arthur Ashe.

Arthur Ashe had his own shoes and tennis racket.

This is the racket I won Wimbledon with. You could've bought it. Really.

The strategy was to try to take a team sport player

and treat him more like a golfer or a boxer or a tennis player.

I said to David, "What are you trying to do?

You trying to turn this guy into a tennis player?

He's a basketball player, he's not a tennis player."

I said, "That's exactly what I'm trying to do." And the very first deal was shoes.

We took him out to meet Converse,

which, at that time, was the official shoe of the NBA.

They have Magic Johnson, Dr. J, Bernard King, Larry Bird...

The Converse Weapon. The number-one weapon in the NBA.

Converse had big players, and told me, "We cannot...

envision you being put ahead of them."

Okay. Fine.

Did you have a shoe company that you wanted to go with?

That was Adidas.

I like the Lakers and I like Marques Johnson.

And I like Adidas. I like the Adidas shoe.

Adidas was really dysfunctional by that time.

They had just told me, "We'd love to have Jordan.

We just can't make a shoe work at this point in time."

I wanted Michael to go with Nike because they were the upstart.

In the early '80s, Nike was, for the most part, a track shoe company.

Michael didn't even wanna be at Nike.

I couldn't even get him to get on the damn plane and go visit the campus,

so I called his parents.

My mother said, "You're gonna go listen.

You may not like it, but you're gonna go listen."

"Mom, I don't wanna hear it. I know what I wanna do.

I am not going to Nike's, Mama."

I says, "Michael, you have to give 'em an opportunity."

She made me go on that plane and go listen.

I go into that meeting, not wanting to be there.

Nike made this big pitch.

My father said, "You gotta be a fool for not taking this deal."

Back then, the best guys might've gotten $100,000 or so,

and he got probably $250,000.

It was like...

"You will pay him what?

A young rookie...

that's done nothing?

You must be out of your mind."

When I negotiated the Nike deal, I said to them,

"You're a small company, and if you want Michael Jordan,

he's gotta have his own shoe line."

Nike had just come out with this new technology

for their running shoes called Air Soles.

And obviously, Michael played in the air.

I said, "I got it. We're gonna call it Air Jordan."

"Air Jordan"? That got a pretty good ring to it.

Nike's expectation, when we signed the deal,

was at the end of year four,

they hoped to sell $3 million worth of Air Jordans.

In year one, we sold $126 million.

As a commodity,

Michael Jordan is as hot as a Cabbage Patch doll right now.