The Last Dance

Pacers lead by six, 20-14.

Pippen gets the screen, trying to go by Smits.

Moves on the baseline, lost it.

And Richardson has it. He is one on three, takes it to the basket.

And... it's tipped in.

Oh, and Reggie Miller came over and smacked Mike and MJ is upset.

I can't blame him.

Yes, sir, he ran right into him. We got a brouhaha here.

Don't hold him back. Let him go.

He and I had somewhat of a unique relationship.

Most people feared Michael Jordan, and rightfully so.

But I didn't fear him like the rest of the league did,

and we had to lock horns quite a bit.

Pacers lead by ten. Jordan, the steal!

- In on... Jackson... - Oh!

Throws the ball at Jackson in frustration.

He thought Jackson tried to take him out,

so Michael's gonna get a technical on that play.

And then Reggie Miller came over.

I respected him so much,

but he probably just thought I was some mouthy, skinny kid...

and he was one of the best trash talkers in our game.

My rookie year, we're playing against Chicago.

And as a rookie, you're gonna go 110%

because you're trying to impress your vets on your team.

Miller around a Stipanovich screen,

turns a corner, down the lane, lays it in, foul called.

Reggie Miller scores, and he was fouled by Jordan.

I remember I had, like, ten points at half,

and MJ didn't shoot the ball particularly great.

So, I was like, "Yeah, you're Michael Jordan,

the guy that walks on water?"

He looks at me.

Jordan at the foul line, comes up shooting, good.

Second half, I ended up with only two points.

So I had 12 for the game, and he ended up with a lot more.

Jordan's got 37.

And I remember him walking off the court.

He was like...

"Don't ever talk trash to Black Jesus."

And that's when I stopped referring to him as Michael Jordan,

and I always refer to him either as "Jordan,"

"Black Jesus" or "that Black Cat."

I never called him Michael Jordan again after that.

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 the coach of the Bulls.

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

The only question: how long can it last?

Good afternoon. Welcome to the Eastern Conference Finals,

the Bulls and the Indiana Pacers.

First time these two clubs have faced each other in the playoffs.

The tip to Indiana.

In '98, that was my first year coaching

and it was our best opportunity to win a championship.

We were confident that we can dethrone the Bulls.

We felt like we were just as versatile.

We had Rik Smits, the Dunking Dutchman.

Mark Jackson, one of the greatest assist guys the league has seen.

We had the Davis brothers.

Chris Mullin, one of the sweet shooting players of all time.

And Reggie Miller, a Hall of Famer.

We had a squad.

That series with Indiana was the hardest playoff series we had.

They were big, strong, physical.

If I had to pick a team that gave us the toughest time in the east,

Indiana was probably the toughest, outside of Detroit.

They were tough.

Every time I'd go in that fucking game and come out, I got a new scratch.

It became personal with me.

Michael through the hole, reverse, plus the foul!

Here's Michael with the steal, and Chicago with the lead.

Game one to Chicago.

Welcome back to the United Center.

Game two of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.

It's my privilege to present Michael Jordan

with his fifth NBA Most Valuable Player trophy.

May I say on behalf of everyone this evening, thank you.

Here is Longley going strong to the basket. Luc Longley.

Here's Kerr for three again, and if this hits...

Somehow, someway, every year, Steve Kerr gets a big basket

to put a dagger in someone's heart.

Under two minutes remaining here in the fourth quarter. Jordan...

Michael Jordan with a fallaway...

Oh! What a shot by Michael Jordan!

And that may be the exclamation point for the Chicago Bulls.

The Bulls are winners, 104-98.

Bulls lead the series 2-0. Jordan, 41 points.

It's back to the drawing board. This is...

You play for this time of year,

and we've come too far to let something like this slip away.

- My brother. You all right? - I'm doing good.

How's your family? Good?

- It's gonna be a battle. I know. - You know it.

- I knew that coming in. - Okay.

Pacers are gonna kick Chicago's rear end.

The Bulls are going down! Going down!

Step up and pound... the Bull-Crap Mobile.

We won the first two games in Chicago.

But the next game that we had, it was on the road.

And their arena was really, like, a tough place to win.

Let's give 'em something to boo about. Let's go, boys.

Game three, Reggie was a problem.

Because Reggie had...

insane confidence.

Reggie...

When he was on...

he could make it from anywhere over anybody at any time.

Miller, catch, shoot, score.

Reggie Miller!

Miller...

hits the three out of the corner!

Miller for three...

That may have finished the Bulls.

Twenty-six for Reggie.

And Indiana wins game three.

Now we give ourselves a shot on Monday to try and tie this thing up.

So, you know Chicago is never gonna go away.

As long as that Black Cat's out there, anything is possible.

We'll be fine. I think today is just a bump in the road.

The Bulls weren't impressed by the Pacers' game three victory.

Michael Jordan called it "a bump in the road."

Phil Jackson said, "Look, they had to play very well at home to beat us,

and even then, they barely beat us."

It was a hard-fought series. The most memorable game was game four.

The tip to Indiana.

Reggie out of the corner. Tough shot, air.

Pippen dishes to Michael.

Jordan's shot is shoved back in his face.

Michael appears to be bleeding.

It's Miller for three.

Michael starting to heat up after a slow start.

It's a one-point game with 6.4 on the clock.

Control the boards. We gotta have everybody come in and rebound.

Mike, this kid's got a hot hand right now.

Indiana has a timeout. They elect not to use it.

McKey looking.

Gets it in for Miller, batted away,

grabbed by Pippen, and they have to foul him.

I was so upset that I felt,

"Is this gonna be it? Are they gonna go up 3-1?"

Because you go down 3-1, it's going back to Chicago.

It's a death sentence, really. We can't go out like this.

Scottie Pippen has had a great game,

but he's only two of five from the foul line.

A miss!

You don't wanna give up a second shot.

Missed them both. Loose ball, out of bounds, who's got it?

Indiana ball with 2.9 seconds.

And Larry Bird uses his last timeout.

When I was coaching,

we always had something a little different at the end of the game,

two seconds left, four seconds left or whatever.

So, if it got close, we knew what we were running.

There are a lot of players to make shots the first three quarters of the game,

but when you talk about who gonna make a shot late, get the ball to Reggie.

I remember when Larry was drawing the play.

I was thinking, "Put all the pressure on the official to make a call."

Jordan is on Best. Harper's on Miller.

When the play was drawn up,

I knew they were gonna switch and MJ was gonna be on me.

So I just went right to his chest...

and lightly, lightly shoved him a little bit to create that space...

and the rest was history.

McKey... gets it in to Miller for the win!

Four tenths of a second!

One of the greatest clutch playoff performers of his generation...

has apparently done it again.

Yeah, you can dance, Reggie.

The entire building was in a frenzy, as we should be,

but please put the camera on Larry Bird.

Larry looked up at that clock.

It's like... stoic demeanor because he knew what we all knew,

that they had Michael Jordan and there was still time on the clock.

We knew where the ball was gonna go.

Everyone in the building knew where the ball was gonna go.

Kukoc to Michael at the buzzer...

I remember being underneath the basket as the ball is coming.

And I'm looking, I'm like, "This is going in."

He lobs to Jordan, he got it off...

It spun out, and it's two to two!

Unbelievable!

I mean, millimeters, millimeters in and out.

And we made 'em double clutch on that shot, and he still almost made it.

You said Saturday's loss was just a bump in the road.

What about this game? Where do you go from here?

You still gotta come through Chicago, Utah, Indiana.

They still got to come through Chicago. I don't care what happens today.

I don't care what happened in the other series.

They still gotta come through Chicago.

We had our hands full out west for my entire career. Um...

We played great teams, and we were so close so many times,

and just couldn't get over the top.

Then we win in kind of a last-second fashion.

Stockton, open three...

Yeah!

John Stockton sends the Utah Jazz to the NBA Finals!