Episodes 5 and 6 of "The Last Dance" capped the story of Michael Jordan's meteoric ascent to the top of the basketball universe and highlighted the perils that came along the way.
Episode 7 appears poised to be a continuation of those themes of humanizing Jordan while also potentially opening him up to criticism. Just after the conclusion of Episode 6, ESPN released a clip foreshadowing the story of Jordan punching Steve Kerr at a practice for Episode 7 or 8.
But apparently, that anecdote only scratches the surface of the side of Jordan we'll see on May 10.
Here's the director of "The Last Dance," Jason Hehir, on the "Dan Patrick Show" on Monday:
"When you see the episodes next week, you’ll be surprised. Maybe he (Jordan) skipped Episode 7, but I can’t believe that he didn’t (trailed off)...
"The Steve Kerr thing is only a story that's told, and he was eager to tell that, and Steve was, too. But this treasure trove of footage that we had from the NBA, what we tackle in Episodes 7 and 8 next week is what it was like to play with Michael, and then what it was like to play against him, in 7 and 8, respectively.
"And the with Michael stuff, man, I don’t know if you would want to practice with Michael Jordan. It would be fun to watch; I don’t know if it would be fun to interact with him during that because he is hard. He wanted to make those harder than any game could possibly be. And in the East back in the '90s, that meant making it as rough and as mentally grueling as possible.
"And there’s things in there, there’s language in there that I’m shocked ESPN let us keep in, and there’s behavior in there that I’m shocked Michael let us keep in."
So, the scene is set. Episode 7, in Hehir's words, will center on what it was like to play with Michael, Episode 8 on what it was like to face him.
It doesn't feel far-fetched to guess those two things might not be so different from each other, at least in the right (or wrong) context.
