Here we go. Quiet!
-Roll sound! - Rolling.
Two.
It's funny, a lot of people say they'd like to be Michael Jordan
for a day or for a week,
but let them try to be Michael Jordan for a year, see if they like it.
Let's get one more.
- Rolling. - Two.
It's funny, a lot of people told me they'd like to be Michael Jordan
for a day or for a week,
but I don't think you can see the true Michael Jordan for just a day.
Rolling.
Cameras.
It's funny, a lot of people say they'd like to try to be Michael Jordan
for a day or for a week,
but I don't think they quite understand it's no fun.
Good. Okay.
All right, well, I just wanted to touch base...
This is it. Lay back, watch TV all day.
It was peaceful until you guys come up in here.
I don't have to worry about anybody bothering me.
I think what people don't realize
is that from the moment Michael Jordan leaves his hotel room,
the spotlight is on him.
Everybody in the world wanted to see him, talk to him.
They all wanted a piece of him in some way or another.
He was under pressure to be "on" all the time with people.
Could I get a picture with you and my son?
Skipping nursery school, huh?
Given his hectic schedule,
before a game, he would sit down for five minutes, ten minutes,
with a terminally ill child...
- You ain't got a birthday, do you? - No.
He made the kids feel like they knew Michael Jordan.
On top of all that, he had to perform.
Jordan! The double-clutch reverse layup. Michael Jordan!
He knew that everybody, for every game, was there to see him.
After the game, he has ten minutes in the locker room to cool off,
and then a room full of media.
How do you deal with all the attention?
How will you entertain us tonight?
Even when he's done with the interviews,
you still had the hanger-on people that would come up to him.
It was like a flock of bees around honey, trailing him down the hallway.
Listen, everybody! Can we move this way, spread out a little?
I swear he ain't gonna run away.
Then you get back to the hotel, another large group of people.
I wouldn't want to be like Mike. It's an impossible task.
Yeah, this is not...
one of those lifestyles that you envy,
where you can't... You're confined to this room.
I'm ready for getting out of this life.
You know when you get to that point.
I'm there. And with no reservations at all. I'm there.
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?
Wayne, Kovalev and Gretzky. And the...
That's still not...
Don't show the money.
How much you want?
Wait, I gotta learn.
I need another quarter.
You only need one. Shit.
- That didn't look good. - Not that one.
They get all the tries till they get one close.
- I get three or two tries to beat 'em. - This is the last one. I mean it.
- Oh, all right, how many tries? - I get three tries.
That's too far. Two tries on that one, MJ.
Two tries.
- Look at how far that is. - Okay, Jerry Krause.
Negotiate with somebody else.
- Will you get out the way? - Come on!
Nope.
- That's in. - No.
Nope! No!
- Get our money! - No!
- Get our money, Travis. - All right.
Michael was competitive at everything,
whether it was on the golf course or playing cards, whatever it was.
I mean, his life was just one big competition.
Scottie, Michael...
Ron Harper.
These guys would play cards in the back of the plane for major money.
I'm talking thousands of dollars.
This is my way of giving some of my money back.
Does it hurt?
And me, John Paxson, B.J. Armstrong,
we would play blackjack in the front of the plane for a dollar a hand.
He knows that we would never play with him in the back
'cause it's too much money.
But he would come to the front, "What are you guys doing?
You mind if I play?"
I remember John Paxson looking at him and going,
"Why in the hell do you want to play with us?
We're playing for a dollar a hand."
I remember he looked at him, "Because I wanna say I got your money in my pocket."
I'll give y'all four tries to beat my one toss.
- One toss? - Yeah.
- In four tries? - Yeah.
- Yeah, I take it. - Okay.
Put your money up first. Without seeing it.
- How much? $20? - Yup.
- You can beat that. - In four tries. Come back here.
- Give him his... - Hey, Gus, CT.
Hey, man, your stuff rolls. He's out here, it just rolls up there.
Watch this roll right into my pocket.
- I got good at this. - Y'all get out of here.
Go protect the damn United Center.
Security! Come get security outta here!
Arrest you.
Hey, Mike. Hey, Scottie.
-Okay, my brother. - This guy's funny.
-I'm sure you have full season tickets. - You guys know the money man here?
Yeah, we know him.
We knew him well.
We used to see him in the playoffs. We don't know about this year.
Welcome to another edition of Bulls basketball.
The Bulls remain just one game away
from securing home-floor advantage in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
They could do it with a win tonight.
Pippen gets the screen from Wennington...
Rodman goes backdoor, Jordan at the baseline.
Boy, Michael versus Orlando is a mismatch so far tonight.
Jordan ahead of Pippen. And the jam!
Bo Outlaw back quickly. Kerr tees up a three! Ring it up!
Thirty-seven for Jordan. I think that's the dagger.
And this one is history.
Chicago Bulls, with an 87-78 victory over the Orlando Magic,
win their 60th game of the season.
Sixty wins.
After a hard day,
I would take grape Gatorade, but...
I don't think so.
That's all we be thinking about in the fourth quarter.
- Icy, icy beer. - Cold beer.
I don't know why y'all filming.
We don't want y'all filming us drinking no beer.
I don't care what you film.
Hey, if they go back... go back ten years ago,
you'd see half the brothers drinking a case.
At halftime!
When I first joined the team,
they was drinking beers at half and smoking cigarettes.
And you know what?
Shit, they was getting the cigarettes from the coaches.
Yo, Stan, can I borrow a cigarette?
Motherfucker...
- Your drinking problem... - Don't tell 'em that.
- I gotta do the press. - Have to do it?
- I'm going out the other way. - All right.
How you doing?
Man, you tripping?
So you coming back next year, Michael?
Ladies and gentlemen, your world champion Chicago Bulls!
Once again, I wanna say thanks.
It's been eight years, going into my ninth year.
We got two championships, and hopefully we got a lot left.
Hopefully we can bring more championships to Chicago. Thanks!
You don't have to be a sports fan to know that this man is beyond human.
At age 30, Jordan has led the Chicago Bulls to NBA championships,
the Dream Team to an Olympic gold medal, and most importantly,
he's given America, and the world, a sorely needed hero.
A Jordan sighting sparks a frenzy.
- His touch, a burst of tears. - You're good.
And being Mike means being the most popular human on the planet.
Michael Jordan had become such a huge
cultural figure in the early '90s.
He was so widely celebrated,
inevitably there's going to be someone
who's going to start trying to find some dirt.
I guess one of the things that started problems
was Sam Smith's book, Jordan Rules.
I'd been an investigative reporter when I started my journalism career.
I wasn't a typical sports reporter coming in.
I was interested in what happened behind the scenes.
Every time I look up, you've been on TV. You must be carrying one with you now.
'Cause everybody always said, "Pull the curtain back.
What really goes on in the locker room?"
When you do books like that, you gotta have controversial things,
you gotta have things that are, you know, people would not suspect or know.
The Sun-Times reports the book details conflicts within the team.
The book outlines alleged turmoil on the club
during its run for the title last season.
It alleges Jordan was kind of a tough guy with some of his teammates.
Everybody got tired of seeing the McDonald's and the Cokes
and all the other stuff.
They really wanted to see something other than something positive.
I was shocked when it exploded like it did.
But the book is popular because it made it public that Michael Jordan is not perfect.
Not everybody loves him.
He wasn't particularly beloved by his teammates.
Michael told teammates
not to pass the ball to a certain player during crunch time.
Threatening the others, saying, if they did it,
they would never get the ball from him again.
Jordan also allegedly punched Will Perdue during a practice session.
Everybody loved Michael around the world.
But after Sam Smith's book, Jordan Rules,
there was a certain backlash and some of the brightness had come off.
People saw a side that we didn't see before.
Concerning team GM Jerry Krause, Jordan says,
"This thing isn't over. I'm going to get that guy fired."
Jerry invited me to come to his room,
and he had earmarked about 25 different quotations in the book.
He wanted me to sit and listen to them while he read them.
And that started with, "Who do you think could do this? Were you part of this?"
While the early reports have brought a flurry of denials,
players giving out sensitive information to the press
is one surefire way to cause a division within the team.
I didn't contribute to that. That was Horace.
He was telling everything that was happening within the group.
As we started winning championships,
and everybody talked about Michael, and talked about "everybody else,"
I mean, that really pissed off Horace.
He felt slighted. He was in Michael's shadow.
No. Not one thing have I ever divulged to Sam Smith
about my relationship with my former teammates.
A lot of people, because Sam and I have a great relationship,
used me as a scapegoat, and... so be it.
It couldn't have just been Horace.
Had to be coming from a number of different places.
It could've been the coaches,
it could've been the owners, it could've been management.
We have a star for five or six years,
and then, pretty soon, people start chipping away
at the pedestal of that star or that hero
and try to knock him off the block.
If I'm going to be knocked off this pedestal,
I'm going to make sure I do something to be knocked off.
I'm not going to let someone else knock me off for no apparent reason
or comments that I didn't say.
While some of Michael Jordan's teammates
view the book as "a bunch of bull,"
Smith says it may have a positive effect down the road on the world champions.
I think Phil will use this book to say,
"Here, this is out there. They're trying to divide us apart."
In a lot of ways, it'll bring the team together.
I was under siege when the book came out. Everyone turned on me,
to the point where I was getting a lot of threats
and the newspaper had me stay home for a week, told me not to come.
The Jordan Rules took a big toll on him off the court.
But on the court, he was still the most dominant figure in the game
on the most dominant team.
And Horace with the slam!
Jordan intercepts. What a play!
They're tearing them apart.
Fourteen. Jordan past Petrovic.
Michael blocked him... ...denied by Horace...
...three on two. To Jordan. And a foul...
Oh, he scored! Yes!
Michael in control, feeds Horace Grant.
Michael on the line.
No fouling here. From mid-court, a 50-footer to go...
Michael Jordan!
A lot of the people in...
that era that you would consider Michael's peers had won two in a row.
Isiah won two straight. Magic had won two straight.
But none of them won three in a row.
A third championship was the separator.
You win three, you're on Mount Rushmore.
So, for that team, it was all about winning a third straight.
Who was their biggest obstacle?
Without question, it was this incredibly... tough,
motivated and well-coached Knicks team.
In the early '90s, the Knicks replaced the Bad Boy Pistons
as the team that Chicagoans hated the most.
It was very intense 'cause I know how bad they wanted to beat us.
Both clubs going at each other.
Michael Jordan and Xavier McDaniel having words.
Double technicals were called on McDaniel and Jordan.
They were on the come up. They were trying to be...
the next Chicago Bulls as we were to the Detroit Pistons.
Mentally, they were a hard-working team,
but I firmly believe that... when we were playing at our best
and they're playing at their best, we're a better team.
Patrick Ewing was the biggest focus for us, offensively.
We hated each other.
It was extremely physical.
It wasn't really a foul till you drew blood.
When I was coaching the Knicks,
I told the team, "You can't let him dunk on you!"
Hello!
You gotta knock him down.
If we don't meet him at the rim, he's gonna embarrass you.
...ball that he followed up. Jordan with the recovery. Jordan!
Only way we can beat this guy,
we had to hit him,
let him know that you just can't fly to the rim.
The battle lines were drawn between them.
And then, 1993 playoffs, they're playing the Knicks in the Conference Finals.
It has come down to this: game one
of the eagerly anticipated best-of-seven Eastern Conference Final.
Patrick Ewing and his New York Knicks
facing Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
We got tested in that playoffs by the Knicks.
The Knicks had that same defense that we'd just had to overcome versus Detroit.
They were gonna be physical,
they were gonna come up body-to-body all the time.
Things beginning to get a bit rough.
That was a tremendous battle.
The basket counts and the foul!
So the Knicks defeat the Bulls in game one of this best-of-seven.
Jordan knows that all eyes are on him tonight
as the Bulls go for the needed split in New York in the Eastern Conference Finals.
After shooting 3-for-13 in the second half Sunday,
Jordan needs to light it up in game two.
And Jordan... Just ran...
He is walloped by Anthony!
Now the Bulls are very upset.
In the second game in the series,
they were stepping things up, really physical.
Ewing! And...
Look out! Cartwright submarines.
Starks! Yes!
What a move by Starks, who was able to sky to the basket!
In sports, the Chicago Bulls are down two games to none
in their playoff series with the New York Knicks.
Some are suggesting that superstar Michael Jordan may have dropped the ball.
In the last quarter against the Knicks Tuesday night,
Michael Jordan looked tired.
Was he worn down by the Knicks' defense in a grueling physical game
or was he worn down
by a visit to this Atlantic City hotel on the eve of the game?
The New York Times said today
Jordan was seen in the hotel's casino as late as 2:30 in the morning.
My father said, "Let's get away from New York City.
Let's you and I go to Atlantic City."
We got a limo, we went and gambled for a couple of hours. We came back.
Everybody went totally ballistic. "Hey, he was in a casino last night."
I wasn't late. We got home by 12:30, one o'clock.
The reason I was there was more or less to get away from New York,
hear about all the losing, you know, the game situation.
I went out to get my mind away from basketball.
I couldn't go play golf,
so I rode up there with my family and friends.
Jordan's hours triggered harsh headlines
and dominated the sports talk shows.
What it shows me is a lack of commitment
to what is the goal right now, and that is a third championship.
Jordan had violated no team rules, no league rules, no state laws.
All he violated were people's expectations.
I addressed the Atlantic City thing, and he was like,
"Going down to Atlantic City in the afternoon and getting back at midnight?
That's not gonna affect my basketball.
It's gonna take my mind away
from this pressure we have building up in the playoffs."
Why was the trip to Atlantic City such a big deal?
Okay, the backstory is this.
So, the Bulls win in '91. They win the championship.
You go to the White House when you win the championship.
Ready. Get set...
Except Jordan didn't show.
He said, "Time with family. I gotta be..."
No, he was out gambling with Slim Bouler.
Slim Bouler was a golf hustler
and back in December of 1991,
he was brought up on drug and money laundering charges.
And federal agents found a check made out from Michael Jordan
to Slim Bouler for $57,000.
Jordan initially said, "That was just a loan I made him."
But Michael was a witness in this case involving Slim Bouler,
and Michael admitted that he was repaying a gambling debt.
"What was the money for?" asked Bouler's attorney.
Answer: "It was what I lost gambling. It was never a loan.
I said it was a loan strictly to save the embarrassment and pain."
So, when Michael spends all night gambling in Atlantic City,
after they lost game one, it became a very public issue
in terms of, "Is this signs of some kind of a problem with him?"
And then you add to that the Esquinas book,
which came out in the midst of that Atlantic City fiasco.
In a book titled Michael and Me: Our Gambling Addiction,
Richard Esquinas, a onetime general manager
of the San Diego Sports Arena,
makes the claim that Michael Jordan owed him more than $1.2 million,
a result of gambling on their golf matches.
Yeah, Richard Esquinas... We met from a third party.
I'm actually playing golf with people all the time now.
If they wanna gamble, we gamble.
The character of those individuals,
I found out later what kind of people I was playing with.
I learned that lesson.
But the act of gambling, I didn't do anything wrong.
And it right away went right to the most deepest, darkest kind of side of it.
Is he throwing games?
Has it gone beyond golf?
Never has. Never has.
Michael and I were competitive and gambling on the golf course.
We play cards.
I was in many of the card games, but never anything else.
I never bet on games, I only bet on myself and that was golf.
Do I like to play blackjack? Yeah, I like playing blackjack.
There's no laws with that.
And the league did call me and they asked questions about it,
and I told them exactly what was happening.
Michael was betting on his golf game.
Larger numbers than you or I might bet if we played golf together.
But, you know, given Michael's earnings and the like,
we just never... It never reached epic crisis levels in my view.
I understand that people
would see and hear about amounts of money like that
and go, "Wow! That's a lot of money."
What I used to always say to people is that,
for Michael Jordan, $10,000 is like you gambling $10.
He's got it. He's good for it. You don't have to worry about it.
The thought has occurred
that you aren't really gambling with money,
you're gambling with your reputation.
Gambling with your good name.
What would they consider my good name? The purest of all pure?
The person that doesn't make mistakes?
It wasn't all part of this carefully cultivated image
that he had had of being the best basketball player in the world
that everyone wanted to be like.
Do you think you have a gambling problem at all?
No. Because I can stop gambling.
I have a competition problem.
A competitive problem.
It didn't affect his endorsements. It didn't affect him monetarily.
It didn't really affect his popularity.
But the damage was to his reputation.
And the price to pay was how tedious this all became
for Michael to have to answer these questions.
Were you playing $1,000-a-hole golf down there?
- Is that what was going on? - Is this an addiction?
When you're answering these questions over and over again,
and feeling you have to defend yourself, it's exhausting.
Get 'em off the floor. It's one o'clock.
Let's start it up.
He was really starting to grate against the media onslaught.
Michael becomes irate and refuses to talk to the media.
The curtain of silence started to come down.
He wanted no part of it.
Let someone like his dad have to answer these questions for him.
I stopped talking. My father said, "Let me handle this."
I said, "Dad, you don't have to." He said, "Nah." He wanted to.
He has given the best of him.
He has sacrificed to try to satisfy everybody.
And after doing all of that, people still find a way of knocking him.
And he's saying, "Damn, how much is enough?"
Around that time, I remember Magic Johnson saying,
"You guys are gonna drive him out of this game
if you keep this up, 'cause he's tired of it.
He's tired of you guys picking on him."
People build you up to tear you down.
It happens in sports all the time.
If a team wins too much, you want 'em to lose.
The public has an appetite for these kind of rise-and-fall narratives.
Let's go, baby! Let's go!
I think he was disgusted with what happened,
and Michael had to respond.
And respond he did.
Here's Jordan for the fadeaway.
Jordan off the hesitation dribble!
Look out! Starks went barreling into Pippen.
And Starks in the face of Pippen who just looks to walk away.
Look out. They're pushing and shoving.
And they continue on! Jordan wants a go at him!
The team rally in the support of Michael Jordan.
He is so upset with the criticism he received
for his journey down to Atlantic City.
A convincing Chicago Bulls victory.
Michael could make things up to motivate himself.
He didn't have to make anything up. This was real.
This was the media scolding you.
And he says, "I'll show you." And he did.
A standing ovation for the Chicago Bulls.
Fifty-four points for Michael Jordan.
Game five. The series is tied.
The Bulls are up one with 20 seconds left,
and there's poor Charles Smith trying his best to get the ball into the basket.
Ewing for Smith! Smith!
Smith! Smith... stopped! Smith stopped again by Pippen!
What a play by Scottie Pippen!
Jordan and Pippen and Grant
simply refusing to let the ball go in the basket. Wouldn't allow it.
It's one of the great defensive sequences of all time.
The Bulls have defeated the Knicks!
That's the series. They close it out in Chicago the next game.
There it is! Chicago going on to the NBA Finals.
Chicago will attempt to three-peat,
trying to be become only the third team in NBA history to pull off three in a row.
Did you feel all that negative publicity about Michael going to Atlantic City
really pulled you guys together?
Yeah, we take that personally.
We're a team, we've been a team a long time,
and when you attack one of ours, we gotta bond together.
It's the only thing we have, and it showed on the floor.
- 11:45. - What is it?
- Eleven... Oh, I'm sorry. 1:45. - Let's go, Phil!
Ten minutes over!
- Let's go. Where you going? - I'm ready.
- Let's go. Come on. - You hear that?
- Nah, come on. Y'all miss out on this. - How's it going?
- Now that's entertainment. - 1:45.
Let's go!
He's got a tee time at 3:30.
Scottie, can I talk to you for a sec?
Nah, man, we done. We outta here. Let's go, Pip. Come on.
- Just till Phil comes by. - Nah.
- Michael! - Come on!
He's healthy, he'll be playing tomorrow.
He's got a tee time!
Scottie, how're you feeling? Everything all right?
Yeah, I'm feeling good, just a little sore.
Is there... Is there any chance Mike has got a tee time?
Come on, get on here, Bill. Hey, give me 20 cents.
He must be ready to go. Driver's getting mad at you.
Y'all gotta pay a fare to get on this bus. Let's go. Get out the way!
- You know how to put it in gear? - Yeah, watch this.
Oh, no.
- Get back. - We got it.
Let's go.
What?
You going to the swimming pool, guys?
No, I'm going to Hooters.
Watch some tits and ass. The shit!
Let's go, man.
Don't leave that spot. Hold on!
Come on, Ron Harper!
Don't y'all be trying to run out of here!
Come on, Ron. You taking all day.
Throw the clubs up here and come sit next to me.
You all right, though?
Bye-bye!
All right, thanks!
- Fore! - Fore!
- Fore.
That's way past 'em.
Choong. Right off their cart.
I said, "Fore." They don't listen.
Get your ass in there!
- You hit that... - Garbage!
Shit, I can't get my drive together.
I can't read the green.
Didn't even hesitate. Right off the bat. Get that shit!
We broke even on a little side bet. A hundred. 200.
For what? That wasn't a do/don't one.
- Shit! - You said 100. You didn't say do/don't.
I said par-birdie. What do you think that is?
Okay. You right.
But I win $20 on that hole anyway.
No. I win $40 on that hole.
That's good about Phil. Phil knows we need a break.
Young coaches, it would probably be a practice day today.
And you would have some mean guys.
As Michael Jordan and the Bulls get ready to take on the Suns in Phoenix,
they're knocking on the door of the pantheon of the greats.
Winning three straight NBA titles would put Jordan and his teammates
in the company of the great dynasties of the past.
Hi, everybody. I'm Bob Costas. Welcome to the NBA Finals.
The news is that Michael Jordan has broken his two-week media silence.
About an hour and a half before the game began,
he was willing to talk specifically to Ahmad Rashad.
Before game one, Mike goes, "Hey, man,
can you go get a camera? I wanna do this interview.
They've been talking about my gambling. I'm sick of all this stuff.
Let's just get it done right now." I went, "Okay."
- Do you have a gambling problem? - No, I enjoy it. It's a hobby.
If I had a problem, I'd be starving.
I'd be hocking this watch, my championship rings. I would...
sell my house, I would do this.
My wife would've left me
or she'd be starving or my kids would be...
I do not have a problem. I enjoy gambling.
It didn't help that Michael had sunglasses on when he was doing the interview.
Which I was... "Man, take them sunglasses off."
The media has taken it far greater than what it is.
Soon, whenever I walk away from this game,
I think that's the only thing that people are gonna say
was a bad thing about Michael Jordan.
Could soon be after this year?
Could be.
In Phoenix, we had a great year.
We had the best record in the league.
And Charles was the MVP that year.
I felt very confident going into that series.
We were very determined because, if there's anybody you wanna beat,
it's Michael Jordan.
Barkley behind the back! Barkley for Majerle for the reverse.
Kevin Johnson.
Dumas puts it down!
Handle the goddamn pressure!
I was a little bit upset
that I didn't get the MVP that year. They gave it to Charles Barkley.
But with that said, "Okay, fine. You can have that. I'm gonna get this."
Jordan with the steal! And Jordan goes all the way!
Beautiful finish by Michael!
The Purple Heart award goes to Dan Majerle
who has to guard Michael Jordan.
I knew that Jerry Krause loved Dan Majerle.
And just because Krause liked him was enough for me.
"You think he's a great defensive player? Okay, fine.
I'mma show you that he's not."
Jordan spins away on Majerle.
He'll take it all the way to the basket and drops it in!
I put it in my mindset that if I don't do this,
then they're gonna consider him on the same level as me.
And that motivated me to attack.
Jordan off the dribble!
So, the Chicago Bulls take game one.
They led by as many as 22. And they win it 100 to 92.
Game one of the series could be summed up in a word: nerves.
The Bulls show that experience does pay. The Suns' lack of it cost 'em.
We lost game one because we were so nervous.
But in game two, I played as well as I could play.
Barkley from the outside!
Barkley! Barkley! Barkley...
And Michael just outplayed me.
Jordan... Yes.
Jordan. Jordan.
The Suns looking down a real dark road right now.
That was probably the first time in my life
that I felt there was a better basketball player in the world than me,
to be honest with you.
So the final score: the Bulls 111, the Suns 108.
We had won two games in Phoenix,
and we came back to Chicago and, like, "Let's finish this out."
Jordan. With room. For three! Yes!
Michael is not beating us!
Don't let him catch. Double him. Make somebody else win the game.
Barkley setting for the three. And he hits it!
It was, like...
one of the most roller-coaster series I've ever been in.
Game three went into triple overtime.
We head off to a third overtime.
Not to brag on myself, I was not going to let us lose.
Johnson came up with a steal,
and Barkley able to finish it off.
Barkley on the intercept!
Charles Barkley with the interception and the field goal.
The Phoenix Suns in triple overtime
have defeated the Chicago Bulls 129-121
to battle their way back into this series.
After Sunday night's epic,
there's a feeling that the Phoenix Suns are here as foes, not foils.
That they made it a series again.
And now it's the Bulls' turn to respond to a challenge.
Jordan... Yes.
Jordan around Dumas. Yes! And it counts.
Jordan and Ainge trash-talking.
Ainge with his hands on Jordan.
Jordan just told him, "Get your hands off me."
Bulls with a two-point lead.
Jordan... Yes! And it counts!
So, the Chicago Bulls have taken a three games to one lead,
led by Michael Jordan who had 55 points.
Don't take it personally, Charles!
Before game five, they already started celebrations in Chicago.
They were boarding up windows.
They want you to celebrate with class and don't destroy stuff.
By the time you get to the game, you're steaming, to be honest.
We're like, "Guys, we cannot lose this game."
Jordan's pass broken up.
Johnson for Barkley. Armstrong back.
And Charles Barkley extends to a 27-15 lead.
Jordan... Stopped from behind.
Dumas got a piece of it. And Dumas will finish it off.
Michael Jordan upset.
I tell you, the Phoenix Suns are playing better.
They're hotter, they're playing better than the Chicago Bulls,
and the Bulls are in trouble.
That will do it.
The Phoenix Suns, leading most of the way, remain alive in this best-of-seven
but this series goes back to Phoenix.
Charles, a final message to the people of Chicago as you head back?
Take that shit off the windows.
You don't need it tonight.
We lost game five,
so we have to fly out to Phoenix and play this game number six.
Michael got on the plane. He had a cigar.
Then he said he wanted to speak to the team.
Everybody is dreading getting back on the plane and going back to Phoenix.
So I just say, "Look, man, I don't know about you guys.
I'm only packing one suit.
We're going back to win one game. I'm not going there to play two games."
Michael Jordan on a pull-up. Yes.
Jordan for three.
And Michael Jordan has tied the game.
Jordan hits another three!
Michael had that ability where he was not going to let them lose.
Just under one minute remaining in this fourth quarter.
Suns lead 98 to 94.
Frank Johnson, not the man that the Suns would've wanted to take that shot.
And Jordan was able to go the distance.
Worst thing to happen!
Let 'em score and use up very few precious seconds!
It's Chicago's game to win or lose.
They put 14.1 seconds up, Suns lead by two.
They're gonna put the ball in Michael Jordan's hands.
It's come down to this possession. The Suns by two.
And Pippen got the snatch.
Here's Paxson. For three!
Yes! The Bulls take a one-point lead and...
Yeah! Hits the three! The crowd is stunned.
John Paxson nails the three!
That's the first score by anybody other than Michael Jordan
in the entire fourth quarter!
The ball was not supposed to come to me.
But as a player, you're always ready.
And for me, personally, it was pretty special.
It's all over!
The Chicago Bulls have made it three straight NBA championships.
A three-point shot by John Paxson, the game winner.
I have no problem losing to Michael.
Losing to Michael, there's no shame in that.
Sports are like a gunfight.
And... we lost to the fastest gun.
Whoo!
Physically, I was getting exhausted,
but, mentally, I was way past exhausted.
When you try to do something repetitively,
you lose some of the hunger and some of the edge.
Here's the thing. I think, when we won the third championship,
being around him, there was more relief than true joy.
Like, it's over, you know? He was tired.
The aftermath, you kind of feel like...
"What are we gonna do?"
This has been a very hard and trying time. This has been a tough year.
Do I have to do anything else?
- Can I just sit here for a few minutes? - Yup.
Did you want to call your wife?
Yeah, man. Yes.
Is it... Is it joy or is it relief or is it a combination?
This has been a great year, but a tough year.
It's both. It's a relief. Plus it's great to win.
I think we've gone through a lot.
Me, personally, I've gone through a lot up to now, but...
To cap it off this way means a lot to me, believe me.
My fame is...
It was good at the beginning.
Any time people talk about you in a positive way,
yeah, it's great to hear those comments, but now that you are... on a pedestal,
it's not just the positive talking that you hear.
You hear some points and some people taking shots at you, and...
that really changes the whole idea of being out there for people to see you.
You wanna get behind closed doors so people don't know you as much.
So, I'm at that stage in my career and my life that...
I'd rather get behind closed doors than to be out there in the spotlight
to be taking shots from everyone that really don't know you as a person.
If I had the chance to do it all over again,
I would never wanna be considered a role model.
It's like a game that's stacked against me.
There's no way I can win.
I think I've been asked about a million times,
"Is he gonna quit, is he not gonna quit?"
I'm having fun making up stuff.
No one wants me to walk out, knowing that I can still play the game.
- But I wanna leave two years before... - Right.
...my skills say that I can't play this game.
Mm-hmm.
I don't wanna miss my time to go. There's a lot of players...
say that, "I'm gonna play until I can't play ever again."
- Right. - I think Patrick said that one time.
That they'll have to carry him off the court. You know.
- Mm-hmm. - That's a... Ain't never...
Nobody gonna carry me off the court. I wanna walk off the court.
A lot of people say, "Well, you're gonna miss it."
I'm not... I'm not sure if I'm gonna miss it.
I don't think I'm gonna miss it.
...Michael is Zen-calm around the Bulls,
as they start their postseason tonight.
A calm that blocks out the speculation about Jordan's retirement,
Phil Jackson's departure, all the front-office politics.
If indeed this is the fabled last dance,
then pay attention because it does begin tonight
for a team that has a rested Scottie Pippen,
the best player in the world, the top eastern seed,
and five games to tune it up against the New Jersey Nets.