I’ve never watched a basketball game from start to finish in my entire life. I have never seen Michael Jordan play. This is still one of the greatest TV shows I’ve seen at least lately.
When I was about 10 years old my parents bought me a Chicago Bulls T-shirt. I knew it was an NBA team and I knew Michael Jordan was one of the greatest, if not the greatest player in basketball. I didn’t know those two were connected.
Imagine creating such a public persona, without even social media. He became famous by being the best at his sport (just look at the player stats from Chicago Bulls, he still holds almost all of the records).
I was watching this documentary and it was like living through those moments. I didn’t know the results of the games or series, so it was almost like watching live sports. Hell, I was just 8 years old when Chicago Bulls had won their last Championship (and I turned 1, when they won their first).
What I’ve learned is that Michael is an amazing leader. I actually enjoyed watching old time sport players, they know how to talk, they can construct sentences. This is a bit rare in today sports.
I agree with what M.G. Siegler wrote, there is too much emphasis on MJ being a jerk. I remember when Steve Jobs died and everyone started reading his biography, regardless of the interest in tech, it was the common knowledge he was the best leader there is. And a lot of managers, after reading a book, got only one piece of advice from it – in order to be great, you had to wear the same clothes all the time and be a jerk to everyone around you. It’s like they never read the part about his talent, about his hard work, inspiration for others.
The thing that stood out the most for me, was how often did Jordan say “it became personal for me”. Although the basketball is a team sport and Jordan couldn’t have won the Championship by himself, his personality still was bigger than the team.
The greatest moment of the documentary was when Chicago Bulls lost, MJ instead of having a vacation immediately got to training. He didn’t tell anyone to do the same, but “if the best player in the world trains so hard, you have to train at least as hard”. Leading by example. Although he is a jerk a lot of the times, he always was leading by example. He worked harder than anyone, he played to win and that gave him the right to demand the same from his teammates.