Quotes from The Last Dance Episode 7:
“Starts off with hard work, ends in champagne. Let’s start.” – Michael Jordan
“After we won the championship, I sat in the gym with my father. In the back of my mind, I knew that was probably my last game. And no one really knew except for my father and myself.” – Michael Jordan
“He was my rock. You know, we were very close. He constantly gave me advice. I remember in ninth grade, I got suspended three times in one year, and my father pulled me aside that summer and said, ‘Look, you don’t look like you’re headed in the right direction. You know, you wanna go about doing all this mischievous stuff, you can forget sports.’ That’s all I needed to hear. From that point on, it was like tunnel vision, and I never got in trouble from that point on.” – Michael Jordan
“He had a very strong influence on Michael’s life. He just was a wonderful, positive man.” – Ahmad Rashad, NBC Sports
“He’s a voice of reason that always drove and challenged me. That’s the type of father I had.” – Michael Jordan
“One of the things he taught me is that you have to take a negative and turn it into a positive. So I started looking to the other side of it, and that helped me get through it (murder of his father).” – Michael Jordan
“It did hurt, but you had people that were throwing darts who wanted to hurt me anyway. It wasn’t from the people that I loved, or people that knew me and people that care. It was the people that got tired of me being on top.” – Michael Jordan
“At that time, we were coming off of three championships. I fulfilled my responsibility to the city, to the Bulls, to my teammates.” – Michael Jordan
“I have no more challenges, I have no motivation. I was done.” – Michael Jordan
“I’m a very optimistic person. I guess the biggest positive thing that I can take out of my father not being here with me today is that … he saw my last basketball game. And that means a lot. The word ‘retired’ means you can do anything you want from this day on. So if I desire to come back and play again, maybe that’s what I wanna do. Maybe that’s the challenge I may need someday down the road. I’m not gonna close that door.” – Michael Jordan announcing his retirement from basketball in 1993
“I was at peace with that decision. Totally, 100%. You know, I felt ready.” – Michael Jordan
“You’re telling me that David Stern, the ultimate capitalist, takes his number one player on his number one franchise, and unilaterally decides to lower the value of the rest of the league franchises by taking him out and the Bulls out effectively for some secret penalty, and no one ever finds out about it?” – Mark Vancil, Author Rare Air
“The folklore, the urban legend that I sent him away because he was gambling… Ridiculous. It never … No basis in fact whatever. I could bang on the table and say it’s a calumny, a slanderous lie or whatever. It’s just not true. Never was and never will be, no matter how many times people ask the question.” – David Stern, NBA Commissioner (1984 – 2014)
“I didn’t retire because he kicked me out or they suspended me for a year and a half. That is not true. There is no truth to that. I needed a break, you know, my father just passed and I retired. I retired with the notion that I wasn’t going to come back.” – Michael Jordan
“A lot of people may think this … off the wall. Maybe it is but, I mean, I’m doing something that I choose to do. That’s try to follow one of the dreams that I had when I was a kid.” – Michael Jordan
“But I can care less what people do. This is what I want to do. It’s not what … I’m not doing what they think I should be doing. My father already told me I was doing the right thing and I did it.” – Michael Jordan
“His theory was, ‘If you can’t handle pressure from me, you’re not gonna be able to handle pressure of the NBA playoffs.’ And so he talked trash in practice. He went at guys. He challenged guys.” – Steve Kerr, Bulls Guard (1993- 1998)
“My mentality was to go out and win at any cost. If you don’t want to live that regimented mentality, then you don’t need to be alongside of me because I’mma ridicule you until you get on the same level with me. If you don’t get on the same level, then it’s gonna be hell for you.” – Michael Jordan
“Yeah, let’s not get it wrong. He was an asshole. He was a jerk. He crossed the line numerous times. But as time goes on and you think back about what he was actually trying to accomplish, you’re like, ‘Yeah, he was a hell of a teammate’.” – Will Perdue, Bulls Center (1988 – 1995)
“I needed him to be the bad guy, the tough guy.” – Scottie Pippen
“It’s a great opportunity for ball players that have wanted larger roles on this team to step up and fill some shoes. Scottie has now stepped out of the shadow of a great figure and he’s not got the light all shining on him.” – Phil Jackson
“Winning has a price. And leadership has a price. So, I pulled people along when they didn’t wanna be pulled. I challenged people when they didn’t wanna be challenged. And I earned that right because my teammates who came after me didn’t endure all the things that I endured.” – Michael Jordan
“Once you join the team, you live at a certain standard that I play the game and I wasn’t gonna take anything less. Now, if that means I had to go in and get in your ass a little bit? Then I did that.” – Michael Jordan
“You ask all my teammates? ‘The one thing about Michael Jordan was he never asked me to do something that he didn’t fucking do.’ When people see this, they gonna say, ‘He wasn’t really a nice guy. He may have been a tyrant.’ Well, that’s you, because you never won anything. I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win and be a part of that as well.” – Michael Jordan
“Look, I don’t have to do this. I’m only doing it because it is who I am. That’s how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you don’t wanna play that way, don’t play that way. Break.” – Michael Jordan