Chicago Bulls: MJ wants ‘The Last Dance’ to inspire the Hornets

The recent 1997-98 Chicago Bulls title-team docuseries “The Last Dance” gives the most prominent former player from that squad lessons for his current team.

It’s clear by now that the 10-part documentary series spotlighting the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls title team “The Last Dance” had an impact with current and former players and basketball fans alike. Led by all-time great shooting guard Michael Jordan and fellow Hall-of-Famer Scottie Pippen, the 1997-98 Bulls team was truly one of the greatest to remember in the last three decades in the NBA.

The Bulls were in a vastly different place obviously back in the 1990’s than they are heading into the 2020 offseason. But this docuseries definitely highlighted the discrepancy of how the franchise has progressed in the last two decades.

Jordan is trying to teach the players on the team he currently owns, the Charlotte Hornets in the Southeast Division, some lessons learned from The Last Dance. Similar to that of the Bulls, the Hornets are facing an uphill battle rebuilding in the Eastern Conference.

According to various sources (namely ESPN), Jordan gave his thoughts on the lessons that the current Hornets players could learn from his experience around The Last Dance in a video conference call earlier this week. There were definitely some solid takeaways from what he had to say here.

"“That’s going to make you guys even better,” Graham said, reiterating Jordan’s remarks. “You’ll bond better. Your team is stronger. There is more of a respect level, instead of not saying anything and letting guys mess up over and over and over again, and you’re losing and losing.”“A lot of guys on our team haven’t played in the playoffs and don’t understand the attention to detail you have to play with in the playoffs,” Zeller said. “That was what I enjoyed hearing from MJ, especially as a younger team.”"

Jordan makes the themes of accountability and perseverance very emphasized in a day and age where it might be more overlooked than during his playing days in the 1980’s and 1990’s with the Bulls. That could be something that is mostly missing from the Hornets locker room at the moment.

The Hornets are a young team in the Southeast Division that doesn’t have one set player to build around heading into the 2020 offseason. But they have a young core with some still promising players, like point guard Devonte’ Graham and rookie P.J. Washington.

In many regards, the Hornets and Bulls share similarities. The Hornets finished up the 2019-20 regular season with a record of 23-42, compared to a Bulls final record of 22-43. Both have some promising young parts of their core, and are in the midst of volatile rebuilds, but neither has a set in stone star to build around this offseason.

And neither the Bulls nor the Hornets are set to participate in the NBA’s restart plan with 22 teams at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL, starting late next month. The East only had nine teams set to resume in Orlando next month, with the only team outside of the playoff picture being the team that Jordan finished up the playing days of his NBA career with, the Washington Wizards.