“The Last Dance” Premiere: Recapping Episodes 1 and 2 from MJ-Bulls documentary

“The Last Dance” is set to begin on Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN with episodes 1 and 2 of the 10-part documentary series. It will take us for an inside look at the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls, the final championship team in the Bulls dynasty in the 90s. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson are going to be heavily featured, giving us looks inside the locker room all season. Here we’ll have live updates through the night with reaction to both episodes.

Live reaction for “The Last Dance”

11:0 p.m. — They end the episode with the Pippen drama in ‘97 when he demanded a trade. MAJOR CLIFFHANGER. I wonder what happens next! Well, this was fun. We’ll be back next week with Episodes 3 and 4. Have a good night all!

10:46 p.m. — I’ll take two hours of LL Cool J playing over Jordan highlights, please. Thank you. Reason 124,687 that Jordan > LeBron is Jordan going for 63 in Game 2 vs. the Celtics and Larry Bird in the first round. The Celtics won, but man, that game was insane. Jordan had the effect on the game. It was all about MJ scoring 63, not the Celtics taking a 2-0 series lead.

10:41 p.m. — It’s crazy to think about all the disfunction going on in the Bulls locker room and front office, and then look at the product on the court and go “Wow!” like Owen Wilson. That’s just how good Jordan was and I don’t know why anyone would mess with him. Like, if you were a GM right now and Jordan’s on your team, you drink his bath water. You bottle it up and market it to the masses.

10:34 p.m. — F-bombs on ESPN. Only when it’s MJ. It’d be interesting to see this handled now rather than back in the 80s. How would a coach go to Michael Jordan and say “Mike, you can’t play more than 28 minutes in a game for a while.” I’d imagine Jordan may be playing a bit more than that after watching him play for 28.

10:31 p.m. — This thing kind of bounces around a lot to different parts of Jordan and the Bulls story. One minute we’re looking at early in the ‘97-98 season, now we’re back in time to the season MJ broke his ankle.

10:24 p.m. — Woah woah woah, so MJ drops 49 and Luc Longley has 22 and 17 and MJ didn’t get any help? Come on now! But really, MJ putting the team on his back was fun to watch.

10:16 p.m. — I get where Scottie is coming from, but that’s kind of a dick move on his part. Would I do the same thing? Probably. You forget that even the Bulls were human at times. They didn’t win all the time, they won when it mattered though.

10:12 p.m. — He did though.

True.

10:10 p.m. — Thank you, Seattle SuperSonics, thank you.

10:04 p.m. — Scottie Pippen was a freak. Literally, the most underrated player of all-time.

10:02 p.m. — Has there ever been a team this polarizing? You’ve got the greatest of all-time going for his second three-peat and this is it. He either goes out a champion or somehow finally gets taken down.

10:02 p.m. — YESSSS. This.

10:00 p.m. — Episode 1 is in the books and it basically set us up for the 1997-98 season. We’re just touching the tip of the ice berg here and now we’re talking about Scottie Pippen to kick off Ep. 2.

9:55 p.m. — Dubs coach Steve Kerr makes his first appearance talking Phil Jackson. This makes sense because those are the two that will get compared when it’s all said and done. That will be the MJ vs. LeBron argument. Phil vs. Kerr. Who’s a better coach?

9:46 p.m. — I will say about LeBron, he did rescue the city of Cleveland a lot like Jordan rescued the Bulls and Chicago. The Bears were good in the ‘80s but the Cubs and Blackhawks and White Sox weren’t.

9:42 p.m. — The killer instinct MJ had at such a young age is pretty incredible. Also, AIR JORDANNNNNN. Air Jordan is just another easy reason why MJ > LeBron. I’m going to try not to bring up MJ > LeBron too much tonight. That was the first one and we’re almost done with Episode 1.

9:39 p.m. — It’s sad to hear about drugs being an issue in the Bulls locker room before Michael. It reminds me a lot of the Len Bias situation, which was awful and you wonder if history would be different had Bias not went that route. Jordan chose the right path because he knew he had too much to lose.

9:35 p.m. — Sam Bowie, I wonder what he’s doing right now ... This is a textbook example of why you go best player available when drafting, kids. Clyde Drexler and Michael Jordan on the same team right now would be NUTS.

9:29 p.m. — Do you ever wonder if MJ missed this shot, what would have happened of his career? Does it throw him off a trajectory? Would he still be great? ... Well, there ya go, Jordan pretty much answered that for us.

9:28 p.m. — First they show Ewing getting destroyed by Pippen and then Ewing losing to MJ in the Nat’l Championship. I don’t think this will be the last we see of Patrick Ewing in this series.

9:26 p.m. — I wondered how much UNC MJ story we get since it’s about the ‘98 championship team. Sure, Jordan origin story, but we all knew how good MJ was in college.

9:23 p.m. — You’re telling me, Bob Costas .... Reinsdorf with the Rodney Dangerfield reference is solid. “Even in Hell I get no respect!” That’s Dangerfield, not Jerry. Reinsdorf was just saying the Bulls in the 70s and 80s got not respect. They were awful.

9:17 p.m. — Thank you, Jerry Reinsdorf. Thank you. I think they’re clearly setting up the “Get the band back together” sort of storyline. Jackson signs. Will Jordan play another season?

9:14 p.m. — It’s funny how you think of the great dynasties of our era: the Patriots, the Spurs, the Red Wings, you’d think the Bulls would be in there. They aren’t really. Chicago couldn’t maintain the success other than the 90s and MJ. The two were tied.

9:11 p.m. — Ahhh Jerry Krause. You wonder how things would have been with MJ and the Bulls had it not been for the front office alienating him. Krause wanting some sort of recognition for putting together the greatest team ever is fine. Publicly saying something like that, get over yourself man. Bill Wennington is the man, by the way.

9:08 p.m. — I still think Pippen and Rodman don’t get enough credit for the Bulls winning. Usually I’m always pro-MJ and what not, but he had a better supporting cast than we think. Pippen would have been huge without MJ and took a backseat to be more of a role player, which was exactly what the Bulls needed.

9:06 p.m. — ONE. TWO. THREE. FOUR. FIFTH. FIVE! 1-2-3-4-5. Championships. Which brings us to the 1997-98 season. The team is staying together for one last tour of duty. One last stand. A last dance.

9:04 p.m. — D-Rod is a freak. I was fortunate enough to witness Rodman get tossed twice in-person against the then New Jersey Nets. Yellow hair one night. Rainbow the other.

9:03 p.m. — That was too early for the John Paxson highlight. Too soon. MJ after the first three-peat is peak human being planet Earth. Scottie poster on Patrick Ewing. Drink.

9:00 p.m. — HERE WE GO. I can’t even right now. I can’t. This is too overwhelming already.

8:58 p.m. — We’re almost at 9:00 and the suspense is killing me. This is going to be sick. This Peyton Manning show is also pretty decent with the SNL Bears Fans characters coming back for another tour of duty.

Here’s the trailer to get you jacked up for the premiere. LET’S GOOOOO.