5 things you may not have noticed in "The Last Dance"

For those who have devoured the two hours dedicated to the Chicago Bulls every Monday morning, the awakening of next week will be rather empty. The Last Dance is over, breaking every record in Italy and recording an average of 12.1 million viewers in the 10 episodes (data collected only in the United States for now). The last two episodes represented the tip of the iceberg, the last effort of a group that went beyond any difficulty. The Last Dance closes with "The Last Shot", the shot that knocks out the Jazz and allows the Bulls to win the sixth title in eight years. Many important details in episodes 9 and 10, certainly the most photographic episode round of all. Something, as always, may have escaped you.

Michael Jordan's first phone

Jordan's era was probably one of the last without the advent of social media, without Twitter, without the first technological devices that changed the way we conceive the sport and entertainment behind it - just think that just a few years later Shaq would have had a phone in his giant basketball shoe. During the 1997 NBA Finals against the Jazz, Michael Jordan is shot on the cameras with a cell phone, presumably one of the avant-garde Motorola flip. With the usual "Michael" shirt, was Jordan also a precursor to the use of the cell phone in the locker rooms?

The Oakley Mars Leather

Sunglasses have been a constant throughout all the episodes of The Last Dance and Jordan, being the most framed, has shown the world how style also passes through the most incredible accessories. MJ has been an Oakley testimonial for several years and the Foothill Ranch company in California has created collections dedicated to the cultural icon of the decade. During the docuserie Jordan he showed up with the Romeo, the Pro M Frame, the Straight Jacket, the Trenchcoat, the T Wire, the M Frame, the Eye Jacket but above all the Mars Leather, launched on the market in March 1998 and worn in occasion of the parade of the same year. Unlike Reebok, which reproduced the track jacket of the Dream Team '92, Oakley did not put Mars Leather back on the market.

The Kenny Lattimore playlist

One of the coolest parts of the last two episodes was the moment when Jordan gets on the team coach after the shootaround with headphones and ball music. Michael is overwhelmed with music and follows the rhythm with his head. Someone asks him what he was listening to and the answer is very simple: "Kenny Lattimore. It's brand new, not even out yet. He is a friend of mine, you know I can get that". Michael's answer, from Michael. Immediate confirmation also arrives via Twitter by the artist, who confirms what MJ said.

Kenny Lattimore released "From the Soul of Man" on October 20, 1998, but first wanted to ask Michael for advice on the quality of his music. The song in question, according to the artist, is "Day like this" and is far from hype. Jordan's tastes on the playlist to listen to before an important game have always been particular. According to an interview released in 2014, Jordan used to load up with Anita Baker's "Giving You the Best That I Got" before each delicate match.

 

New unreleased Jordan?

During the shooting session at the Salt Lake City Delta Center, Michael is relaxed, joking with his teammates and with the crew that now follows the Chicago Bulls everywhere. At Michael's feet, however, there are shoes probably never released, exactly like those published in the last few hours by Edison Chen. Low version, almost as if they were not basketball shoes and with the usual Air Jordan logo above, could be the second unreleased shoes in the series.

Ear plugs of the Bulls bench during games at the Delta Center

Often the NBA Basketball is labeled as entertainment and not as a sport only and exclusively because there is a maniacal care for everything that surrounds a simple game. Often NBA fans are criticized for not applying the canonical stadium cheering in the immense arenas. The pro-European and football fanatic mink of typhus is not applicable to the modern NBA, but some buildings of the late 90s were comparable to an infernal bedlam for the decibels they were able to produce. Among these systems there is certainly the Delta Center - now Vivint Smart Home Arena - which forced the Bulls coaching staff to have ear plugs in their ears to avoid deafening noise.