Michael Jordan made a claim on ‘The Last Dance’ that the Chicago Bulls could have won the seventh title in 1998-99 had the team stayed together for another year. This statement did not bode well with Sam Smith, author of the ‘Jordan Rules’, a book that gave a close look at inner goings of the Bulls locker room.
According to Smith, Jordan’s claim was a ‘complete and blatant lie’. Interestingly, the late Chicago general manager Jerry Krause wrote in his unfinished memoir that it was nearly impossible to keep the team together and if it was done, the team was too much burnt physically and psychologically. Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf was also unhappy with MJ’s claim, saying he knew better.
Via Colin Ward-Henninger in CBS Sports:
“That was a complete and blatant lie by Michael,” Smith said of the NBA legend wanting to return for the 1998-99 season. “There were several things in the documentary that I saw, I would know, that he made up or he lied about. They weren’t major things, but it was like when a TV movie comes on and they say, ‘this is based on a true story.’ That’s what that was. It was based on a true story.”
Listen to the full episode of 95.7 The Game’s Bonta, Steiny & Guru with Sam Smith:
