Original subtitles

Pacers lead it by six, 20-74.

P/ppen gets the screen, flying to go by sm/z's.

Moves on the baseline. Lost it.

And Richardson has it.

He is one-on-three, takes it to the basket

Ana'... it's tiopea' in.

Oh, and Reggie Miller came over and smacked Michael,

Is upset about it, and / can't blame him.

Yes, he ran right into him,

and we got a brouhaha here.

Michael Jordan and Reggie Miller having a go at it.

Don't hold him back. Let him go.

I/I/hat set this all up...

He and I had somewhat of a unique relationship.

Most people feared Michael Jordan, and rightfully so.

But I didn't fear him like the rest of the league did.

And we had to lock horns quite a bit.

Pacers lead by ten. Jordan will steal.

Oh/ oh. And then he throws the ball

at Jackson in frustration.

He thought Jackson tried to take him out,

so /I/lichael's gonna get a technical on that play.

And then Reggie Miller came over.

You know, I respected him so much,

but, you know, he probably just thought I was some mouthy, skinny kid...

And he was one of the best trash-talkers in our game.

My rookie year, we were playing against Chicago.

And, as a rookie, you're gonna go 110%,

because you're trying to impress your vets on your team.

Ll/li/ler around a stioano vich screen.

7'urns the corner down the Lane. Lays it in. Foul called

Reggie Miller scores, and he was fouled by Jordan.

I remember, I had, like, ten points at half,

and mj didn't shoot the ball particularly great. So, I was like,

"yeah, you're Michael Jordan, the guy that walks on water?"

He looks at me.

Michael Jordan at the foul line, comes up shooting. Good

Second half, I ended up with two points.

So I had 12 for the game, and he ended up with a lot more.

Jordan's got 37.

And I remember him walking off the court.

He was like, "don't ever talk trash to black Jesus."

And that's when I stopped referring to him as Michael Jordan,

and I always referred to him either as "Jordan," "black Jesus,"

or "that black cat."

I never called him Michael Jordan again after that.

A spectacular move/

Good/ the game's over/

Chicago stadium is going wild

First, there's no backstabbing going on here.

It's time for me to move on.

7'his ll be Phil's last year as coach of the bulls.

Are the expectations way too h/gh 7

Where do we go from here?

The only question: How long can it last?

Good afternoon, and welcome

to the eastern conference finals, the bulls and the Indiana pacers.

First time these two clubs have faced each other in the playoffs.

The up to Indiana.

In '98, that was my first year coaching.

And it was our best opportunity, I thought, to win a championship.

We were confident that we can dethrone the bulls.

We felt like we were just as versatile.

We had rik smits, the "dunkin' dutchman,"

Mark Jackson, one of the greatest assist guys the league has seen.

We had the Davis brothers...

Chris mullin, one of the sweet-shooting players of all time,

and Reggie Miller, our hall of famer.

We had a squad.

That series with Indiana was the hardest playoff series we had.

They were big. They were strong. They were physical.

If I had to pick a team that gave us the toughest time in the east,

you know, Indiana was probably the toughest, outside of Detroit.

They were tough.

Every time I'd go in that fucking game and come out, I got a new scratch.

It became personal with me.

Michael through the hole, re verse, plus the foul/

here's ll/lichae/ with the steal, and Chicago with the lead

Game 7 to Chicago.

Welcome back to the united center,

game 2 of the NBA eastern conference finals.

It's my privilege to present Michael Jordan

with his fifth NBA most valuable player trophy.

And may I say, on behalf of everyone this evening, thank you.

Here is long/ey going strong to the basket. Luc long/e y.

Here's kerr for three again, and this hits/

somehow, some way, every year, Steve kerr gets a b/g basket,

put a dagger in someone's heart.

Under two minutes remaining here in the fourth quarter. Jordan...

Michael Jordan with a fal/a way.

Oh, what a shot by Michael Jordan,

and that may be the exclamation point for the Chicago Bulls.

The bulls are winners, 704-98.

Bulls lead the series 2-0. Jordan, 47 points.

It's back to the drawing board. This is...

You play for this time of year,

and we've come too far to let something like this slip away.

Okay.

Pacers are gonna kick Chicago's rear end.

- The bulls are going down! - Yeah, that's right.

Step up and pound the bullcrap mobile.

We won the first two games in Chicago...

But next game that we had, it was on the road.

And their arena was really, like, a tough place to win.

Let's go, boys.

Game 3, Reggie was a problem

because Reggie had insane confidence.

- Reggie... - When he was on...

He could make it from anywhere over anybody at any time.

Miller, catch, shoot, score.

Reggie Miller!

Miller...

Hits the three out of the corner/

Miller for three...

That may ha ve finished the bulls.

Twenty-six for Reggie.

And Indiana wins game 3.

Now we give ourselves a shot on Monday to try and tie this thing up.

So, you know, Chicago's never gonna go away.

As long as that black cat's out there, anything is possible.

Uh, we'll be fine, I think. Today's just a bump in the road.

7'he bulls didn't seem impressed by the pacers' game 3 victory

Michael Jordan called it ”a bump in the road ”

Phil Jackson said, ”look. 7'he y had to play very well at home to beat us,

and even then, they barely beat us. ”

It was a hard-fought series, and the most memorable game was game 4.

The up to Indiana.

Reggie out of the corner. Tough shot, air.

P/ppen dishes to Michael

Jordan's shot is shoved back in his face,

and Michael appears to be bleeding.

It's Miller for three.

Michael starting to heat up after a slow start.

It's a one-point game with 6.4 on the clock.

Indiana has a time-out. They elect not to use it.

Mck e y looking.

Gets it in for Miller, batted away,

grabbed by p/ppen, and they have to foul him.

I was so upset that I felt, you know, "is this gonna be it?

Are they gonna go up 3-1?" You know?

Because you go down 3-1, going back to Chicago, it's a death sentence, really.

We can't go out like this.

Scottie p/ppen has had a great game,

but he's only two of five from the foul line.

A miss/

You don't want to give up a second shot.

Missed them both/ loose ball, out-of-bounds, who's got it?

Indiana ball with 2.9 seconds,

and Larry bird uses his last time-out.

When I was coaching,

we always had something a little different at the end of the game,

two seconds to last, four second to last or whatever.

So, if it got close, we knew what we was running.

There are lots players that make shots the first three quarters of a game,

but when you talk about who gonna make a shot late, get the ball to Reggie.

I remember when Larry was drawing the play, I was thinking,

"put all the pressure on the official to make a call."

Jordan is on best Harper's on Miller.

When the play was drawn up, I knew they were gonna switch,

and mj was gonna be on me.

So I just went right to his chest,

and lightly, lightly, shoved him a little bit

to create that space, and the rest was history.

Mck e y gets it into Miller for the win/

it's good/ -

Four tenths of a second/

one of the greatest clutch playoff performers of his generation

has apparently done it again.

Yeah, you can dance, Reggie.

The entire building was in a frenzy, as we should be,

but please put the camera on Larry bird.

Larry looked up at that clock.

It's like, stoic demeanor because he knew what we all knew:

That they had Michael Jordan, and there was still time on the clock.

We knew where the ball was gonna go.

Everyone in the building knew where the ball was gonna go.

Kukoc to Michael at the buzzer...

I remember being underneath the basket as the ball is coming.

I'm looking. I'm like, "this is going in."

He lobs to Jordan. He got it off

it spun out, and it's 2-2!

Unbelievable!

I mean, millimeters, millimeters in and out.

We made him double-clutch on that shot, and he still almost made it.

They still got to come through Chicago.

Utah, Indiana, they still got to come through Chicago.

I don't care what happens today.

I don't care what happened in the other series.

They still got to come through Chicago.

We had our hands full out west for my entire career.

We played great teams, and we were so close so many times.

We just couldn't kinda get over the top.

And then we win in kind of a last-second fashion.

Stockton, open, three...

Yeah/

John stockton sends the Utah jazz to the NBA finals!

We had a chance to play and test ourselves against the best,

and that means as much to me as anything.

Karl Malone getting mvp.

Congratulations, Karl Malone,

1996-97 NBA most valuable player.

Karl Malone was the most valuable player that year,

so here was added motivation for Michael, right?

He thought he should've been the mvp.

So we knew immediately where this was going.

I'm not saying he wasn't deserving of it.

All I'm saying is that that fueled a fire in me.

I said, "okay, you think he's the mvp? Okay, fine. No problem."

It is game 7 of the NBA finals.

For the Utah jazz, it is their first tr/p to the finals

in the history of the franchise.

Game 7.

- Here's Jordan. - Yes/

Karl Malone with the nice leave for John stockton.

Defense!

The leave for Malone off the pick-and-ro/I.

Karl Malone aggressive offensively

jazz were good, man.

Freakin' Karl Malone, he's a bad matchup for us.

Down to three. Malone. Yes.

John stockton's a bad matchup.

So, that first game, in Chicago, was close.

The game is tied at 82.

Down to seven and five tenths seconds remaining.

They got bryon Russell on Michael Jordan.

We had probably three guys that were typically assigned

to match up with Michael,

and bryon Russell would have been first and foremost.

Bryon Russell made our team in the first place

through incredible effort defensively.

So he earned the right to take on some of the tougher assignments,

and it doesn't get any tougher than Michael.

Yeah, bryon Russell?

When I was playing baseball, Utah's in town to play the bulls.

They're practicing at the facility.

I go over to say hello to John and Karl.

And this kid, bryon Russell, comes up to me and said,

"man, why you quit? Why you quit?

Man, you knew I could guard your ass. You had to quit."

I said, "Karl, you need to talk to this dude, man."

"He's just a young rookie."

But from that point on, he's been on my list.

Bryon's a very playful guy, and he said things all the time.

I have no doubt Michael had a number of edges

that he could have sharpened for whatever reason.

I knew how he played.

You know, he played on the front of his toes.

Give him a head-and-shoulder fake, go one way, he can't stop.

They come with shandon Anderson here to guard scottie p/ppen.

They got bryon Russell on Michael Jordan.

We're down to five. Jordan putting moves on Russell.

I/I/e 're down to two. Now to one.

Here 's...

It is all over. The Chicago Bulls have won

at the buzzer in game 7 with a jump shot by Michael Jordan.

Game 2 was not particularly close.

Oh, is Michael Jordan feeling it now.

Bulls blew out the jazz 97-85,

to take a two game to none lead in that series.

But, you know, Utah fights.

They go out to Utah, and it's a different story.

Setting up Malone.

Karl Malone went off 37 points.

Jazz win it 704-93. They now trail in the series two games to one.

So game 4 of that series, that's a tight, tight game.

It's a one-point Chicago lead

just under one minute remaining.

Stockton throws the single-best pass I've ever seen a point guard throw.

Game 4 of the NBA finals with the bulls up two games to one.

And Jordan can't hit.

Stockton fires down to Malone.

Utah have taken a one-point lead/

And the series is tied at two/

Before game 5 in Utah, I'm at the marriott.

So it was George, myself, Tim, and I think a couple of security guys.

The night before the game, we were all in Michael's room, hanging out.

But it's, like, 10:00, 10:30 at night. I'm hungry.

No room service. Michael gets hungry.

I said, "all right." So we're calling these different places.

George and I are looking around.

We find one pizza place open.

One.

So he ordered a pizza, and when the pizza came,

there was four or five guys outside the door.

Five guys delivering one pizza.

You know, it's very rare that you get five delivery guys

from the pizza place to bring you your pizza.

And they're all trying to look in 'cause everybody knew it was Mike.

So, I take the pizza. I pay them, and I put this pizza down,

and I said, "I got a bad feeling about this."

I ate the pizza, all by myself.

Nobody else eats the pizza.

I wake up about 2:30, throwing up left and right.

Three o'clock in the morning, I get a call.

"My room, my man. Come to my room right now."

"All right." I get into the room.

He's literally curled up in a ball, shaking.

He goes, "man, find a team doc now."

So it really wasn't "the flu game." It was food poisoning.

Oh, my heavens.

I was in the room in Utah,

and I went over, and he says, "oh, I'm so sick."

I said, "how are you gonna play tonight?"

"Mom, I have to play."

And I'm thinking, "you should not play."

But when we went to the stadium, there he was.

Now the b/g story here ton/ght,

Michael Jordan's physical condition.

All right, guys, look out behind us.

I stayed in bed all day.

Couldn't eat anything. Couldn't hold nothing down.

He had an iv hooked up to him, and he was chalky-white.

Didn't look good, and I was like, “oh, boy. We're in trouble."

Phil comes in and says, “what do you think?"

I said, "look. I'm gonna try. It's game 5.

If anything, I can be a decoy.

So, I'm going out. I'm gonna play."

Thanks, Marv. At 3:30 this morning,

Michael Jordan woke up with flu-like symptoms.

He had a stomachache and a headache,

and he couldn't go back to sleep. He threw up all n/ght,

and, as reported earlier, he missed the shootaround

but he was in bed all day and continued to throw up.

Utah jazz! Utah jazz! Utah jazz!

Utah jazz control the up.

The key for Utah ton/ght is offense.

Stockton got the steal.

Utah's got the quick start that they needed

to keep the crowd into it.

Jordan to the crossover and way off

I/isib/y shaken by the flu symptoms.

This is an ugly start for Chicago.

He'd be out there on the floor playing.

A whistle would blow for a time-out, and you could see...

It was almost like the life just went out of his body,

and he just kind of like...

Every time-out, he was just, like... gassed.

He was in pretty bad shape, but a lot of times when you're sick,

you're able to find something deep down inside that you didn't know was there.

And I think it was just one of those games

where he wanted to win so badly

that, you know, he stayed with it.

After that time-out, when that whistle blew,

somehow, somewhere, he got up and played.

Michael Jordan is back, putting the move on Chris Morris.

And Jordan puts moves on hornacek.

And this the best spurt of the n/ght.

Here comes Jordan finding long/e y

and the jazz now leading b y just nine.

- He's like the Terminator. - Steal by jordan/

I mean, he went somewhere, and he found a switch.

What a play,

and the bulls actually have a chance to take the lead

At the end of that game, he started rising up

and making shots and carrying that team.

And the game is tied at 85.

Marv, the bulls have been here year after year.

The confidence, the poise, the determination,

the disc/pline and organ/zation down the stretch,

all paying otfnght now with Jordan masterfully at the line.

Jordan able to scoop up the loose ball

for the possession with 40 seconds remaining.

The game tied at 85.

Ten on the shot clock.

P/ppen backing hornacek.

Here's Jordan for three. Yes/

Michael Jordan from stra/ghta way/

He had shown that no matter how sick he was,

he's still the best in the world.

Coach, how much did you know

about Jordan's condition going into the game?

What did he look like early, and describe the effort

that he put forth with the illness that he had.

First of all, I didn't know he was sick.

And I thought he played a great game.

Did everybody else know he was sick?

I guess I was the last one to know.

- Oh, come on, chief. - Are you crazy?

Serious?

My innate personality is to win at all costs.

If I have to do it myself, I'm gonna do it.

But over the period of getting to the finals,

there have been moments that other guys really expanded their games.

I think Michael recognized that there were guys who were overachievers,

guys who maybe don't have the star power

but came in and did what we could,

which I'm sure he looked at me as an overachiever.

Coming into the NBA,

I was not a high draft pick or highly touted player.

Phoenix drafted me, gave me a chance, and kept me around for a year.

And my first real break in the NBA was with the Cleveland cavaliers.

Pax against kerr.

They swing to kerr. He steps up and fires.

We played the bulls a lot, and I used to watch John paxson.

I used to guard him when we played the bulls,

and then I'd watch him on TV when we would prepare for them.

Paxson for three...

Yes/ the bulls take a one-point lead/

John was my guy.

I kept thinking, "that's the spot I need to be."

By the time I got there, John was entering the final year of his career,

and he kind of took me under his wing.

I learned early in my career that I was gonna be a role player.

What I did well complemented Michael.

So, I tried to tell Steve about how Michael

had to really trust who you were out there.

If he was gonna go to battle with you,

he had to know you were in it and you weren't gonna back down.

I had to fight and scrap and claw for everything I got in the NBA.

And that was just enough to make it.

Oh, man, you got to call that shit.

- I got half... - It's all good.

You know, Michael lived a different life than the rest of us, out of necessity.

He couldn't live that normal life.

It was very difficult to reach him... emotionally.

We never discussed that.

Um, I think it was probably too painful for each of us.

My dad supported me when I was a kid.

He saw how much I loved sports.

He loved basketball. He loved watching me play.

We played together all the time out in the driveway.

His competitiveness was honed by playing basketball in the driveway

with his father and his older brother.

That's where the family action was:

Malcolm, John, and Steve playing basketball.

Naturally, they would sometimes win, and that hurt him.

Oh, it was terrible.

My dad was a professor of middle east history and politics, ucla.

My mom was a full-time mom, but she became a professor later on in life,

so very academically minded family.

Monday through Thursday, we were not allowed to watch TV,

unless there was a really big game on.

So my dad came in handy on those nights.

My dad's affiliation with ucla stoked my fire for basketball.

And going to pauley pavilion in the early '70s

as a five, six-year-old kid, it was like magic.

It was an incredible place to be.

I/I/a/ton shoots and hits the short shot from the left baseline.

Uh, very little.

Um... about the same attention that I was getting from girls in high school.

So, not many girls, not many college recruiters.

So...

I finished my senior year of high school without a scholarship,

but Arizona offered me a scholarship, kind of, at the last second.

And I took it without ever having visited the school.

I was just thrilled to have a place to go.

And then, when I went off to college,

my mom and my younger brother went and joined my dad in Beirut.

My dad left ucla before I graduated high school

and became the president of the American university of Beirut.

In the chapel of a merican university of Beirut,

the 777th school year officially began.

With the summer of fighting in Beirut, it almost didn't occur.

A ub's acting president

was kidnapped from the campus three months ago and is still missing.

A ub's new president belie ves dodge is still alive.

I was looking fonnard to working with him as vice president.

If I'd gotten here on time on the 1st of July,

it might have been me instead of him who was kidnapped.

He was a really good scholar of the middle east.

He was trying to produce students that were tolerant,

globally minded, humanitarian citizens.

So it was a realization of a dream, but didn't last very long.

The international peacekeeping force left the Beirut area last year,

and life in the Lebanese capital has become increasingly dangerous.

It's bad for almost everyone who lives there,

but it is especially bad for Americans.

Malcolm was visible American.

He was representing a government that stood for values

that were contrary to the sectarian militia.

Well, it was raining. I had just taught my class.

I got a call from the guard at the gate to, um...

Go to the president's office, and I went there, and, uh...

I was told that Malcolm had been shot, on the phone.

And I thought maybe just a leg or an arm.

The president of the American university in Beirut

was shot in the head by two gunmen posing as students.

Malcolm kerr had just gotten off an elevator

and was about to go into a meeting on campus when he was killed.

Uh, so, I received a phone call in the middle of the night

from a family friend.

My phone rang in my dorm at three o'clock in the morning,

so I knew something was up.

And hejust said, uh...

He just said, "Steve, I have terrible news."

Yeah.

The murdered academic had long been popular

with his colleagues in Beirut.

Though he was an American,

his roots within the arab world were just as strong.

Basketball was the one thing that I could do

to take my mind off what happened, you know?

So, I went to practice, like, the next day.

You know, I didn't know what else to do.

We all react differently to these things.

Steve reacted by throwing himself even more deeply

into playing basketball.

I used to think about it all the time when I was playing.

Uh, during the national anthem,

I would always think about my dad and think,

“he would love this right now." You know, he wouldn't even believe it.

“He would love this."

J“ oh, say, can you seej“

j“ by the dawn's early I/ght j“

j“ I/I/hat so proudly we hailed j“

j“ at the twil/ght's last gleaming j“

j“ I/I/hose broad str/pes and br/ght stars... j“

The latest on Michael Jordan's physical condition.

Jordan feeling much better.

He's apparently made it back from the difficult siege with the flu.

I sense that Michael Jordan is almost out of gas

and will make a concerted effort to end it tonight

to avoid a seventh-game showdown.

Chicago starting slowly, and Utah is taking advantage of that.

Hornacek... yes.

Look out, Chicago.

It's not gonna be easy wrapping it up ton/ght.

Karl Malone with 72 points.

The jazz leading, 46-39.

The ultimate trust from Michael comes in the playoffs if you come through.

I think he respected me because he knew I fought,

and I was competitive, and I worked, and I got the most out of myself.

But I hadn't performed very well in the finals.

That's a good block there.

Kerr for three/

I was struggling,

and, um, you know, I was so hard on myself.

As a role player, I'd get five shots a game.

And so, every shot took on way too much importance.

Jordan. Yes/

The bulls, 86-83.

The jazz tied the game with less than two minutes to play.

Hornacek gotta save that pass.

Russell for three/

an enormous shot by bryon Russell.

He's tied the game at 86.

Phil calls time-out, and Michael knew what was coming.

Earlier in the series,

in a very similar situation late in the game,

John stockton had come over and doubled him and stolen the ball,

which helped seal the win for Utah.

He mumbled something like, "Steve, Steve, be ready."

He knew the camera was always on him.

You know, and I'm, like, oblivious.

If he comes off, I'll be ready.

And then, I'm like, yelling back, like, "I'll be ready!"

I know if they're gonna double-team me,

Steve's gonna be open.

It is Michael Jordan time.

Did not have the shot. Kerr does.

Ste ve kerr with five seconds remaining.

Kerr hits the b/g shot.

Crank up the John paxson '93 comparison.

One last chance now for Utah.

Five seconds remaining in regulation.

Inbound .. Taken away by p/ppen.

P/ppen rolls it to k ukoc.

The Chicago Bulls have won

their fifth championsh/p in the last seven years.

Just six tenths of a second remaining.

It's a four-point lead

Tonight, Steve kerr earned his wings,

and I'm very happy for Steve.

And now...

Your 7997 world champions!

A lot of people have been asking me about the shot the other night,

and there have been misconceptions about what actually happened.

I wanted to clear it up.

When we called time-out with 25 seconds to go...

We went into the huddle, and Phil told Michael.

He said, "Michael, I want you to take the last shot."

And Michael said, "you know, Phil,

I don't feel real comfortable in these situations,

so maybe we ought to go in another direction.

Why don't we go to Steve?"

So, I thought to myself,

"well, I guess I gotta bail Michael out again."

Anyway...

The shot went in, and that's my story,

and I'm sticking to it.

It is game 7 in Chicago.

This could very well be

the last time we see the bulls as we know them.

The dynasty has been shoved up to the brink,

a game 7 with the pacers.

If the unthinkable occurs, and the bulls do go down in flames,

life might return to the pre-Jordan days,

also know as the Tom boenninkle era.

Um, I told them today that you can lose.

You have to face the possibility you can lose a game like this.

Everybody thought if the bulls were broken up,

if the dynasty was to be ended,

it would be ended, you know, by somebody in a suit some place.

Would be more closure and there would be more justice

if it happened on the floor.

Mr. Jordan is taking a page from Joe namath's book.

We remember when he predicted the jets would win super bowl I/I.

We're gonna win game 7.

We will win game 7.

At that time, I hung around with my security guys and George.

They became my "entourage."

I knew that the maturity that I gathered from them

would help me make sound decisions.

I needed good, sound, open-minded older guys saying,

you know, keep my focus.

Michael had a real warm spot with his security guards.

And the head of them was Gus.

Gus was a Chicago police officer, and I guess back in his younger days,

he was pretty badass back in the day

and well-respected in the Chicago police department.

He started as a patrolman,

and he worked his way up and became sergeant.

He and some of his friends worked for the united center as security.

Gus befriended Michael when he first came to Chicago,

when he broke his foot.

That's when Gus would meet me at the car

and make sure I get to my seat and get to the locker room.

We spent time together.

And from then on, it started to grow.

He was a great protector for me.

- Excuse us. Excuse me. - No, we gotta go. We gotta go.

He wouldn't let anybody through that wasn't supposed to go through.

Listen, everybody. Can we move this way and kind of spread out a little?

You know, nothing got past Gus.

When people are around,

they think they're entitled to certain things.

Gus would put 'em straight.

That was Gus. He was a protector.

But he was more than that,

and I saw him for being more than that.

At that time, Michael was hurt about his dad.

He still had a hard time with his death.

And he would call him crying at two o'clock in the morning.

Gus would get up and go to him.

He would get up and go see about him. He was there for his...

Whatever he needed, he was there to take care of him.

When my father got killed, he became like a father figure to me.

And I had to have him next to me everywhere I went.

Gus, can I throw a couple questions at you while you're relaxing?

Can I throw a couple questions at you?

Sure.

When Gus got sick, um...

Michael was the first one to notice him being sick.

They were traveling some place, and he called to tell me that,

he said, "tish, you got to take him to the doctor."

Gus was diagnosed with lung cancer.

And, um... Michael was there.

He was there in the hospital with us.

He was there in my home.

He was there calling.

As I said, he was there for him.

Well, he got cancer, and, um...

You know, he took a leave of absence from us and went for his treatments.

So, when Gus came back before the game 7,

he looked frail, but he had that Gus, that smile on him.

It was like, "we got the band back together" kind of thing.

- Hey. - Hey.

How you doing, Gus? Look okay, buddy.

Vacation's over, huh?

Get you back to work.

He was inspiration for me.

You know, I wanted to win this game for Gus.

It'll be interesting to see what happens.

Hmm.

I...

Knowing it was going to a game 7,

having an opportunity to knock Michael out of the playoffs

was special for that group.

We hadn't been tested like that in a long time.

We were all mentally exhausted,

you know, physically exhausted.

Defense.

Defense wins it now. Rebounds and defense.

Miller lobs to smits.

He finds Dale Davis, who gets inside for the dunk.

Michael, with his back to the basket, guarded by Miller.

Spins into the Lane and misses the jumper.

In a game 7, anything is possible.

You rip up game plans because in a game 7, it doesn't matter.

It's all whoever wants it more.

It's k ukoc alone on him. Harper comes on the double.

Davis hits the turnaround, and the pacers lead by a dozen.

We were down 12 right away, in the first quarter.

They came out on fire.

We had to claw our way back in.

It's a two-on-one break. Michael to p/ppen...

Jordan back the other way

it's kerr, his three... is there/

Jordan splits the defense and ties the game.

Michael Jordan is now the all-time-leading postseason scorer.

Jordan to the hoop, then dishes it out to p/ppen.

Crosscourt, kerr, open three.

Got it.

We got back into the game,

and I thought we were gonna pull away.

Around an Antonio Davis screen...

They made a great comeback.

Evens the issue at 69.

Chicago once led by as many as e/ght.

Indiana's on an 77 -0 run.

And the bulls want to talk it over.

When they called time-out,

I just remembered just jumping, giving high fives,

chest-bumping like, "we got this. Hell, yeah!"

I got Mark Jackson.

Move the ball ahead of the foul.

Look, six minutes left in game 7, I thought indy was gonna win.

Fourth quarter, we're down.

You know, the thought ran through my mind,

"man, this could be it."

Jordan, knocked away by mck e y and cleanly

and a jump ball is called

we had the lead, but it came down to one jump ball.

How b/g is this jump ball?

You get this jump ball, you got a chance to go up five.

If we win thatjump ball and go down and score and go up 5,

this could be it for them.

Michael can really jump, but smits is 7 '4 ”.

Smits t/pped it, but fight to p/ppen.

They win thejump ball.

It finds the hands of Steve kerr.

Kerr can tie it.

/t does/ -

Steve kerr spotting up. He's been b/g today

this is his eleventh point of the game.

Steve kerr hit the biggest shot of that series.

And, to me, I think that's where everything went downhill for us.

It changed everything.

All of a sudden,

a volt of electricity went through the building.

P/ppen.

Chicago leads it.

Five on the shot clock.

Michael dumps it off to an open long/e y

the bulls have a little bit of breathing room, ahead by four.

They look for smits. Harper defiects it and comes up with the steal.

It was like we were a ninth-grade jv team that had no shot.

Throws up a little hook. It bounces home, plus a foul/

And onto the finals,

for the sixth time in e/ght years go the Chicago Bulls.

We had the better team. I really do believe that.

But championship DNA and championship experience

really Rose to the forefront in game 7 for Chicago.

You know what was great?

Not only did the team win, but, uh...

Michael snatched the game ball for me.

That's... that's all right. It's all right.

We got four more, dog. Four more.

Four more. This shit is hard.

We can't wait to smile at the end of the day!

Way to go, d-rod!

Way to go!

- Big shots, boy. - Thank you.

Way to go, Luc. Way to come in, jud.

That's huge. That's huge, man.

That's the hardest we worked in, geez, 13 years.

Goddamn!

Whoo!

I knew I had to bring in the ace in the hole

- for us to win the game. - Yeah!

That's why we're struggling. Your ass ain't around no more.

We got to take you out to Utah.