Matty Johns on The Last Dance doco and how great athletes can be tough teammates
The Last Dance is a revealing and riveting insight into Michael Jordan’s fierce desire to win every time, and I’ve seen the same challenging traits in some of rugby league’s finest, writes MATTY JOHNS.
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The Chicago Bulls documentary — The last Dance — has lived up to the hype.
The first four episodes of the 10-part series have been riveting. The best and most revealing sports documentary I’ve seen.
Of course, Michael Jordan was the driving force of this six-time NBA championship team and his ferocious competitive fire is one of the central focuses of the doco.
That fire didn’t just drive Jordan, but it forced teammates to be better.
With Jordan, every training session was a war. Teammates who didn’t step up were hammered verbally — and on occasions, physically.
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Before the documentary’s release, Jordan warned that the series would shine a light on his level of intensity, which wouldn’t always paint the basketball immortal in a favourable light.
In one episode he is particularly tough on teammate Scott Burrell, and Jordan was quoted in a newspaper saying, “When people see this footage you’re going to think that I’m a horrible guy.”
Champions often have difficult relationships with teammates, they give everything of themselves and expect those around them to do the same.
When reading Luc Longley’s memoir — Running with the Bulls — Luc spoke about how hard Jordan rode him and other teammates.
In one training session shortly after returning from baseball, Jordan threw Longley a pass which he dropped.
“Drop another one of my passes and I’ll hit you in the head with it,” Jordan threatened in response.
Roland Lazenby’s book — Michael Jordan, the Life — goes into great detail of how hard he drove the team.
In the book former teammate Steve Kerr spoke of Michael’s mind games: “ … they were vicious …”
LISTEN! Matty Johns is still in isolation and back with the rest of his family to talk “The Last Dance” and life inside the Johns household.
On Bulls bus rides after games, Jordan would sit up the back drinking beers and sledging teammates and anyone in range. If he felt somebody wasn’t doing their job well enough, he’d let them know about it.
Teammate Bill Wennington said: “You had to be careful, he’d zing someone and if you laughed a little loud he’d turn and look at you, with a look like, let’s go for you.” (sic)
On one occasion teammate Ron Harper decided he’d join in with Jordan and started sledging some fellow Bulls. Jordan immediately shot Harper down: “No, no, no, you’re not allowed to do this … I’m only allowed to do this”
But Jordan left his most vicious sledging for his opponents. He’d even sledge in charity games.
Where does all this fire come from? The thing with champions is that it can stem from the tiniest of things.
For Jordan it was not making the Laney High School basketball team as a 15-year-old. The team was posted on the school notice board and his exclusion hit Jordan like a boulder. He walked home alone, avoiding anyone, walked into his room and cried.
It’s eerily similar to the fuse that was lit underneath two of rugby league’s modern greats.
When interviewing Cameron Smith last year, I asked about his junior football career and he spoke of the disappointment of being overlooked for the Australian Schoolboys team. It was clear that it still stung him to this day.
I asked if it was still a motivating factor — he said it was.
The thing with Cameron is that he disguises his competitive juices very well, but you don’t play 509 matches — including Tests and Origins — without there being a serious fire burning away in that belly.
But there was one moment during the interview where Smith gave a rare glimpse of the type of competitor he is.
I asked Cameron if it was difficult to play for Queensland against the Craig Bellamy-coached Blues, because he was so close to Bellamy.
Smith smiled and replied, “No, because I wanted Craig to know what it was like to coach against me.”
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Andrew Johns made the NSW Catholic team which competed in the Australian Schoolboys carnival in 1990.
Despite strong performances, Andrew missed out on the Australian Schoolboys with the 7 jersey going to future Illawarra Steeler Glen Air.
It didn’t just devastate Andrew, it changed him. From that moment on he played and trained with an anger. He also developed an intense hatred of every other No.7, and the anger never subsided.
I’d pick Joey up on game day and during an Origin week he’d be tired and he’d whinge all the way to the ground. But the moment the boots went on he’d get up on his toes and
transform.
Andrew had a pathological desire to win. But like Jordan’s Bulls, that intense competitiveness made life a little tough on his teammates occasionally.
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On one particular training day a certain backrower kept dropping Joey’s passes. So for the rest of the session Joey deliberately passed the ball at the backrower’s toes.
When the backrower asked Joey to lift his passes Andrew replied, “Why? You’re not going to catch them anyway.”
Video sessions after a loss could be particularly fiery affairs at Newcastle.
It generally went this way — Joey sitting in the corner silently fuming, Joey finally explodes, I tell Joey to pipe down, Joey tells me to get f***ed, Joey storms out of the session.
After I left the Knights, I’d occasionally get a phone call from one of Andrew’s teammates.
The theme was always, “Joey’s too tough on me..”
I’d reply, “You think he’s tough on you, you should see how tough he is on himself.”
Originally published as Matty Johns on The Last Dance doco and how great athletes can be tough teammates