The Last Dance Effect On Sneakers
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The Last Dance is arguably the greatest sports documentary I’ve ever seen. This comes as no shock considering it’s about the greatest basketball player to have ever graced the sport. Now I won’t get into the debate whether Lebron beats MJ or vice versa – but what I am going to talk about is this beautiful and ecstatic documentary.
Released on Netflix and ESPN with a total of 10 episodes, The Last Dance featured stories and tales of how the Chicago Bulls became the best team in the history of the NBA and how Michael Jordan became the best player.
It features interviews with the MJ himself, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Phil Jackson, and Hall of Famers such as Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Clearly it doesn’t get any better than this. The Last Dance is a tell-all – no holds barred documentary.
Michael Jordan and the team aren’t afraid to point fingers and make steamy comments. Perhaps the best part of this documentary is that we get to see how competitive Michael Jordan was. We knew he was great but when you get to see the behind the scenes action, that just completely changes everything for the fans.
Now in this article I’ll be discussing some of the greatest moments within The Last Dance and how since the release of the documentary, the resale value of some Jordans has actually risen.
Feel free to skip to the end to find out which shoes have increased in value.
The Last Dance – Greatest Moments
Jordan and Pippen Vs Toni Kucoc
Now it is no secret that Jordan and co. did not like Jerry Krause (the GM of Bulls) at all! They made jokes about his height, his weight, and to add further disrespect they did it to his face in front of other people. The reason was that Krause wanted to change the team up. He wanted to bring in fresh players and rebuild the team as he felt that the current one was getting old and wouldn’t sustain.
One of the players that Krause wanted was Toni Kucoc. Kucoc was a rising star in Europe with great athletic ability and Krause had signed him up and wanted him to become the next face of the Bulls dynasty.
Obviously, this pissed off Jordan and Pippen. In order to show Krause and the world how much better they were than Kucoc – they completely annihilated him in the 1992 olympics when the USA dream team faced off against Croatia.
Jordan, in the dressing room, says “Leave Kucoc for me and Pippen”. And that’s what the team did. Jordan and Pippen did not let Kucoc breathe for even a single second. They limited him to only 4 points in the entire game!
Although it wasn’t anything personal against Toni Kucoc, it was just a simple message that they both were they greatest in the game and cannot be replaced.
Pippen Gives Up On The Team
In the final seconds in game three of the 1994 eastern conference semi-finals against the mighty New York Knicks, the score was tied. There was no Michael Jordan available for the Bulls and the player to lead them was none other than Scottie Pippen.
However, during the final time-out, the great Phil Jackson drew up a play to get Toni Kucoc the ball for the winner. Scottie could not believe that he wasn’t the one picked to make the final shot. He felt like as if the coach didn’t trust him.
With all the emotions and the pressure of the game looming on, Scottie didn’t get off the bench. He quits on the team and Phil Jackson brings in a replacement. The game restarts, final seconds into the play, and Toni Kucoc makes the winning shot.
The crowd went wild but the dressing room of the Bulls not so much. They felt as if Scottie had betrayed them. Even Michael Jordan adds on that he couldn’t realize that Scottie would do such a thing. However, Pippen commentates on this incident as “If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t change a thing”.
Michael Jordan’s Gambling Habits
Throughout The Last Dance we are exposed to different sides of the GOAT Michael Jordan. One of them is the fact that he loved to gamble. He didn’t do it for the money, he had enough of that, but because he wanted to play for something. See, that’s how competitive he was even outside of Basketball. He would bet thousands and thousands on a single hand or a round of golf.
Whether it’s on the team bus or in a casino or in a golf resort, Jordan loved to bet. But the media blew it out of proportion. Especially when Jordan went to Atlantic City after losing the first game against the Knicks in 1993 conference finals.
He came back at around 02:30 am and was well in time to get some rest and prepare for the next game. Unfortunately, the Bulls lost the second game as well. The media took this loss as an opportunity to taint Jordan and accuse him of being a chronic gambler with a problem. They would throw rumors that Jordan was possibly throwing matches or that he was mixed in with a bad crowd.
However, the Bulls came back to win the conference finals and eventually win the NBA finals against the Phoenix Suns.
Dennis Rodman’s 48-Hour Vacation
During the Bulls final championship season of 97-98, Rodman was granted permission to go on a 48-hour vacation. According to Rodman, he just wanted a break and he was granted one.
So off he went to Vegas to party and just enjoy himself. However, 48 hours later there was no sign of Rodman. In the words of Carmen Electra (Dennis Rodman’s girlfriend at the time), “Michael Jordan had to drag him out of Vegas literally and get him to practice”.
I guess you can skip out on team practice if you’re as valuable as Rodman.
Jordan Etches Himself Into History For The First Time
In the playoffs, it’s Bulls against the terrorizing Celtics who had players such as Larry Bird. After losing the first game, Jordan went to golf with one of the Celtics players – Danny Ainge. Throughout the rounds of golf, both were trash talking to each other.
Now one thing that really fires Jordan up is when someone talks trash to him. That just motivates him. And this is exactly what happened here. In the second game of the playoffs, Jordan scored a record 63 points.
Larry Bird to this day is amazed by Jordan’s performance and says, “That wasn’t Jordan out there, that was God disguised as Michael Jordan”. Now that’s called respect from one of the greatest to have played.
Jordan’s Punches Steve Kerr
It’s not a shocker to say that Jordan was the hub of the Bulls and if you didn’t play according to his standards, you didn’t play at all. He pushed everyone to their limits both physically and mentally. He trash-talked his own teammates during practice and it wasn’t because he had this large ego to feed but because he wanted to get them ready for game day.
In one of the practice sessions, the newly inducted Steve Kerr was being guarded by Jordan. Now Jordan in classic Jordan fashion was pushing him around and fouling him. At one point it got so intense that Kerr got tired of it and shoved Jordan. In retaliation, Jordan punched Steve Kerr in front of everyone.
However, Jordan realized his mistake and apologized to Kerr personally later on. According to Kerr, this built his rapport with Jordan and strengthened the relationship between the teammates.
The Last Dance Effect
Michael Jordan, even when he hasn’t been playing, still manages to influence the resale market with just the release of a documentary.
Now, ever since the documentary released on April 19th, the resale value of the OG colorways has increased. We will take a look at some of the OG Jordan pairs that have appreciated in value.
Jordan 1 Retro Bred “Banned” (2016)
As you can see from the chart above, that since April 19th there has been a steady increase in this Jordan 2016 pair.
A month and a half ago you were able to buy these for as low as $550 but now the lowest ask is around $700 for size 10 and above.
Before The Last Dance average value: $550
After The Last Dance average value: $700
Jordan 1 Retro Chicago (2015)
This colorway is a fan favorite and although the original ones sell for north of $8000 at the moment, even the Retros are prone to The Last Dance effect. As we can see in the graph below, there have been spikes ever since the release of the documentary and on average the resale value of these have increased significantly as well.
The latest asks for Jordan 1 Retro Chicago are no lower than $2000 and this just shows the impact of one documentary on the market.
Before The Last Dance average value: $1275
After The Last Dance average value: $1500
Jordan 1 Retro High Off-White University Blue
This OG colorway is also facing a similar trend as all of the others. It has seen a steady increase in price and also in the bid value.
Before The Last Dance Average Value: $1300
After The Last Dance Average Value: $1600
Conclusion
One important tip guys, this inflation in price is only a fad. The shoes are artificially inflated which means that the market is going to return to normalcy within a couple of weeks or a month at the latest. Therefore, if you have these shoes available, this is the best time to sell them for good profits.
If you want to figure out how to make major profits in the resale game, make sure to check out our Hypemaster Playbook.
Till next time!
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