Former Ireland basketball captain and coach turned commentator Tim McCarthy feels the new series, The Last Dance, is showing a new era of fans why Michael Jordan was the best player of all time.
The 10-part documentary is being shown on Netflix in Ireland and the first two episodes, charting the last winning season and eventual fall of the dominating Chicago Bulls team of the 1990s, aired this week.
Much of the historic footage was captured by a film crew commissioned by the six-time NBA champion ahead of the tumultuous 1998 campaign and McCarthy has told Off The Ball about his first meeting with Jordan at the K Club eight years later:
"It was my first-ever live interview as a member of the media, I was an on course commentator for RTE at the Ryder Cup and we were following the Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk against Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald match. Jordan was inside the ropes and he was following it around as well and the first thing that astounded me really was his physique.
"He was a huge, physical, athletic man, I'm 6'3" but he towers at around 6'7" and it was like David and Goliath. I thought I was a big guy but he's a monster next to me and it was the first thing that really stood out. Denis O'Sullivan, was the senior professional golfer that was walking with me, I said 'Denis, ask him if he'll join us for an interview?', he agreed to join us and I was overwhelmed by the fact that I was going to be speaking to Michael Jordan.
"I asked the most stupid question that could come out of any commentator's mouth, 'how are you enjoying being here at the Ryder Cup?' and it sucked the energy out of him and probably the audience listening on the radio and he gave me a bland answer which my question deserved. And then I thought to myself, 'I need to get into the game here', and I asked him to compare what it was like to make the last minute shot against Utah in 1998 compared to someone having to sink a winning putt at the Ryder Cup. Then he knew I knew him and for the next few minutes he was phenomenal to talk to.
"He spoke about focus, he spoke about practice and taking the shot and dealing with pressure environments. He gave an incredible insight into why he is, in my opinion, the greatest sports star ever and the only person who compares I think is Tiger Woods in that his focus and attention was superb. The interview finished and I thanked him for his time and we all carried on but for the next three days he was like my best friend, he came over and gave me a high-five or a hug on each of the next few days. Michael Jordan won't remember who I am now but I'll never forget getting that chance to chat sport with him and getting to meet him. What impressed me most was his warmth that week and showing that real touch of class - it was not what I was expecting after reading other media stories about him."
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"In the documentary we also saw the NCAA final between Jordan's Carolina team and Georgetown, four of the Georgetown starting five were later drafted to the NBA with Sleepy Floyd and Patrick Ewing among them. The fifth starter for Georgetown, Mike Hancock, played alongside me the next year in Cork with the Demons.
"He left 64,000 people watching him in an NCAA final, where Michael Jordan hit the last second shot to win the series for Carolina, to his next game being in the Parochial Hall in Cork which hosted 3,000 people in a rickety old stand at the time! Twice in my life I've had a connection with Jordan, once while working on the radio and once playing alongside a guy who faced Jordan when he was showing what he would become.
"Jordan was a great scorer, his shooting actually improved as he became older and more developed physically but what I was so impressed by during his college career, and we used to have international trips to America at the time so we were all very aware about the hype around him when he was in college, he wanted to take that last shot against Georgetown. That's the difference I've seen in basketball and other sports, that person who is willing to take the responsibility of the make or break moment in a game and in Jordan's case he had the ability to take it on so as a coach you want to empower him to be the man to take it. That's what made him special as a college player and that trait carried right throughout his NBA career, even when he was the driving force on some really poor Bulls teams early on.
Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports/Sipa USA
LeBron James has collected three NBA rings so far across his career while also being the league's MVP on four occasions and named on the All-Star team for 15 seasons. It's sparked discussion about whether he or Jordan can be considered the best player in the history of the game but McCarthy is empathic on his answer in the battle of the number 23s:
"LeBron is slightly gone beyond his peak now but there's no doubt he's been the best player of his era, but as a player or as a coach, which I've done both internationally, I'd have Jordan every day over LeBron. Every single day. He was more agile, LeBron is more physical but LeBron has lost NBA finals and missed big shots during his career. Jordan in all the big occasions made all the big shots. Magic Johnson and Bird were icons of the sport and changed the game, a little bit like Arnold Palmer in golf, and within weeks of Jordan moving into the NBA these guys were afraid of him.
"Larry Bird talks about the games where MJ had 49 and 63 points against the Celtics and Larry is saying that Jordan was like God. I've read a lot about Larry Bird because he was a guy who I feel made the absolute most out of his talent and never gave anything easy to anybody on the court and any compliment he's given to Jordan he's always meant it.
"If I had the choice of any player in the history of the NBA as my teammate or as a player to get the chance to coach it would be Michael Jordan over any other player, in any era and in any position. He was also a great defender and that's something that people sometimes forget. He was named as a defensive all-star at the start of his career and we're likely to see a bit more of that as the series goes on and then he goes on to be an all-star in an overall sense as his career progresses. He was a phenomenal scorer and assist player and rebounder, he was able to do everything and he did it against icons in an era when he was able to dominate them.
"You can't really say that LeBron James has dominated the era in the same way. Golden State have beaten him more often that he's been able to beat them. Of course it's a team game but the reality is that in these NBA finals and clutch moments, the real stars like LeBron and Stef Curry and Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, they're the guys who make the difference. You talk about the Magic v Bird rivalry, the reason they're so well remembered is because of their ability to deliver on that biggest stage when we look back at the history books. So for me, it's Michael Jordan as the greatest ever, any day, every day, any time of the year."
