Mark Madden: Michael Jordan's gambling, pettiness makes for compelling documentary

Episodes 5 and 6 of ESPN’s Michael Jordan documentary averaged 5.5 million viewers this past Sunday. That’s a slight dip but still impressive.

In cliched talk-show fashion, hacks like me are given to wondering aloud, “What Pittsburgh athlete would be logical fodder for such an endeavor?”

The answer: Nobody.

Mario Lemieux, arguably, is to hockey what Jordan is to basketball.

But hockey is well below basketball on America’s totem pole. Lemieux is iconic in Pittsburgh and Canada, but Jordan’s impact is global and forever. Over the past 100 years, only Babe Ruth and Muhammad Ali are comparable, and Jordan has the advantages of mass media and social media.

Jordan is also much more flawed than Lemieux. Flawed makes for a more interesting story. Perhaps, among Pittsburgh athletes, a tell-all about Barry Bonds would be good viewing. But Bonds wouldn’t cooperate, let alone tell all.

Jordan’s flaws are not criminal: no drugs, no arrests.

Jordan likes to gamble, and for big money. But that’s not illegal. Jordan caused some controversy when he visited Atlantic City the night before a playoff game in Manhattan, but Chicago still won that series and that championship.

Lemieux has been known to gamble, BTW. For example, he beat me out of $6,600 by scoring directly from a face-off. I still think he cheated.

Jordan’s overriding flaw as portrayed in “The Last Dance” is pettiness. Even that got a positive spin: Charles Barkley said on the documentary’s post-game show (a.k.a. SportsCenter) holding grudges is part of what made Jordan great.

Jordan’s pettiness is on display when he keeps Isiah Thomas off the 1992 U.S. Olympic “Dream Team,” when he and Scottie Pippen target future Bulls teammate Toni Kukoc for humiliation in the first game of those Olympics, when he covers the Reebok logo on his warmup with an American flag during the medal ceremony.

Orchestrating the Thomas snub is understandable. Thomas’ presence would have put a big damper on Jordan’s Olympics experience. Jordan was the big dog, and the U.S. was a lock to win with or without Thomas. Thomas reaped what he sowed.

Embarrassing Kukoc was rotten. Jordan and Pippen hated Bulls GM Jerry Krause, who drafted Kukoc and talked him up. That had zero to do with Kukoc, but Jordan and Pippen harassed and bullied Kukoc into 2-for-10 shooting and seven turnovers. The U.S. won by 33, so what was the point? (That could be said of the entire tournament.)

The Reebok controversy was silly, especially because Jordan finagled the whole team into playing along. (Only six, including Jordan, were sponsored by Nike.) It underscored that, by then, Jordan was playing for Nike more than he was for the U.S. or the Bulls.

Jordan was petty. Tom Petty. (Revisit Jordan’s Basketball Hall of Fame induction speech for further proof. It’s the Gettysburg address of pettiness.)

Jordan should get minimal ill will because he declined to endorse Harvey Gantt, a black Democrat who was running for one of North Carolina’s U.S. Senate seats in 1990. His opponent was incumbent Republican Jesse Helms, a hardcore racist who celebrated his win over Gantt by saying, “There is no joy in Mudville.” Yikes.

Helms was the worst, a Jim Crow throwback. But not everybody wants to be an activist or dip their toe in politics. It’s not mandatory. (Although it sets Ali apart.)

But Jordan shouldn’t have said, “Republicans buy sneakers, too.” Don’t wear mercenary > morals on your sleeve. Jordan now says he was kidding. I doubt that he was. But, again, Jordan mostly played for Nike.

The documentary has four more episodes. Two will be broadcast on each of the next two Sundays. ESPN should broadcast one per Sunday over the next month. That would stretch out the discussion timeline. Besides, sports are nowhere in sight, and “Better Call Saul” wrapped up its latest season. What’s there to watch?

Mike Tyson or Tiger Woods would be logical subjects for lengthy documentaries, but those would be much more uncomfortable to produce and watch given Tyson’s rape conviction and Woods’ rampant adultery. Anybody got Joslyn James’ number?

Jordan’s flaws are a lot less menacing and give him a human quality. The Jordan documentary is still, ultimately, a feel-good story.

Unless you’re Krause, the documentary’s whipping boy. Krause died two years ago. How did Jordan react was when he heard that? Too bad a camera wasn’t present.