Lessons from MJ: What the Nuggets can learn from 'The Last Dance'

Michael Malone is no stranger to Michael Jordan’s greatness.

As a teenager and New York resident, Malone saw Jordan play often at Madison Square Garden. He journeyed to MSG on Christmas Day for countless Knicks/Bulls matchups. Malone’s father Brendan was an assistant coach for the Knicks from 1986-88 and in his first year on the job, Jordan recorded his first 50-point game. It came on Nov. 1, 1986 against Patrick Ewing at the world’s most famous arena.

Malone also got a first-hand account of Jordan’s mystique when Brendan joined Chuck Daly’s coaching staff in Detroit in 1988. The ‘Bad Boys’ Pistons proved to be Jordan’s greatest rival, dispatching the Bulls in the playoffs three-straight times, in the Eastern Conference semifinals (1988) and the Eastern Conference finals (1989, 1990) before Chicago ultimately broke through for the first of three-straight championships in 1991.

“I think what set (Jordan) apart was he would reach into your chest and pull your heart out if he had to win a game, and you don’t see that very often,” Malone said. “He had that true killer mindset and he brought it every night. And that’s why still after all these years later he’s considered the greatest of all time and a player that even young players today still idolize.”

We’ve witnessed Jordan’s will to win and uncanny competitive nature throughout the first four episodes of ESPN’s ‘The Last Dance’ documentary which chronicles the Bulls’ 1997-98 season but also reflects back on the turbulence Chicago had to navigate on its flight path to a second three-peat. We’ll also continue to watch Jordan’s leadership evolve over the course of the series.

Jordan famously rode Bulls’ newcomer Scott Burrell, who averaged 14 minutes for Chicago off the bench in 1997, hard in practice. He punched teammate Steve Kerr in the face during an altercation at training camp prior to the 1995-96 season. But there was a method to Jordan’s madness and always a calculated reason behind his actions.

Jordan challenged and pushed his teammate’s limits in order to get the best out of them. He held his teammates to the incredibly high standard that he held himself to. He called them out when they weren’t upholding Chicago’s championship-level mentality at practice or during a game. Kerr said that as a result of his altercation with Jordan, he thought that Jordan trusted him more, even enough to pass him the ball when double-teamed in the final seconds of Game 6 of the 1997 Finals. Kerr of course drained a 17-foot jump shot with under 30 seconds remaining which helped clinch Jordan’s fifth championship.

For the Nuggets, a team that’s been striving to bring more accountability to their locker room in recent years and even months, a theme that’s shined through in Malone and his player’s comments after some of Denver’s most disheartening losses of the season, there’s a lesson to be learned from how Jordan’s voice and presence was felt within the Bulls’ locker room.

“A locker room that can really police themselves, I think that is invaluable,” Malone said. “And I’ve heard it over and over. I’ve been around the game my whole life. When it’s always coming from me as a head coach, it will only go so far. When our players take on the responsibility of, ‘You know what, this is our team and we’re going to police. We’re going to hold each other accountable.’ That’s going to allow us to go from being a good team to a great team.”

The Nuggets have experienced progress in that area this season. Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray have taken steps towards discovering their voices with Murray emerging as Denver’s vocal leader over the early part of the 2019-20 campaign. Murray gave an impassioned postgame speech after the Nuggets fell 122-107 in New Orleans back on Nov. 2 and called out his teammates for their effort in what was Denver’s second-straight loss after opening the season 3-0. The Nuggets responded by winning 10 of their next 11.

Following a 132-103 blowout loss to the Clippers on Feb. 28, a matchup featuring the second and third-seeded teams in the Western Conference, Will Barton called his teammates out postgame in the visitor’s locker room for their effort. Barton’s message centered around his opinion that some opposing teams and players around the league believe the Nuggets are soft and can be beaten with physicality.

“Some shit needed to be said. I’m serious about winning so sometimes you’ve got to step out of your comfort zone and tell guys the honest truth,” Barton told DNVR in March. “If you’re not then we’re just going to continue to let things be the way they are. Championship teams do stuff like that. Guys in the league who have been on winning teams, they’ve told me that. It’s time for me to grow up and step up.”

“We need more of that,” Malone said thinking back to Barton’s team-wide address.

Jordan’s willingness to hold his teammates accountable should be what every NBA locker room strives for. No, you don’t have to clock your teammate in the face like Jordan did, but you can self-police a locker room and strive for accountability in different ways.

“You can always learn from the best,” Malone said.

But there’s a caveat. Malone doesn’t want his players to be something they’re not. He believes that it’s imperative for Jokic, Murray, Barton or whoever else finds their voice to figure out how to lead in their own way, just as LeBron James did in Cleveland where Malone was an assistant coach for five seasons.

“LeBron did not have the same maybe mindset or killer mentality that Michael Jordan is supposed to have had. But LeBron James is arguably the greatest of all time as well,” Malone said. “So you have to be true to yourself, you have to do it your own way. You have to walk your own path.”

It’s a vital next step in the Nuggets’ changing team dynamic, from lovable upstart a year ago to a roster that’s now expected to make a multiple-round playoff run. There are real expectations on the Nuggets’ shoulders now, and as long as they maintain their current core around Jokic, those expectations will only grow.

Leaders lead in their own ways. All locker room police themselves differently. All effective NBA leaders don’t have to be like Mike, but there are aspects of Jordan’s ability to hold his teammates accountable and lead which can be adapted to this era.

While the Nuggets are watching ‘The Last Dance,’ hopefully they’re taking notes.