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Los Angeles was on a hair-trigger when, on June 2 1991, the Chicago Bulls rolled into town. They were there to play the LA Lakers in game one of the NBA finals. As ever, the Bulls were led by the mercurial Michael Jordan, an alchemist on the court and one of the most famous athletes in the world. But three-pointers and rebounds were far from the minds of many Los Angelenos. Always on a trip-wire, racial tensions in the city had ratcheted up following the vicious beating of innocent African-American Rodney King. Twelve months later, after four LAPD officers were found innocent of assaulting King, riots would sweep LA. Against this roiling backdrop, Bulls shooting guard Craig Hodges came to Jordan with a proposal. They should, on behalf of the African-American community, take a stand and boycott the game. Jordan looked Hodges in the eye and told him he was crazy. Hodges doesn’t feature in The Last Dance, the ESPN/Netflix documentary that has dethroned Tiger King as the binge-watch sensation of the lockdown era. He isn’t even mentioned in the 10-part series that has drawn praise and criticism in equal measure. The Last Dance is undeniably gripping. It chronicles Jordan’s final season with the Bulls in 1997 and 1998, as they strove to complete their second three-in-a row of NBA championships. They did so even as the club’s owners made plans to break up an ageing team.
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