My First Dance: Building a Bridge Between Sports Illustrated and Michael Jordan

Well I certainly picked the perfect week to start writing for Sports Illustrated’s University of North Carolina web site.

Over the course of the past four Sunday nights much of the country has been enraptured by The Last Dance, ESPN’s documentary about Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls.

Here I am, excited to be writing for a national publication about the Tar Heels in the midst of this anticipated documentary series about the most famous student-athlete to ever come from the university. I’ve hit the zeitgeist!

But then, the night before I was slated to embark on my first activities for Sports Illustrated, a bombshell connecting His Royal Airness and my new employer dropped:

In Episode 7, airing on Sunday, May 10, MJ’s time as a Birmingham Baron was a major point of focus. In that time span, Sports Illustrated ran a cover that read “Bag It, Michael!: Jordan and the White Sox are embarrassing baseball”. The title of author Steve Wulf’s article read “Err Jordan”.

When asked by The Last Dance if he felt betrayed by the magazine cover, Jordan responded: “Definitely”. So hurt was MJ that he has never since talked to Sports Illustrated.

MJ never talked to Sports Illustrated again after this cover: Bag It, Michael! #TheLastDance pic.twitter.com/4wE1wIRYad
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) May 11, 2020

Wait, what?! The greatest basketball player ever was betrayed by Sports Illustrated and now my job is to help re-build the bridge that was burned? A rift between two of the biggest titans of the sports world? Mind you this is not just some little bridge over a bucolic babbling brook. This is like rebuilding the Golden Gate bridge.

Immediately I started receiving messages from friends that knew I was on the eve of combining the two combatants in this Last Dance fight: the mighty Sports Illustrated and the King of Chapel Hill.

From Ryan: “After how horribly wrong SI treated a Tar Heel, I’m shocked a true UNC fan would work for them.”

From Justin: “After watching last night’s The Last Dance episode and seeing how they [SI] trashed MJ when he went to play baseball, do you want to be associated with them?”

Of course, this is all in good fun. Steve Wulf is a phenomenal writer and through the years has made several overtures to apologize. I’m thrilled at the opportunity to work for Sports Illustrated and highlight the incredible student-athletes at the University of North Carolina who are trying to make their mark on the sports world from Chapel Hill.

And as for building bridges? That’s exactly my goal. I look forward to being a mouthpiece for the young men and women giving their time and energy and effort both in the classroom and on the field of play. It will be a joy to talk with some of the most accomplished coaches in the country, whose job it is to mold their players not just into peak performers, but also young men and women equipped to succeed beyond their four years of college. I want to build bridges between you, the faithful reader, and these people at the University of North Carolina who work so hard to bring you college athletics. These are the stories I will tell.

Thank you Sports Illustrated, for this opportunity. May I steward it with integrity, creativity, and effort.

And Michael (because I’m absolutely sure you’re reading this), I know you were never interviewed for the Steve Wulf article. I know that you haven’t talked to Sports Illustrated since. Why not turn over a new leaf? Let’s rebuild this bridge.

P.S. I’m pretty sure you would excel at anything you put your mind to. So why not go play professional corn hole? Then we can run a new cover that says, “Bag It, Michael!” and all would be right with the world.

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