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Vanderbilt's Connection To "The Handshake" and Other Bulls

If you're like most of the sports world, you've been watching the ESPN and Netflix documentary series "The Last Dance," chronicling the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls.
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The first four episodes of the ESPN-Nextflix documentary series "The Last Dance" have caught the attention of a nation of sports fans starved for something new to view. It's also been more than a little entertaining.

The series takes viewers on a behind-the-scenes look at the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls season but goes even deeper by taking viewers back to the start when Michael Jordan became a Bull and the struggles of he, the team and the organization before becoming one of the all-time great sports dynasties. 

One of the former members of the Bulls appearing in the series is Vanderbilt great WIll Perdue, who played a key role beside Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and others during 1991-193 seasons in which Chicago won three consecutive titles. 

Beginning in the 1990-91 season, 44 different players played at least one game during each of the Bulls' six championship runs. Besides Jordan, just Scottie Pippen was on all six of those teams. No other player won more than three titles with the dynasty. The mainstay role players of the franchise's first three-peat were not part of the second three-peat. Turnover was constant, and Jordan was the "ultimate competitor," says center Will Perdue. "He truly was the definition of win at all costs." Alongside the historic core of Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Phil Jackson, the Bulls' bench was caught up in life with the best and most famous basketball player and team in the world.

Just joining the Bulls was akin to a walking into a high-profile audition. Perdue averaged more than 18 points and ten rebounds in his final season in college before Chicago selected the Vanderbilt graduate No. 11 in the 1988 draft. "When I got picked, I was like 'I'm going to play with Michael Jordan,'" he recalls. "It wasn't necessarily, 'I was going to play for the Bulls.'"

One of the most controversial parts of the series revolved around a handshake that didn't happen between Isaiah Thomas and the "Bad Boy" Detriot Pistons and Jordan and the Bulls following Chicago's defeat of Detroit in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals in which the Bulls swept Detroit. 

As the final seconds of game four ticked down, Thomas and several members of the Pistons exited the floor without shaking hands with the team that had just ended their dynasty. The move angered Jordan, who, to this day, dislikes Thomas and his Pistons teammates. That fact is clear after Jordan was shown being shown comments from Thomas in a video for the series. 

A recent Sports Illustrated article, in which excerpts of that story appear here, tells of the "bench" players who supported Jordan and Pippen during their dominance and give an in-depth look into the fierceness and competitive fire that fueled Jordan.

"Jordan was the "ultimate competitor," says Perdue. "He truly was the definition of win at all costs."

The series continues this Sunday night with the next two episodes. If you're a sports or basketball fan and haven't seen it yet, do yourself a favor and jump in. 

Follow Greg on Twitter @GregAriasSports and @SIVanderbilt or Facebook at Vanderbilt Commodores-Maven.