‘The Last Dance’ Episode 2 recap: Tension builds between Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls management

Superstars Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen each had long-festering resentments with Bulls management, and that’s the chief focus of Episode 2 of “The Last Dance,” ESPN’s 10-part documentary on Jordan, his era with the Chicago Bulls and the season that would mark the end of their 1990s NBA dynasty.

Now that we’ve had a chance to see the second hour, let’s see what we can take away.

Let’s recap

The Bulls got off to a sluggish start in 1997-98 while Pippen recovered from ankle surgery.

Jordan and the Bulls would have preferred Pippen had undergone an operation right after they won their fifth title in June rather than just before they launched their pursuit of a sixth championship and second three-peat.

It should be clear by now, MJ is ultracompetitive.

Eleven years earlier, in his second NBA season, Jordan had been willing to risk his career by rushing back from a broken left foot far sooner than management wanted.

His relationship with general manager Jerry Krause soured because Krause and Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf limited his playing time to seven minutes per half when he finally returned, as not to endanger the franchise’s most valuable asset.

Jordan chafed at the restrictions while the Bulls still had a shot at making the playoffs, feeling they were putting business considerations over winning, which he saw as unforgivable.

Bulls business priorities also riled Pippen, who grew up in a financially strapped household with a father and older brother confined to wheelchairs.

“Scottie Pippen was the underrated, underappreciated Robin to Michael Jordan’s Batman,” ESPN’s Michael Wilbon helpfully explains.

Pippen is bedeviled by a seven-year, $19 million contract he signed in 1991 so he could provide for his family without worrying what would happen if his career abruptly ended.

Heading into the last year of the deal in 1997-98, that contract left him badly paid relative to far lesser talents on his team and across the league. But the Bulls were unwilling to renegotiate, which angered him and made him eager to leave Chicago.

Got it? Good. Now let’s further break down the second hour of “The Last Dance.”

We love the ’90s

There’s the late Stuart Scott on “SportsCenter” back in the day, calling Pippen “as underpaid as underpaid gets — only the 122nd-highest-paid player in the league.”

Best anecdote

When Pippen was a rookie, Jordan gave him a set of golf clubs. “He was trying to lure me in so he could take all my money,” Pippen says.

Second-best anecdote

Pippen initially was equipment manager for the Central Arkansas basketball team. Only after a couple of scholarship players ran into academic trouble would the future fifth pick in the NBA draft persuade the coach to add him to the roster.

Third-best anecdote

Former President Bill Clinton, also a former Arkansas governor, talks about seeing a shy, pre-NBA Pippen play.

Best vintage clip

Near-ageless Dan Roan of WGN-9 reports on Pippen’s speech at the Bulls’ 1997 ring ceremony. “Scottie Pippen with a tearful thank you,” Roan says. “We thought for one unconscionable moment that we might be hearing a retirement statement there.”

Best insult

Pippen seethed over being underpaid and Krause dangling him as trade bait. “Pippen started berating Jerry Krause in front of the team,” coach Phil Jackson recalls. “We had to say, ‘Hey, hold it down.’ ” Says Pippen: “I couldn’t tolerate him anymore, didn’t respect him.”

All-knowing Jerry Reinsdorf quote

“I said to Scottie (in 1991) the same thing I had said to Michael: ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t sign this contract. You may be selling yourself too short. It’s too long a contract that you’re locking yourself in for,’ ” the Bulls chairman recalls.

Overstatement of the episode

“Anybody can be traded, and part of my responsibility is to listen to other teams,” Krause says, yet he and Reinsdorf weren’t going to put Jordan on the block.

Understatement of the episode

“Tell your boy D.J. (Dennis Johnson) I got something for him,” Jordan is said to have told the Celtics’ Danny Ainge after playing golf following Game 1 of the 1986 playoffs. Jordan, who scored 49 points in the opener, would score 63 in Game 2.

Best bit about how good Jordan was

“That wasn’t Michael Jordan out there,” Celtics great Larry Bird recalls of Jordan’s 63-point playoff performance. “That was God disguised as Michael Jordan.”

Best out-of-context quote

“It depends on how (bleeping) bad the headache is,” Jordan says, rejecting a Reinsdorf analogy.

Best awkward moment

Bulls coach Stan Albeck locked Krause out of the locker room after a pivotal 1986 victory over the Pacers in which Krause handicapped the Bulls by threatening Albeck’s job if he played Jordan too much.

Most interesting thing that goes unmentioned

Deloris Jordan, Michael’s mom, owes no one an explanation, but it’s interesting she twice refers to her late husband, James, as “Mr. Jordan.”

Quote that neatly fits an overriding theme of the series

“If you want to bring out the best in Michael, tell him he can’t do something or he can’t do it as good as somebody else,” James Jordan says in an archival clip. “I think that he takes it as a personal challenge to go out and do it just to prove you wrong.”