Broadcasting legend, Tacoma native Ahmad Rashad talks about ‘The Last Dance,’ ESPN
Over the 10-episode series on Michael Jordan and the 1998 Chicago Bulls titled, “The Last Dance” you might’ve seen the face of a Tacoma native the last five Sunday nights.
Legendary NBA broadcaster and Mount Tahoma High School grad, Ahmad Rashad helped play an important role in telling not only the story of the Chicago Bulls in the 90’s but also the NBA as well.
The News Tribune’s Andrew Hammond chatted up the former football player turned broadcaster to get his thoughts on “The Last Dance”, Jordan, and his Tacoma roots.
Andrew Hammond: In a way you play an important role in the Jordan documentary, “The Last Dance”. You were there to help tell the story about Jordan, and the Bulls during the 90’s. How did the relationship with you and Michael begin? It seems like your relationship reminds me of how Howard Cosell and Muhammed Ali were. He trusted you to help tell his story, much like Ali did with Cosell.
Ahmad Rashad: When NBC got basketball, they wanted to do something to show that we were now in the business of basketball. There was an All-Star game out in Los Angeles that Magic Johnson would throw every year that featured all the pros, and they would really go at it. NBC was gonna broadcast it as our precursor to the NBA on NBC.
Before that, I had signed on to do a show on NBC called, “NBA Inside Stuff”. It was gonna be about the players and what they go through off the court, all kinds of stuff like that. So that was already set, so I met Michael in LA and we hit it off as friends. That’s the way it went, we became friends and back when the NBA on NBC would have their “Game of the Week” every Sunday, it would always feature the Chicago Bulls. My job would interview the player of the game and it would always be Michael Jordan. But even during that time, we would talk almost every day. We were friends first, it just so happened that we worked in the same place. He would be playing in the game and I would be on the broadcast.
I think one of the things that people don’t realize is that I had those types with a lot of these players. On Sunday, we had an NBA Inside Stuff reunion for the 1990’s. I had 20 players on there, 13 of them were hall of farmers, five of them were dream teamers and it was like they were all in my house and we had a blast.
AH: Transitioning over to NBA Inside Stuff, for me that was one of those shows that I loved watching growing up. It would always come on Saturday mornings after “California Dreams” and “Saved By The Bell”. On Inside Stuff, you helped introduce those guys to a worldwide audience. How cool was that experience? I know you guys cross paths at various events but Sunday’s live chat was something pretty special.
AR: It was so good to see all the guys yesterday. I had formed a relationship with each one of them. It wasn’t one of those things where I met them in passing, I did features on each one of them. I filmed something with them, I met their parents and it felt like a high school reunion. The relationships helped because I think I had the trust of them since I was a former athlete myself. I was the football player and they were basketball players.
There was a comfort there for them because they knew who I was, (Charles) Barkley always makes the joke that he saw me make a catch and that it was such a great catch that he fell off his tricycle. Meaning I was way older than him. When I look back on that show, the thing I’m most proud of is that I was the executive producer and managing editor of the show. We just had a great time, Willow Bay my co-host was fantastic and I’m not sure we had budgets back then. There would be an opportunity to do a story on a player from Turkey, we’d fly out the next day and do the story. It’s not like that anymore, it was in those days but not anymore.
AH: One of the things I noticed from the Inside Stuff reunion is how much fun everybody was having and second, you don’t age at all! What is your secret??
AR: It’s that Tacoma water I drank! (laughs)
AH: Nothing wrong with that! Speaking of Tacoma, I saw on Instagram that you were posting pictures of your days as a youth in Tacoma. How special is the Tacoma community to you?
AR: You know, it’s where I grew up and I always try to sneak back there whenever I get a chance. I always wanna get a chance to see my former teammates at Mount Tahoma and the thing about these guys is that I’ve known them since I was about 10-11 years old. They went to the East Side Boys Club and I went to the South End Boys Club. So we played against each other for a few years, then we played together all through high school. There’s a lot of guys that I go back and catch up with, it’s nice to be able to come home and see those friends. I’ll say, hey I’m coming to town and when we go to lunch, there’s a big group of people and we have a great time.
AH: As an athlete, what are some of the memories you have playing at Mount Tahoma?
AR: I played with a great player, Ron Cey. We grew up playing against each other at the boys club and then together in high school. That was a place where my parents watched me play, and my dad would show up to the games late, but he would show up and that meant so much to me. I brought my wife out here to see where I grew up and showed her the school. Mt. Tahoma is beautiful and certainly not the same campus I remember. My campus was back up the street, but that one was great too!
It’s one of the reasons I go back, the people are so good to me and I’m endeared to them as well. It’s always a special time.
AH: Veering back to basketball, one of the things I noticed in “The Last Dance” with you having a front seat to all of that...how often did you get flashbacks watching the series going back to those moments?
AR: I think I remember all that stuff and the thing I remember the most about is that Phil Jackson is one of the greatest coaches of all time. I played for a guy, Bud Grant with the Minnesota Vikings and they had similar personalities and they both did a great job of handling all those men. If you would’ve had a normal coach in Chicago handling all those personalities and putting a set of rules on them, “if you break them, you’re off the team” then you won’t have anybody playing.
Phil Jackson was one of these guys that realized what everybody needed. He made them feel like they couldn’t let the rest of the team down. All your other teammates are counting on you. Michael (Jordan) always said he was lucky to have Phil because he always challenged him and on a nightly basis. He would score 50, then he would score 60. He (Jordan) gets 12 rebounds, then he’d get 15 rebounds. He challenged him each and every night. When you’re looking for greatness, you need to have a coach like that. Your bar is the ceiling, Phil’s thinking “I’m gonna get him to that point.”
When you add that, to mixing all of those personalities-I don’t know many people who can handle Dennis Rodman (laughs). I mean, one of the weirdest things is when they were in Utah during the Finals and he leaves to go to wrestling. They won a game and the left that night-he misses practice the next day but shows up for the game and has 14 rebounds. Anybody else, he gets suspended and I think Phil let him know he let the team down and I think Dennis knew he did so that’s why he came out and played the way he did.
AH: Wrapping things up with a few quick hitter questions, first up...It kind of leaked out a little bit near the end of “The Last Dance”, Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf admits he wanted to bring everybody back for one more run and go for a seventh title. If the Bulls all come back, do you think they get another ring?
AR: The thing I think about is how you disband a team before they can defend their title. You play till you lose, I just can’t understand why they would announce that Phil wasn’t coming back. For them to have a chance to not defend that championship is just something I could never get my head around. I think too many things had happened leading up to that point and it was called “The Last Dance” for a reason.
AH: Before our interview, I was playing NBA 2K20 and just so happened to be playing the ‘94 Rockets vs. the ‘96 Bulls. So, what if Michael had stayed and they played in the Finals in ‘94 or ‘95. What happens? No matter the series length...1, 3, 5, or 7 doesn’t matter. Who wins?
AR: You wanna know the beauty of that question? It’s that we’ll never know. They’ll never play each other. It’s like comparing stars from different eras, they never played against each other. If you think whatever team is better then that’s your answer. There’s too many things that are involved in winning championships. Was everybody healthy? I can’t do that (laughs). It’s not happening, when you start saying “If” then I’m out (laughs).
AH: You’re right, and see my thinking was I’m gonna ask him this question to see if I can catch him slipping and nope (laughs). I’m sure you get that question so many times.
AR: I have, and you hear “this team is better than that team”, when Golden State had that good run back in 2016 you kept hearing those comparisons. Then they lost in the finals. Then went 73-9, then went to the Finals and lost. It’s a different era, and it’s hard to compare the eras. The rules are different and the players are different. It’s impossible.
This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 5:30 AM.
