Mama! Michael Jordan Can Fly! Proclaimed the little boy that everyone thought would never speak. A shocked room full of adults and his siblings and cousins turned slowly to regard this momentous occasion. Yes the bulls were up against the Lakers in the 1991 NBA finals in their first championship, it was an exciting time but all eyes were on the chubby 3 year old known as Gordo who had just said his first word…first sentence, and it was Michael Jordan Can Fly! It is impossible to put in words just how popular the Jordan Era Bulls were. Lets just say that they were popular enough to give a short kid who was (and still is) bad at basketball a complex about it.
My weird Jerry Krause syndrome aside Watching “The Last Dance” much like the rest the country has challenged me to recognise my Chicago privilege, I now as an adult and five year resident of Milwaukee have come to accept that the rest of the world probably didn’t like us very much. This caused me to ask a question of my fellow Milwaukeños, what was it like to be outside of the Jordan bubble during that time? So, I took to social media to ask the following question :
Were you a bucks fan during the Jordan era? What was that like?
- “Growing up and watching the bulls constantly dominate my bucks was frustrating (prob the first time I ever yelled at the TV). but when he came out of retirement, and started winning chips again, I sat back and enjoyed the greatness.” – Jimmy Gutierrez via Twitter
- “Of course, I rooted for both, rooted for the Bucks to win when they played – Those 90s Bucks teams were tough to watch, so for me having a dual rooting interest was as much of a regional play with them being in Chicago, as anything – Jordan was simply a God at that time” – Edward Treis Jr via Twitter
- “ It was like being a Milwaukee/Wisconsin sports fan in general during that era; general sadness but a sense of duty to support the home teams”. – Chris “Monty” Montezon via FB
- “I lived here for it…there was a lot of hate for the Bulls and a lot of joy when the Bucks hung the Bulls 10th loss on them in their 72 win season.” – Alberto Claudio Sacramento via FB
- “So I was born in 1978. So by 1990 I was 12 years old, all my teams had totally sucked forever. And most people around here no matter what they say now, had different national stars and teams they followed. Not that they weren’t hometown fans at heart but there was nothing ever to cheer for. We didn’t even have superstars on bad teams. So Jordan Bo Jackson Jerry Rice Joe Montana those guys were pretty much the icons. Sure there was a Bosworth or a flash in the pan every once in a while but those were the guys. But then the Packers started to improve and the Wisconsin Badgers started to improve in the 90s And as I moved into my teenage years, I thought Michael Jordan was the best basketball player, but I started realizing our teams could actually be good and that’s what I wanted, to be good, so I started to turn on all other superstars and teams. Plus that’s when I became a teenager and my first reading choices were always anti-establishment. By the time I was Almost out of my teenage years I had become a full homer, and read every conspiracy book about sports. And basically thought Michael Jordan was a scumbag who was responsible in someway for his father. So I guess you could say it was complicated…” – Kyle Hansen via FB
- “Yes… being a milwaukee sports fan in general was rough when I was growing up. I hated the bulls and Jordan more then anything lol” – Juan Pablo Garcia via FB
- “I just remember my mom finally caving to my begging to get Bucks tickets for when the Bulls played in MKE and they were waaaaay in the nosebleeds. I remember that I could barely see and Jordan had a mediocre game for what you would expect from him” – Tony WJ via FB
- “Kinda like being a Packers fan during the ’80’s….” – Steven Midthun via FB
Did you watch The Last Dance? Were you alive and paying attention to sports during the jordan era? What are your thoughts? We’d love to hear them, hit us up on Twitter or Facebook
MilwaukeÑo 