Michael Jordan Says He Knew He Was Leaving Chicago Bulls Before 1998 Season Began

ESPN’s 10-part docuseries “The Last Dance” chronicles Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls during the 1997-1998 NBA season. It was Jordan’s final year in Chicago, where he won six championships and cemented his legacy as the greatest basketball player of all time.

Jordan retired after the 1998 NBA Finals, though he would return in 2001 for a two-year stint with the Washington Wizards. Head coach Phil Jackson and star forward Scottie Pippen also left the Bulls that offseason, effectively ending Chicago’s dynasty.

Jerry Krause, who was the Bulls’ general manager from 1985-2003, told Jackson in 1997 that the coach would not be allowed to return with Chicago the following year. On the heels of two straight championships, Jordan knew that he was entering his final season with the franchise.

"It was a trying year. We all were trying to enjoy that year knowing that it was coming to an end,” Jordan said on “Good Morning America” Thursday. “The beginning of the season basically started when Jerry Krause told Phil [Jackson] that he can go 82-0 and he would never get the chance to come back. And knowing that I married myself to him, if he wasn’t going to be the coach then obviously I wasn’t gonna play. Phil started off the year by saying, ‘this is the last dance,’ and we played it that way.”

The Bulls went 62-20 that season, tied for the league’s best record. Chicago completed a three-peat by defeating the Utah Jazz in the Finals in six games. Jordan was named the NBA Finals MVP for the sixth time.

“Mentally, it tugged at you throughout the course of the year that this had to come to an end, but it also centered our focus to making sure we end it right,” Jordan told “GMA.” “So as sad as it sounded at the beginning of the year, we tried to rejoice and enjoy the year and finish it off the right way.”

Jordan also won his third straight scoring title in 1998, leading all players with 28.7 points per game. He shot 46.5% from the field and averaged 5.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game, winning the fifth and final MVP award of his career.

The first two parts of “The Last Dance” debut Sunday on ESPN, starting at 9 p.m. EDT.