One Last Shot: The Story of Michael Jordan's Comeback [Hardcover]

Mitchell Krugel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2002

One Last Shot gives Jordan fans the inside scoop they’re looking for on basketball’s greatest legend, with exclusive interviews from NBA executives, players, and coaches. Mitchell Krugel uses his fifteen years of following Michael Jordan’s every move to explain why the man who left the game as The Greatest Player of All Time would risk his unparalleled legend to play again.

After delivering the Chicago Bulls their sixth championship in 1998 by pulling off what became known as the greatest money shot in the history of the NBA, Michael believed he still had much of that Greatest-Player-Of-All-Time left in his game. But he felt that retirement was forced on him in 1999, and he left the game craving more doses of fifty-point binges, winner-take-all confrontations, and repeated nights of reminding fans they just saw the greatest player ever.

One Last Shot not only explains why Michael Jordan came back to the court but also looks at his transition from Wizards executive to player, his struggle to join a team that had grown up with his posters on their walls, and his glories and setbacks in a Wizards season chock full of both struggles and surprises. Krugel also details the star-laden workouts Michael designed in the summer of 2001 to get his game back into shape.

This look at Michael Jordan, circa 2001-2002, shows how much basketball had changed since his last coming and how much it hadn’t, and how his drive pushed him to the verge of a crippling knee injury all in the pursuit of winning. And for six weeks he did make it back. He made the shots. He made good on his mission to teach the Wizards how to be winners, to teach talented teammate Richard Hamilton to be a shooting star, and to whip Kwame Brown, the high school kid he made the first-ever first pick in the NBA draft, into a man. And he did the things that only a man of legend could do.

Krugel analyzes both the man and the legend to trace how the First Coming led to a Second and to a Third, and he chronicles the season that defines Michael Jordan as a man who will forever be playing for one last shot.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As the author of two previous books on basketball legend Jordan, sportswriter Krugel (Michael Jordan: A Biography) has shown himself to be perhaps the most knowledgeable current observer of the life and times of the basketball great. This third look focuses on "the drama within Michael Jordan's Third Coming," when the superstar came out of his second not-so-happy retirement in 2000 to become president of operations for the Washington Wizards, and his subsequent return in 2001 to the court as a player. For fans of Jordan as well as anyone who loved basketball during the 1990s, when Jordan's Chicago Bulls won six championships, this is an insightful depiction of Jordan's attempt "to recapture that endorphin of being the ultimate winner" in a new era. Krugel has done his homework, offering insider reports with much new information on Jordan's initial negotiations with the Wizards and his super-secret preseason practices. The author also presents excellent accounts of key games and even includes an appendix featuring a game-by-game review of Jordan's 2001-2002 season. But Krugel's access and insight also unintentionally produce some of the book's problems: while Krugel deftly analyzes Jordan's desire to be the sole arbiter of what will be his "last shot"-not the sports media world-his attempts to present the inner world of Jordan's comeback year are too often uncritical and awkward ("Something about pain attracted Michael, even tempted him"). Overall, this is an excellent look at an aging superstar's struggle "to find other places besides the basketball court to define his worth."
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In his third book on Michael Jordan, New Jersey sportswriter Krugel concentrates on the athlete's most recent comeback. Perhaps owing to this narrow focus, the book does not lack for detail-Krugel chronicles nearly every game of Jordan's return season with the Washington Wizards-but as a result the text feels overcrowded and becomes heavy and unclear. Good sportswriters know how to vary the tempo of their writing-offering detail or "the big picture" as required. Krugel gives so much space to the minutiae that we never understand why we should know how many points Jordan scored in a mid-season game against a bad team. Furthermore, in his efforts to deify Jordan (he refers to his "First Coming," his "Second Coming," etc.), Krugel makes sweeping generalizations about basketball's high-profile players not being worth much because they aren't Michael Jordan, which is unfair and inaccurate. Among the crowded field of Jordan studies, readers would be better served by David Halberstam's Playing for Keeps. Recommended for diehard Jordan fans only.
James Miller, Springfield Coll. Lib., MA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (November 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312303548
• ISBN-13: 978-0312303549
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,113,289 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #55 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( J ) > Jordan, Michael

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Successes, failures, and questions answered, November 16, 2004

By 

jasenao (Dothan, Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Last Shot: The Story of Michael Jordan's Comeback (Mass Market Paperback)

Like thousands if not millions of other people around the globe, Michael Jordan is easily my favorite athlete of all time - nobody else is even in the same galaxy. When I started watching NBA games on television, it was Michael Jordan's game that I found I enjoyed watching the most. These days, nearly two years after his final retirement, I'm like I'll always be until I die: I'm such a Michael Jordan fan that I have several of his highlight videos, videos of taped games, and a few books that are about him. I'm such a big fan that a few of my friends and family members have asked me, "Is Michael Jordan your role model?" Well no, I don't really have a role model but there would certainly be nothing wrong with that if he was. I just LOVE watching him play the game of basketball and I enjoy reading what others have to say about him. Oh yeah, and I don't hesitate to tell and show people that Michael Jordan answered one of my e-mails on his official site!

One Last Shot - The Story of Michael Jordan's Comeback is very satisfying for the latter. As mad as I was that he called it quits in 1998 and as thrilled as I was to see him make yet another comback in 2001 at age 38, I always asked, "Why?" Why, after having 9 out of 10 say he's the greatest player the game has ever seen and about a year after being named the greatest athlete of all time in ANY sport by ESPN's Sportscentury, would he return as an old man (by NBA standards) to risk his legacy by not even making the playoffs, missing dunks, and not even being named to any All-NBA teams?

The author of One Last Shot, Mitchell Krugel, really has done his homework. Jordan quotes are scattered throughout the entire book like leaves that descend from trees in the fall; you'll read about why MJ ultimately decided to come back for the "third coming", hear details about his wife filing for divorce at the worst possible moment, read about Michael's executive life with the Wizards, and probably best of all, read and learn about how close he came to doing the unthinkable: furthuring his legend, and how it didn't quite happen.

If you followed Jordan's latest comeback via watching games on television and listening to a lot of ESPN and other sports shows, you'll find yourself remembering and nodding in agreement to A LOT of what you'll read in One Last Shot. I know I certainly recall being one of those people that were sitting on the edge of my seat as MJ received the pass in the 2002 All-Star Game en route to a ......MISSED dunk, but did you know that this game brought Ali and Frazier back together for the first time since the Thrilla in Manila? Do you remember when several sports anchors were predicting the Wizards just may be the team to beat in the Eastern Conference? How many game-winning shots did he have? What did Michael Jordan do that he hadn't done since the '92 season? Who all was invited to the scrimmage games leading up to this final comeback, and who didn't ever show up??

Even with all you know from watching and reading about MJ's latest comeback, you'll get even more detailed insight to things that happened that you would've never known before. When you're done enjoying your reading and learning of the ups and downs of the greatest player of all time's final comeback, you're treated to an "Aferword" that's all about the 2002-2003 (final) season of his career. And if that wasn't enough, the "Appendix" consists of a game-by-game analysis of the 2001-2002 season. It tells the day the game was played, where, what the final score was, and has two sections: The Game Story and On This Date In MJ History. Awesome!

Learning all the more about MJ's comeback isn't all that's good in One Last Shot. The author is obviously a good writer - he writes in a way that keeps you interested from beginning to finish, and he has a sense of humor along with seeming to choose just the right statistics and quotes to include most of the time. There are even eight pages of photographs with captions included. The only thing I didn't like about reading One Last Shot is that at (many) times it seems disorganized. The author tends to jump around a bit. You'll read about a game mid-ways into the 2001-2002 season and then be transported back to a long memory of the Chicago Bulls seasons or back to the beginning of the Wizards season. That's not TOO offsetting, but I didn't particularly like having to reread certain parts to find out what part of MJ's career it's talking about now.

But I won't mind rereading the entire book in the future at all. One Last Shot is a liftime keeper for any major Michael Jordan fan or even for a casual fan that's interested in learning why he made this latest comeback. It has more to do with ego and how he was thrusted out of Chicago before he wanted to be than you would ever think.

Scroll to the top of this page and check out the price. With what you get (8 pages of photos, 320 pages, and game-by-game analysis), it makes me wonder why this wasn't a New York Times Bestseller and why it doesn't have at least 50 reviews up already.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mrs.Cox project, March 16, 2004

By 

wendy shaw (Springfield, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Last Shot: The Story of Michael Jordan's Comeback (Hardcover)

Bam jordan hits the game winning shot from the top of the key.If you haved watched jordan before this is regular event.This new book shows jordans new will to win and his fire inside that brought him back to the game he loved at 40.

All though this book was a bit repeating i thought it should what jordan thought.He was such an allstar and will always be.In this book you will see the personal battles (his wife wanting a divorce) to his physical battles(his knee injury).The book doesnt only explain his physical battles.It also shows his struggle switching from owner to player and playing with a team that had his posters on his wall.

I thought the author did a good job through out the book keeping the readers attetion and keeping him wanting more.This book shows a side of jordan you have never seen.Overall this was a very good book.I would recomend this to everyone.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In depth look of the greatest basketball player, June 7, 2004

By 

Leo Lim (Collierville, TN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: One Last Shot: The Story of Michael Jordan's Comeback (Hardcover)

Author chronicles Jordan's first season on a playoff mission with the Washington Wizards, something which happened when this franchise was still known as the Bullets.

The book opens with Jordan sinking that picture perfect shot against Utah then to his foray as a Wizard executive, practicing with the Wizards players then to his experiences in the court with teammates not named Scottie or Dennis but Kwame, Brendon. Krugel paints a Jordan looking for that one last shot, that one last roll of the dice no matter how many times over he has beaten the house.

I really loved this book for it gave us an in depth look of Jordan at his lowest point - from there you could begin to grasp how he won all those championships. The book also explains why there was a comeback attempt and why it ultimately failed. As proof, the author compares Jordan's best performance as a Bull compared to Jordan's best performance as a Wizard.

In the end, it was Jordan's body that let him down but not his indomitable will. Though there were times when he could hold his own against a new generation led by Kobe, Pierce and Iverson, he failed miserably when measured against the standard to which all other future basketball players will be measured - his former incarnation.