Customer Reviews

Unforgetta-Bull: Mavericks shock Bulls 104-97 in OT

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This VHS pertains to the March 12, 1998 game, held in Dallas, between the Chicago Bulls and The Dallas Mavericks. At the end of this season the Bulls, led by Michael Jordan, won their third consecutive NBA title, their sixth in seven years. In the March 1998 game the Mavericks won a stunning upset.

When this arrived I was disturbed that it was obviously a fairly short film (17 min. 20 sec.), since it was expensive and I had hoped it would have a lot of game footage, ideally the whole game. (The VHS was described on Amazon ["Editorial Review"] with only one sentence, which only told you that the Mavericks scored the upset before a sell-out crowd. Neither the length of the film nor the film's actual purpose were mentioned in this very inadequate description. And no reviews of the film are posted as of the time of this review of mine.)

When I watched it, I could see why I paid over $30 for it. After a 38 sec. talk by the Pres. & CEO of the Mavericks, the Maverick head coach & GM, Don Nelson, spends the rest of the time showing game footage and explaining his playing approach as the game evolved. The VHS goes back in forth between action footage and still shots that are "frozen" so Nelson can point out what he had his players do. Obviously a part of his very smart strategy was to contain Michael Jordan and force the Bulls' worst shooters to shoot instead of him, and he succeeded in doing this.

The game itself, as shown with footage of highlights, was truly remarkable. The Bulls, with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen were highly favored. After being 19 pts. behind in the fourth quarter, the Mavericks began to gain ground and with 40 sec. to go the Bulls were ahead 90-82. This spread seemed too insurmountable to coach Don Nelson, given the amount of time left, and he didn't believe his team had a prayer of winning. With 24 seconds left and the score 90-84, Steve Kerr who had a 94% free throw percentage went to the line for Chicago and missed 2 free throws. With 16 sec. to go in regulation and the score 90-86, Michael Jordan missed 1 of 2 FTs. With 3.9 sec. to go the Mavericks were down by 3 pts. with a score of 91-88 and Dallas' Ceballos made a 3 pt. shot to tie game at 91-91 and send it into OT. In OT the Mavericks win 107-94. For the Bulls Jordan scored 26 pts., Kukoc 22 and Pippen 18; for the Mavericks Finley scored 32 and Ceballos 25.

If you want to see what was in the mind of a coach as his players proceed to win what was one of the biggest NBA upsets in the late 90s if not in NBA history, this is an outstanding film that is well worth the money. (Apparently this is not available on DVD, which is unfortunate. I have been told that this video will copy to a DVD recorder, but, of course, that would be illegal to do, and is not encouraged.)