Tales from the Bench of the 1990s Chicago Bulls

How was it playing alongside Michael Jordan? Chicago Bulls' roleplayers recall their best stories

Transcript

00:00Michael Jordan's supporting cast has been featured on The Last Dance including Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman and even a nod to Jon Paxson

00:07But as we know with championship teams role players are important too. For more on that

00:12I'm joined by our Ben Pickman who got to profile some of those role players including Will Purdue and Daryl Walker

00:18Yeah, I thought it would be interesting in the wake of The Last Dance airing to catch up with a bunch of role players

00:24Who we might not see a lot of in the documentary or who were not interviewed in the documentary at all and just kind of

00:28Learn their stories tales from the Bulls bench so to speak now

00:31I talked to a bunch of guys who cycled in and out of the Bulls dynasty and they told me it was like joining the

00:36Rolling Stones and other reserve center Scotty Williams who played a few years with the Chicago Bulls

00:41He told me that joining the Bulls

00:43It was like being a part of an iconic rock group and we were just the backup singers now

00:47There was a pressure that went along with being part of that rock group now Will Purdue

00:51He told me that it was akin to joining a high-profile audition when he got drafted by the Bulls

00:55He didn't actually think oh, I'm going to play in Chicago

00:58He actually said I'm going to play with Michael Jordan and he wasn't questioning his own ability

01:02But questioning if he could live up to MJ's expectations now

01:05Jordan was of course relentless in practice and Phil Jackson didn't take it easy on many of those role players either

01:11They often played three on three or five on five scrimmages Walker actually said that he guarded Jordan for the brunt of the 92

01:1793 season going head-to-head and they had some battles

01:20He said Scottie Pippen once yelled at him even to stop Jordan and Jordan barked back. Hey, why don't you stop me?

01:26Those were kind of the intensity the physical the tough battles that the Bulls had it was really interesting to hear their perspectives

01:32Yeah, it makes sense, right because people have called it the Michael Jordan documentary

01:36Even though it really is a documentary on that entire Chicago Bulls dynasty and rock