Power of Caring
  presented by CIGNA

Posted: Wed May 6, 1998

As the Chicago Bulls roll through the NBA playoffs, this week's issue of Sports Illustrated is rolling off the presses, featuring an inside-the-bus cover story on what may be a farewell tour. SI senior writer Rick Reilly and photographer Walter Iooss Jr. hooked up with the five-time NBA champs late in the season to experience what life is like for Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and the rest of the most famous band of entertainers since the Beatles. Reilly also sheds some light on Jordan's relationship with Gus Lett, the bodyguard who has become like a second father to him.

CNN/SI asked Reilly a few questions about the story, which reaches newsstands and subscribers beginning today.

REILLY SOUNDS OFF:
Will Jordan retire? (311K)
Could he play for another coach? (164K)
What he could still accomplish. (310K)

CNN/SI: Why was your story centered around Jordan rather than around the last days of the Bulls dynasty?

Rick Reilly: I found a hook; I found Gus. Then I knew I had to go that way. Plus, what really would the Bulls be without Jordan? Jordan is at the center of everything, at the center of all things. Jordan keeps Rodman in line, Jordan and Pippen are a great team, Jordan makes Phil Jackson a great coach, Jordan fills the arena. I think it's all him.

CNN/SI: How much time did you spend with the team and who did you talk to?

Reilly: I think I was there a week, four games, both on the road and at home. I was with the team, but I also worked around—I talked to doormen at hotels all over America, and valets and maids, the trainers and equipment managers and writers. I just wanted to know what it was like traveling with the 12 most famous entertainers in the world. Not only what it's like, but how they deal with the fact that everybody knows what hotel they're staying in, what time the bus leaves, where they're going. Charles Barkley once told me, "You ought to try that sometime, where everybody knows your every move. You really get sick of it." Now I can imagine what it's like for these guys.

CNN/SI: What was the most suprising thing you discovered in doing this story?

Reilly: I had no idea—some idea, but not to the depth of it—what Jordan's life is like. Everybody else parks out in the players' parking lot, but he can't do that because people hop the fence and stuff. So he pulls into the building through a gate. He gets out of the car, and he's immediately met by 20 minicameras. And this is before a game against Toronto, you know? They want to ask him the sort of big, earth-shattering questions you can ask about the big Toronto game, here in the middle of March.

He's got to sit there and answer questions for about 10 minutes, and then every step is the Last Day of Saigon—people tugging at him and stepping in front of him, and it's crazed. Then when he gets in the locker room—he used to hang out there, but now he goes into this back room, where I got them to take me once—he's really almost apart from his team. It really is just him and those security guards, and when the media is finally made to leave he finally comes back into the clubhouse, but by then everybody's got their game face on. It's really interesting in that they're a team, and yet they're so separate.

CNN/SI: How far did you see a fan go in order to get close to Jordan?

Reilly: One woman laid down in front of the team bus in Vancouver and said she wasn't going to move until Jordan came out and signed an autograph. He didn't come out, so they just dragged her off. And supposedly someone somewhere laid down in between the wheels of his car and said she wanted him to run over her and she wouldn't mind.

CNN/SI: Was there any sense of desperation from the rest of the Bulls, that this is it and they have to make a final run now?

Reilly: Michael's not really the teammate, he's more like the coach, the owner, the general manager, and the other guys really don't want to piss him off. They go out of the way not to say anything. And they're really just waiting for him to pull the string. Does he pull the trap door that sends them all flying off to Toronto and Vancouver and Denver, or does he keep them together? He's got his finger on that button, and he can do what he wants. It must be an awesome power, the position he's in.

Cover photograph by Walter Iooss Jr.