The Last Dance: Hiring Lessons from The 90s Bulls

When we sit down with a client to learn about the position they’re trying to fill, more often than not we arrive at the same shorthand for the perfect fit: “Michael Jordan.” You need an incredibly high performer? Somebody with just a ton of confidence and the skills to back it up? A leader, a team player, an absolute superstar? You need your very own MJ.

All that to say I was straight up stunned to get a closer look at what it was like for the 90’s Bulls organization, who already had THE Michael Jordan, to build a team around him in ESPN’s doc, The Last Dance. I mean, think about it: You’re Phil Jackson. You’ve worked your way up to the head coaching gig in Chicago and have been given the absolute best player there ever was. Other coaches might let that be good enough, but not you. Together, you and Michael agree that your job is to never stop improving—and that means developing a team that plays to MJ’s strengths and elevates him beyond even what he could be. 

There has to be a joke about elevation and Highline and His Airness in there somewhere.

And while it might look like a stretch on the surface, there really is a connection between The Last Dance and the work we do as an executive search firm. I’ve found that there’s a lot Phil Jackson and his coaching style can teach any hiring manager about intentionality and what it takes to build and maintain high-performing teams. 

Let’s jam. 

Lesson #1: Build nothing less than a culture of excellence.

Starting off with Jordan on the team meant the team culture of the Bulls in the 1990s was special. The energy and excellence MJ brought to the team meant their reputation as a rough and rather mediocre team in the 80s was little more than a memory. When he took the reins, Phil Jackson tapped into this energy and focused on building a culture of accountability and true teamwork, never letting any player settle for anything less than their best. Over time, this is what came to define Jordan and Jackson’s professional relationship—they knew that together, they could accomplish anything, and that drive extended to every member of the team that was built into the mid 90s.

The Takeaway: Don’t settle for mediocrity. Focus on your goals—maybe it’s growth, quality, or something else entirely—and hire people who fit that vision. Employers everywhere are investing in employer brand and also the culture that supports it, and while it’s not the only metric for a good hire, cultural fit can play a huge role in helping evaluate candidates. But before you can expect to engage with top performers, you’ve got to get that culture right and make sure the world knows about it.

Lesson #2: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Could MJ have carried an otherwise ordinary team all on his own? Possibly. There wasn’t an NBA player around during his heyday that would deny he was the best they’d ever seen. But as Jerry Krause once so eloquently tried (but failed) to put it, “individual players alone don’t win championships.” 

Phil Jackson knew that if the Bulls were going to really be able to capitalize on Jordan’s talent, he’d need to put specialists around him to master different elements of the game so Michael could keep doing what he did best: scoring like nobody’s business. Without Pippen, Michael would not have had the support he needed to keep going. Without Rodman, the Bulls defense would never have been set up to keep the ball in Jordan’s hands.

The Takeaway: We’ve written about what it looks like when a hiring manager tries to hire Frankenstein’s monster. For whatever reason, they’ve got this ridiculous hybrid of a role that needs filled—maybe the last person in the job was an absolute unicorn who happened to have two distinct skill sets, or maybe they were forced to inherit another role’s job and learn to do more than one job. Now, they’re looking to find another monster out there who can do more than one job, and probably only for one job’s salary. Like Jackson, you need to focus on hiring people who are seriously talented and specialized for the job at hand. 

Lesson #3: Embrace the outsider hire. 

When you’re playing at Jordan’s level, you can’t leave any stone unturned to find the complementary talent you need to win trophies. And while Jackson and Jordan had established that culture of businesslike excellence, it wasn’t a given that the best players for the job would always come in as, well, polished as Jordan. Was that a bald joke? 

When Jackson started looking for someone with a singular skill for defense, his search inevitably led him to Dennis Rodman. He’d already developed a reputation as a wild card—not exactly in line with the Bulls’ culture, but his skills were easily on par with the other major players on the team. Had Jackson not learned to look outside the team’s established culture, Rodman and his rebound game would have left a huge gap in the Bulls lineup.

The Takeaway: Find your Freddie Mercury, er, Dennis Rodman. The outdoor industry is so great because people who work in this space are passionate about what they do. That attracts a certain cultural perspective, and more often than not you end up with teams who think and act and maybe even vote the exact same way. But diversity in every sense of the word brings a dynamic energy to every team. Learn which parts of your culture are steadfast, and which parts can loosen up to attract unparalleled talent.

Lesson #4: Give each candidate the experience they need.

Of course, once Rodman made the team it’s not like he suddenly became a businessman on the court or off. Jackson had his work cut out for him if he was going to harness the raw energy of Rodman effectively. That meant doing things for Rodman he might not have ever allowed for other members of the team, even MJ. When Scottie Pippen had knee surgery and missed the first several months of the 97-98 season, it was on Rodman to get serious and fill a big gap for the team. He did just that—but that also meant he was ready for a Vegas vacation right in the middle of the season. Jackson let him go, because they’d built a mutual respect and as Rodman’s coach, he knew how to get the best out of his player.

The Takeaway: No two candidates are alike. It’s critical to create a hiring process and to stick to it—but part of that means understanding what makes your candidates tick. At the executive level, you’ve got to give each candidate a hiring experience they’ll remember. Treat each candidate with respect and be prepared to engage with them in different ways depending on their personalities, their schedules, and anything else they bring to the table.

Lesson #5: Pay what they’re worth.

The Last Dance spent a lot of time looking at Scottie Pippen’s contract. It was well-known even back in the 90s that Pippen was one of the league’s top performers, certainly the second highest performer on the Bulls, but during the 1996-97 season he was only the 128th best paid player in the NBA. Bulls ownership acknowledged even when Pippen signed the contract responsible for this situation that he would be putting himself in a tough position down the road—but they signed the contract with him nonetheless. A lot of the tension between the players and the head office came to a head with Pippen’s contract and left a bad taste in his mouth as his tenure with the Bulls came to a close.

The Takeaway: The moment you start looking for ways to get executive talent on the cheap is the moment you become your own worst enemy. The Jerrys probably thought they were getting a great deal by criminally underpaying Pippen, but how much better could that relationship have been if they’d just compensated him according to his performance? Pippen was part of the magic that made the Bulls the insanely profitable organization it was, and an investment in him was an investment in the team’s future. Likewise, it’s up to hiring managers in the outdoor industry to make sure they’re compensating competitively and doing what they can to stand out to potential hires—or they risk losing their top performers as soon as they hire them.

—Tony O’Neill, President

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About the Author: Tony O’Neill is the Founder and President of Highline Outdoor Group — the purpose-driven executive search firm for forward- thinking outdoor industry and sporting goods companies and brands.

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