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The Last Dance Shows Why Moments in Time Will Define Your Destiny

It’s the learning we take from these moments in time that matters

Paul Abela, MSc
3 min readJun 8, 2020

Your life can be defined in moments. The ninth episode of The Last Dance, the Netflix series documenting the rise, and rise, of Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls dynasty of the 1990s, shows why.

It’s game seven of the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals between the rampaging Chicago Bulls and the dark horses, the Indiana Pacers. Win, and be on course to make history. Lose, and the Chicago Bulls chance to complete their second three-peat (winning the NBA championships 3 times in a row) would lay in ruins. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

Game seven was tight. The Indiana Pacers were winning 77–74 in the fourth quarter. But a jump ball changed everything. The Indiana Pacers star player Reggie Miller hints at the jump balls importance. “If we win that jump ball and go down and score and go up five, it could be it for them.”

Win it, they didn’t. The Chicago Bulls won the jump ball, landing a 3-pointer. The Bulls found themselves tied for the game, rather than 5 behind, “and to me (Miller) I think that’s where everything went downhill for us. It changed everything.”

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Paul Abela, MSc
Paul Abela, MSc

Written by Paul Abela, MSc

Writer and systems thinker | Place a lens on the social, economic and political causes of the climate crisis | Visit my website and blog at transformatise.com

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