In the fall of 1997, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls begin their quest to win a sixth NBA title in eight years. But "The Last Dance," as coach Phil Jackson called it, will be shadowed by tension with the club's front office.

Michael Jordan is left to begin the 1997-98 season without his injured sidekick Scottie Pippen, whose contract dispute with the Bulls' front office reaches a fever pitch as the team gets off to one of the worst starts of its championship runs.

Once a key member of the hated Detroit Pistons "Bad Boys" championship teams that brutalized Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman is virtually all Jordan can count on in the early months of the 1997-98 season.

In what management insists is Phil Jackson's final season in Chicago as head coach of the Bulls, he continues to seem like the only one who can steer this unique, singular collection of talent to another title.

As Michael Jordan's fame peaked to unparalleled levels in the early 1990s in the wake of consecutive NBA titles and a starring role on the Olympic Dream Team, his image as "Air Jordan" made him a profoundly significant cultural figure.