Michael Jordan Talks Final Bulls Season, Having $20 in Bank Account at UNC

Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan said Thursday on ABC's Good Morning America he once was down to the last $20 in his bank account during his time at the University of North Carolina. 

Jordan, whose net worth is now $2.1 billion, according to Forbes, made the revelation to Robin Roberts in an appearance ahead of "The Last Dance," a 10-part documentary series set to air on ESPN beginning Sunday night:

"It's a little different today. I mean, quite frankly, I mean, I had a phone bill that was probably $60 or a little less and I only had $20 in my account. So, I mean, and the thing that people are going to learn, and my kids laugh about it when they see it, but we used postage stamps back in those days. You know, I had to ask my mom to send me postage stamps. So, I mean, looking at the video, you're going to see a lot of things that people tend to forgot, that life was this way. I mean, you know, we didn't have Instagram, we didn't have Twitter.

"So, I mean, you had to live life as it came, you know, and each day you preciously protected it. You learn the education aspect, spending time with friends and family. It wasn't via the phone, you know, it was actually in presence. You wrote letters. So, I mean, to me, that's probably the most refreshing thing that my mom, she kept all of my letters. So, I mean, it's somewhat embarrassing, but yet it's refreshing that I took the time to write a letter to say how much I love my mom and what I needed in college."

The Last Dance chronicles the Bulls' 1997-98 NBA season, which ended with the franchise's last championship of its dynastic six-title run during the 1990s.

Jordan explained to Roberts the sense of urgency that surrounded the team all campaign:

"It was a trying year, we all were trying to enjoy that year knowing that it was coming to an end. I was hoping that, you know, the beginning of the season basically started when [general manager] Jerry Krause told [head coach Phil Jackson] that, you know, he could go 82-0 and he would never get the chance to come back. And, you know, knowing that, I married myself to him, obviously, and if he wasn't going to be the coach then, you know, obviously I wasn't going to play. So, Phil started off the year by saying this was going to be 'The Last Dance,' and we played it that way. You know, so mentally it just kind of tugged at you throughout the course of the year, you know, but this had to come to an end, but it also centered our focus to making sure we ended right. As sad as it sounded at the beginning of the year, we tried to rejoice and enjoy the year and finish it off the right way."

Richard Deitsch of The Athletic previewed the first eight episodes of the highly anticipated documentary and provided a key quote from Jordan in the seventh show when he was asked about trading the label of nice guy in exchange for pushing teammates to reach peak performance:

"Look, winning has a price. And leadership has a price. So I pulled people along when they didn't want to be pulled. I challenged people when they didn't want to be challenged. And I earned that right because my teammates who came after me didn't endure all the things that I endured. Once you joined the team, you lived at a certain standard that I played the game. And I wasn't going to take any less. Now if that means I had to go in there and get in your ass a little bit, then I did that. You ask all my teammates. The one thing about Michael Jordan was he never asked me to do something that he didn't f--king do.

"When people see this they are going say, 'Well he wasn't really a nice guy. He may have been a tyrant.' Well, that's you. Because you never won anything. I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win to be a part of that as well. Look, I don't have to do this. I am only doing it because it is who I am. That's how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you don't want to play that way, don't play that way."

Along with interviews featuring members of the Bulls organization, opponents and other individuals who came in contact with the 90s' top basketball team—director Jason Hehir told Deitsch he spoke with 106 people—the series includes behind-the-scenes footage from the season via NBA Entertainment.

"That footage was the driving force of the entire project," Hehir explained to Peter White of Deadline. "Without that footage, I'm not discussing this film. It's such a mammoth story to tell that you need a lens with which to tell it. That footage provides the perfect lens."

Here's a look at the documentary trailer:

The Last Dance will air over the next five Sundays with two episodes each week on ESPN through May 17. The episodes will be released in the same format on Netflix for people outside the United States each Monday until May 18.