Pool photo by Alexander Hassenstein
Hansi Flick did not see the parallel. This spring, like millions of others, he found himself absorbed by “The Last Dance,” the story of how, seven years after its first triumph, that great generation of the Chicago Bulls — Jordan, Pippen and a fluid supporting cast — found the drive, hunger and inspiration to conquer the world one last time.
The lesson Flick drew from the series was that there is something integral to the nature of exceptional athletes, something that separates them not only from the ordinary but from the merely great.