Coming into “The Last Dance,” most fans knew about Michael Jordan and how his father was tragically murdered in 1993. Immediately after his father’s death, Jordan decided to quit basketball and went into the world of baseball for a couple of years before making his return to the Chicago Bulls. During last night’s episodes of “The Last Dance,” the director spoke to Steve Kerr about the one thing he truly had in common with MJ. As it turns out, Kerr’s father was also murdered and the story is quite harrowing.
Back in 1984, Kerr’s father was the president of the American University of Beirut and he was tragically murdered by two extremists posing as students. Kerr was playing college basketball at the time and recalls getting a call in the middle of the night.
“So, I received a phone call in the middle of the night from a family friend,” Kerr said. “My phone rang at my door at 3 o’clock in the morning, so I knew something was up and he just said ‘Steve, I have terrible news.’ So, yeah. […] Basketball was the one thing I could do to take my mind off what happened. So I went to practice the next day. I didn’t know what else to do.”
Fans were pretty surprised by this story as it isn’t exactly common knowledge amongst casual viewers. It certainly made people understand why Kerr holds the beliefs that he does, and overall, there is no denying that Kerr is just a stand-up guy as a whole.