With most of us stuck inside our homes due to lockdown measures, everybody is looking for the next series to binge-watch. Most of us exhausted our must-watch lists weeks ago, after the collective high we experienced with Tiger King, we got stuck watching reruns of The Office, The Walking Dead or FRIENDS for the umpteenth time.

However, and this is especially true for sports fans, there’s a new series on the block which is on everybody’s screens and minds – ESPN’s documentary on the Chicago Bulls side of 1997-98, called The Last Dance.

The Last Dance Review: Great for sports fans

As sports fans would know, the Bulls side of that era featured the GOAT of basketball, Michael Jordan. That side won their sixth NBA championship in that season, concluding one of the most dominant runs in the history of the NBA, and ESPN’s series does an excellent job at capturing the rise of both the team, as well as Jordan.

It is the perfect antidote for any sports fan suffering from withdrawal due to the lack of any sporting events on TV at the moment, and also provides some telling insight into the individuals behind that stunning run by the Bulls. ESPN actually decided to release the series early due to the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting loss of live sports, and fans all over the world are extremely grateful to the sports broadcasters for this.

First of all, The Last Dance is extremely nostalgic for anybody with a fondness for the ‘90s. The fashion sense of the time, with huge, oversized blazers, can be seen in abundance, while there is also footage of Jordan shooting for Space Jam for all the Looney Tunes fans out there. Jordan’s iconic Nike ads, shot by Spike Lee, video montages of the Bulls absolutely crushing it on court, and even a video of Jerry Seinfeld paying M.J. a visit in the Bulls’ dressing room – it’s all there, and provides a feast of content for all of us who are pining for simpler times.

Now, for the serious stuff. The show, coming in at ten hours long, delves deep into the Bulls’ rise, going all the way back to late ‘80s to chart the rise of Jordan as well as the likes of Dennis Rodman and Scottie Pippen. But of course, it is Jordan who is front and center of this documentary, with the director, Jason Hehir, having had hours of behind-the-scenes footage from the Bulls’ season, as well as conducting almost eight hours of new interviews with the basketball star and the other protagonists from in and around the team.

The Last Dance provides a layered, complicated picture of one of the most famous athletes ever, and it is absolutely a must-watch for anyone with even a passing interest in basketball, or simply, even if you have only ever heard of Micheal Jordan and nobody else from the sport.

Starting with the end: The Last Dance

The series kicks off in the first episode with the story of how Bulls’ general manager, Jerry Krause, drops the bombshell on Phil Jackson, the legendary Bulls’ coach, that the 1997-98 season would be his last in charge of the team.

This prompts Jordan to announce that he would leave as well if Jackson was ousted, setting the stage for his battles with Krause. Jackson provides the name for this eventual documentary, dubbing that season ‘The Last Dance’ in a team meeting, and making it a goal to win that year’s championship to make it an unprecedented three in a row, and sixth overall, and thus bring down the curtains on a gloriously dominant era in the right way.

From there on, the timeline jumps forward and back, with multiple interviews, footage from news broadcasts and games providing context around that era. There are appearances and quotes from the likes of Jordan’s family, teammates, opponents, former NBA commissioner David Stern, and even former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

All of the major events of MJ’s time are covered, from the Bulls’ rivalries with the New York Knicks and the Detroit Pistons, to their championship runs, the legendary Dream Team, Pippen’s frustrations and triumphs, Dennis Rodman’s oddities, Jordan’s brief retirement and even briefer tryst with baseball, and the impact of his father’s killing on the legend.

Admittedly, this is a lot of heavy-duty material, but Hehir manages to showcase it all with grace and dignity, injecting humor wherever required (usually during Rodman’s sequences).

Insight into Jordan’s drive and competitiveness

A clear conclusion that can be drawn upon watching the series is that Jordan is intensely competitive, more so than any of his contemporaries by a country mile. He held onto real and perceived slights, any signs of lack of respect in a relationship and Jordan responded in a variety of ways; most of which came out with Jordan on top. 

Due to his pride, Jordan could very much hold a grudge for a long time, with his contempt for Krause extremely evident early on in the series. That bled onto the court several times. First with how Krause revered Toni Kukoc over Pippen. Then later on in the 1993 NBA finals when he met up with the Phoenix Suns. Jordan says that he was determined to get past Dan Majerle  just because Krause had once stated that he was a good defender. These couple examples shows the lengths Jordan would go to indirectly spite Jerry Krause. 

There are many more examples of him not letting things go. Jordan still holds it against Isiah Thomas for not shaking his hand after the 1991 Eastern Conference finals, where the Bulls beat his team, the Detroit Pistons.

In an illuminating sequence, the director, Hehir, gives Jordan an iPad to view the interview that Hehir conducted with Thomas for this documentary, but Jordan scoffs and hands it back without even looking at it, stating that Thomas was an ‘asshole’, no matter what Hehir showed him. It is actually quite amusing and entertaining to watch Jordan’s reactions to other interviews, with multiple F-bombs, obscenities and cuss words galore.

Jordan’s ability to hold grudges also ended his friendship with long-time buddy and NBA superstar Charles Barkley. After the two met during the Olympic trials in 1984, Jordan didn’t take kindly when Barkley’s infamous mouth turned to the the now-Charlotte Hornets owner.

It is also quite revealing to see Jordan describe himself as being difficult to deal with, despite his carefully-crafted image over decades of management. His teammates have stated this as well, with Will Perdue, who played alongside him from 1988 to 1995 for the Bulls, flat out calling him “an asshole” and “a jerk”.

Jordan infamously punched Perdue and Kerr in practices as well as trying to get Scott Burrell to the point of frustration where he would want to fight Jordan. It didn’t work.

However, Perdue caveats this by adding that “he was a hell of a teammate”. This is basically what Jordan’s teammates thought of him – they may not have liked him too much, but everybody recognized his greatness and the fact that he made all of them better.

And Burrell enjoyed the talk, “I never took it as him being cruel or him being evil. People talk junk to each other playing basketball all the time,” Burrell told USA TODAY Sports. “He never physically touched me. So he said some words.

Jordan even comes to the conclusion that towards the end of the series, that viewers may think of him as a tyrant. While the point of the documentary was not to sully Jordan’s reputation; on the contrary, it just shows everybody that even someone considered one of the greatest of all time to have played his sport, has his flaws and issues, which he is struggling with even today, almost two decades after he finally hung up his shoes.

This carries itself off the court as well, with Jordan’s well-documented gambling problems also shown in the documentary, which His Airness has always attributed to an addiction to competition and winning, rather than an addiction to gambling itself.

As we saw many times during the series, Jordan underwent a level of scrutiny and pressure that only a handful of humans have ever experienced. Basketball is very much a physical challenge, but because of the money NBA players make, not many pay attention to the psychological or mental aspects. This is especially true for someone like Jordan who was the face and undisputed leader of the championship Bulls. he

It’s not a surprise that MJ retired twice. Jordan even admitted in the documentary that he was mentally exhausted from the constant focus that it took to win three championships in a row through a grueling 82 game season and an even more intense playoff series.

And this is just on the court. It would have been easy to allow the stresses and pressures bleed into his life and manifest as problems with his marriage to wife Juanita, lashing out at the media, pulling back from personal relationships, yelling at his kids, or not finding the time to connect with his brothers or sisters. The inability to separate and reconcile fame is why child stars often implode; they have yet to develop the mental tools to manage that level of recognition and ego.

But Jordan seems to do an excellent job compartmentalizing his professional career and his personal life.

Jordan Jordan starts episode six by saying: “People say they want to be Michael Jordan for a day or a week, but try being Michael Jordan for a year. I bet no one would want to do that.”

Being an NBA superstar has their perks for sure, but not many are ready for the toll it can take on their emotional state and well-being.

A sports triumph in the age of Covid-19

To many The Last Dance is seen as a triumph of sports journalism, with Hehir and his editing team having done a fantastic job in editing and distilling the mountains of footage he must have had, to produce a coherent, gripping and entertaining series which still manages to bring out the nuances of Jordan’s and the other players’ personalities and quirks.

Another thing the series manages to do exceptionally well, is with its flashback sequences. The viewer is never left feeling disoriented, despite a number of such sequences being used throughout the series, and that sense of direction is always maintained. It also throws enough of a spotlight on the other players, such as Pippen and Rodman, and only goes to show that while Jordan was the undisputed star of the show, the team’s achievements would not have been possible without his teammates.

But is The Last Dance a “true” documentary?

One of the biggest critiques of the documentary is that it’s very clear Jordan held the key to the footage and controlled the narrative. Though we feel Jordan touched on most every sensitive topic that appeared during his career, we can’t help but feel that this was a toned down version of what could have been seeing as Jordan had control of the archival footage.

Though admittedly entertaining, it’s more a “dressed-up puff piece” than a true documentary as we’re used to seeing, at least according to The Guardian

But as journalism, regrettably, The Last Dance borders on malpractice. What ESPN has declined to mention during its breathless promotional blitz is that Jordan’s own production company, Jump 23, is among the co-producers behind the project – a fact you wouldn’t know from the closing credits, from which it has been notably omitted.

The Last Dance has come under fire from respected American documentarian Ken Burns for it’s clear conflict of interests and describes the relationship between the filmmakers and the subject as very problematic:

“If you are there influencing the very fact of it getting made it means that certain aspects that you don’t necessarily want in aren’t going to be in, period,” Burns told The Washington Post. “And that’s not the way you do good journalism … and it’s certainly not the way you do good history, my business.”

On the negative side, there are a couple of slightly jarring sequences, especially the interviews with other pop culture figures such as Nas and Justin Timberlake, who have had nothing to do with the Bulls. However, even these interviews only go to show that Jordan is a mythic, deity-like figure to even some of the biggest celebrities out there, and they can also relate to the crushing weight and constant pressure that such fame brings.

All about The GOAT

The Last Dance, while certainly not solely a Michael Jordan documentary, certainly is the central character in the Bulls’ side. It makes it quite clear that Jordan faced an almost unprecedented level of scrutiny, with his every utterance, action and movement being endlessly pored over and analyzed to no end.

Jordan, like many other highly-publicized people, comes across as somewhat solitary, and perhaps even lonely at times, struggling to understand how to navigate the choppy waters of extreme fame that he was thrust into. As stated earlier, while most celebrities would understand how Jordan was feeling, it was not something that even his inner circle or his teammates could come close to understand or experience themselves.

As such, the documentary allows us to gain access into the man’s thoughts, and enables the public to see the man behind the rousing jump shots, free throws and other acts of God on the court.

As an NBA fan, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the additional insight into the games best player. Mostly because Michael Jordan is someone that doesn’t care (or need) to be in front of the cameras. Unlike some of his fellow superstars like Magic Johnson, Barkley, Thomas or Shaquille O’Neal, Jordan doesn’t want to give interviews, show up on late night talk shows or wants to be an TNT analyst.

As he said in the docuseries, that started getting old after his “fourth or fifth” NBA season, so when the icon speaks, it has so much more weight, so what’s better than 10 extra hours of hearing Jordan’s take on… Michael Jordan?