‘The Last Dance’: What the Michael Jordan documentary taught us - Deseret News

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“The Last Dance” finished up its five-week run last weekend. The documentary told the story of Michael Jordan and his success with the Chicago Bulls. We learned a lot about Michael Jordan and his championship pedigree. We saw behind-the-scenes glimpses at what it’s like to compete in the NBA. We were given a glimpse into the ‘90s basketball era at a time when almost no sports are being played.

But it also meant something for our culture, experts say.

Dr. Josh Shuart, the director of sport management at the Jack Welch College of Business & Technology at Sacred Heart University (Connecticut), told the Deseret News that the documentary represented something important for our modern society. We’re living in a time without sports and without fresh entertainment content.

Watching “The Last Dance” gave us something to look forward to during a time where there’s nothing else going on, he said.

“Why is it important AND why did people watch it? The latter is simple: with the absence of live sports of any kind, it was probably the single most interesting thing on TV,” Shuart said in an email to the Deseret News.

Michael Jordan in “The Last Dance.”

Netflix/Mandalay Sports Media/NBA Entertainment

Historically, pundits enjoy fantasizing about the past eras of basketball, he said. Comparing teams from different eras make up a lot of the social discourse around sports, igniting a conversation unlike much else we’re seeing right now, he said.

In fact, we saw this in the immediate aftermath of “The Last Dance” documentary. Sports organizations — like Bleacher Report and ESPN — shared “what if” posts about who would win competitions between the Golden State Warriors and the Chicago Bulls, or even the Warriors and the early-2000s Los Angeles Lakers.

Seeing those older teams in a modern context helps us remember our past, Shuart said. Reliving those moments connect us with our childhoods, which can make us feel better when we’re dealing with tremendous stresses, like the coronavirus pandemic.

“As consumers, we love to reminisce and relive the good while the bad fades away,” Shuart said. “This transforms us mentally back to our childhood, while for younger fans, it allowed them visual access to an amazing career retrospective of the greatest basketball player ever. It was refreshing to go back to a pre-cellphone, VHS world for a few weeks.”

Why Jordan matters

Michael Jordan matters for the culture, too. The NBA star made his mark on the world through the Air Jordan sneaker, creating a culture where athletes could receive endorsements.

The Air Jordan sneaker still resonates to day. A pair of Air Jordan shoes from Jordan’s 1985 rookie season sold for $560,000 at a Sotheby’s action this week, as I reported for the Deseret News.

Jordan set the standard when it came to connecting athletes to brands and brands to athletes. Today’s rookies often weigh the decision of which brand they’ll link up with for their sponsorships. Nike, Adidas, Puma and more all sponsor athletes to the highest degree.

Marketing yourself as an athlete can make or break your career, Shuart said. Players can earn just as much or more through endorsements than they do through their salaries.

Athletes can curate their brand during their career and even well into retirement, he said.

Shaquille O’Neal is a prime example, Shuart said. The Los Angeles Lakers legend — though highly celebrated for his basketball career — has built post-basketball success through sponsorships and business opportunities. O’Neal has stake in Papa John’s Pizza and he’s on plenty of commercials, ranging from Icy Hot to General Insurance.

Shaquille O’Neal and Mark Madsen of the Los Angeles Lakers speak during a NBA game against the Miami Heat at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Calif.

Matt A. Brown, SPTSW

“Shaq is arguably more successful now than he was as a player, and that is no easy feat for someone who was as great as he was,” Shuart said. “Michael Jordan was simply one of the best athlete endorsers that we will ever see.”

The controversial comments

Jordan’s success doesn’t come without criticism, though. Much has been made of the remarks he dished out in the documentary in the days since it ended. His former teammates have expressed discontent over his comments, too.

Former Bulls center Horace Grant told ESPN 1000 that “The Last Dance” documentary is full of lies. He specifically pointed to the part where Jordan said Grant leaked information to reporter Sam Smith for a tell-all book about the Bulls.

“Lie, lie, lie. ... If MJ had a grudge with me, let’s settle this like men,” Grant said during the interview. “Let’s talk about it. Or we can settle it another way. But yet and still, he goes out and puts this lie out that I was the source behind (the book). Sam and I have always been great friends. We’re still great friends. But the sanctity of that locker room, I would never put anything personal out there. The mere fact that Sam Smith was an investigative reporter. That he had to have two sources, two, to write a book, I guess. Why would MJ just point me out?

VANCOUVER, BC - JANUARY 27: Scottie Pippen #33 and Michael Jordan #23 of the Chicago Bulls sit on the bench during the game against the Vancouver Grizzlies at General Motors Place on January 27, 1998 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

NBAE via Getty Images

“It’s only a grudge, man. I’m telling you, it was only a grudge. And I think he proved that during this so-called documentary. When if you say something about him, he’s going to cut you off, he’s going to try to destroy your character.”

Grant isn’t without a teammate in slamming the documentary. Scottie Pippen is reportedly livid about how he was portrayed in the documentary, too.

David Kaplan, on his ESPN 1000 “Kap and Company” show in Chicago, said Pippen is “so angry” about how “The Last Dance” talked about his career and the injuries he suffered as a member of the Chicago Bulls.

According to Kaplan, Pippen feels that the documentary bashed him for his migraine in the 1990 Eastern Conference Finals and for his surgery decision ahead of the 1997-98 season.

“(Pippen) felt like up until the last few minutes of Game 6 against the Jazz (in the 1998 NBA Finals), it was just ‘bash Scottie, bash Scottie, bash Scottie,’” said Kaplan on his ESPN show, according to the New York Post.

But Dennis Rodman — a teammate of the Chicago Bulls who formed a trio with Pippen and Jordan — dismissed the criticisms.

Rodman said teammates shouldn’t complain about how they were portrayed, according to the New York Post.

“The players were a little upset because they felt Michael was throwing them under the bus,” Rodman said on the “Good Morning Britain” program, according to the UK tabloid, The Mirror.

“Mentally, I don’t think they were strong enough to handle that, because Phil Jackson is a laid-back coach. Michael is more like, ‘I’m going to do it, watch me be famous.’ I didn’t care because I was already famous,” Rodman said.

These wars of words between the former teammates are a sign of the documentary’s impact, Shurt of Sacred Heart told me. Jordan is a controversial figure, so it’s no surprise there’s been some backlash.

“The documentary definitely projected Jordan as a win-at-all-costs player, which anyone who watched him in his prime would believe,” Shurt said. “And it may have helped to explain away some of his behavior. MJ was rumored to have had final edit on the film, yet ‘The Last Dance’ does not paint a completely positive picture of his personality or leadership. You cannot argue with the success of the documentary, and ultimately it will spawn legions of imitators.”

The importance of sports documentaries

There might not have been too much new content in “The Last Dance” for sports fans who grew up in the Jordan era. Basketball fans who watched Jordan’s two three-peats likely knew the ins and outs of the story.

But storytelling still provides a path for us to find happiness, Shuart said.

“Above all, even though we know the beginning, middle and end, the storytelling provides amazing insight and perspective and results in a very compelling story,” he said.

ESPN recognizes this. The brand has already decided to lock in a documentary about Tom Brady to piggy-back off the success of “The Last Dance.” That’s in addition to the upcoming “30 for 30” documentaries. The schedule includes “LANCE,” which will detail the rise and fall of Lance Armstrong. Then, we’ll see “Long Gone Summer,” which details the home run chase between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.

“It’s a great feeling to bring three more epic documentary projects to sports fans who so need it right now,” said Libby Geist, vice president and executive producer of ESPN Films and original content. “Moving up these films is no easy task, but it’s absolutely worth the effort to get them on the air for audiences to experience together. It’s a mix of fascinating topics, compelling characters and some of the absolute best storytelling our team has cranked out. The whole ESPN Films team is working hard to entertain fans while we wait for live sports to return and give them a distraction while we go through these hard times.”

Sports documentaries provide real stories about sports, something that the American pop culture scene enjoys, Shuart said.

“The Last Dance” is just the latest example of the success of those projects.

“We love true stories, we love sports, and we love easy-to-consume television,” Shuart said. “Whether you watched ‘The Last Dance’ over the course of the five weekends it was broadcast, or binged it in a day or two, it ticks all the boxes.”

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