ANTHONY GETTINO
Assistant Sports Editor
This mini-documentary series was exactly what the sports world needed right now.
As everyone is well aware of at this point, there are currently no major American sports playing due to the Coronavirus pandemic. This has left a void in many people’s lives, as they can’t watch their favorite teams play.
In comes the Michael Jordan series “The Last Dance,” which is a ten-part series that’s airing on ESPN on Sundays at 9 p.m.
This series is an in-depth look at different aspects of the dynasty Bulls and Michael Jordan’s playing career on the team.
Part one was about the team trying to get their second 3-peat of NBA Championships in a seven-year span. Part two focused around Scottie Pippen, who was the Robin to Michael Jordan’s Batman on the dynasty teams.
Part three and four aired the following weekend, with part three being about the enigma that was Dennis Rodman and how his joining of the Bulls made one of the NBA’s best three-headed monsters of all time. Part Four was about the Bulls and Jordan’s rivalry against the Detroit Pistons during this time period and the bad blood between the players on the teams that shaped different parts of NBA history because of it.
The latest episodes were memorable as well, as Part Five was centered around the late Kobe Bryant against Michael Jordan. Part Six was about Jordan’s gambling problem.
Even as a casual NBA fan, this series is super interesting. The different things that these guys were up to during the dynasty are just plain silly. The Dennis Rodman episode was especially fun to watch, as that man is a character. He would be remembered as someone who had an original hairstyle and created the load management system that many star players are starting to implement now, but I had no idea the skill he had on the court was that good. And the antics he would pull, with vacations unplanned in the middle of the season to Vegas and so on, you had no idea what he was doing.
I also liked the casualness of the interviews; the guys were just reminiscing on the glory days in them. The cussing made everything seem far more genuine as well.
ESPN was very smart to start releasing this when they did, as it has captivated the entire nation on Sunday nights. On Twitter for the next 24 hours after these episodes air, there’s almost no other content but Michael Jordan, The Last Dance and whatever that night’s topic was about.
I hope that ESPN can keep releasing these weekly, as I’ve read that they weren’t done with the series before they started airing them due to the lack of content the company has at the moment without sports to play.