What does Michael Jordan think about "The Last Dance"?
The Bulls 1997-98 documentary will change your mind about MJ
March 16th, 2020
*** UPDATE 16/4 ***
3 days after the release on ESPN screens and 4 days after that on Netflix, The Last Dance loads expectations even more by letting something out. This is not a real spoiler, as much as a confirmation: Michael Jordan cries and is therefore human. Without wanting to spoil anything, the 6-time NBA champion at the end of the seventh episode of The Last Dance, the documentary on the Bulls 1997-98, lets himself go to never so sincere reflections. In tears, MJ says:
"Winning has a price. Leadership has a price. So I cornered people who didn't want to be put under pressure. I challenged people who didn't want to be challenged. I earned this right because my colleagues who came after they couldn't stand everything I endured. When you join a team, you live up to its certain standard of play. And it couldn't be less. If that meant I had to disturb them a little, then I did. my teammates, they'll tell you that the only thing MJ didn't ask them to do is something he didn't do. [...] When people see The Last Dance, they'll say 'He was a horrible guy'. Maybe he was a tyrant. Well it depends on you. Because you never won anything. I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win too. I did it because it is who I am. I am as you saw me on the field, exactly as I played for the whole career. It was my mentality. If you don't want to play like this, don't play like this"
Strong words of a man who went down in history thanks to his mentality, his obsession as a winner and the unique ways he had to motivate his teammates - if necessary, intercom Steve Kerr. Yet these words seem to be an answer to what Jerry Stackhouse, a partner of MJ at the time of the Washington Wizards, said last week - "I wish I had never played with Jordan, my admiration for him went down a lot during that period. He always wanted the ball and if one thing was not going well, you had to go to him and never to the others".
There is nothing left to do but prepare for one of the most hype sports documentaries in history.
*** UPDATE 31/3 ***
According toAndrew Marchand of the New York Post and other reliable sports sources, the 10-part documentary "The Last Dance" on the Chicago Bulls of the 1997-1998 season will be available from Sunday 19 April. Prior to the NBA's forced stop, the release of one of the most hype ESPN products of all time was slated for July. The situation, however, convinced ESPN to change its programming and anticipate its release. LeBron also seems to particularly like this choice:
April 19th can’t come fast enough. I CAN NOT WAIT!! Yessir! #LastDance
— LeBron James (@KingJames) March 31, 2020
The spasmodic wait began in May 2018, when ESPN announced the making of "The Last Dance", a 10-part documentary about the Chicago Bulls 1997-98, considered by the vast majority the best team of all time. This wait may have run out sooner than expected. After launching the trailer on Christmas Eve, the whole world waited to learn about the "untold stories about Michael Jordan and his Bulls". The initial plan was to launch the documentary in June, but the forced stop of all American sports could change ESPN's schedule.
Millions of Americans are wondering "what can we do without sport?" and the American sports broadcast par excellence could answer this question. There is no mention of rumors, of rumors, but of concrete possibilities of seeing before June one of the products that everyone - sports and non-sportsmen - wants to consume as soon as possible. If on the one hand in the last seconds of the trailer it is understood that the release is set for June, some spots aired in the last few days on ESPN continue to recite "coming soon". The issuer has not yet gone unbalanced and has not yet said anything about it. The transition from "coming in June" to "coming soon" would not seem to be justified except by a. change of programming. Although it is a product that lives in an aura of incredible hype, to say that "it will arrive shortly" when it is officially scheduled in 3 months seems premature.
Source at ESPN says there are no “current plans” to move up the much anticipated Michael Jordan doc The Last Dance, and the plan is still to release it June. (Would be amazing if it could’ve somehow been ready for like April 15th or so.) pic.twitter.com/ReiD9IQh3I
— Ryan Glasspiegel (@sportsrapport) March 13, 2020
All American broadcasters are rummaging through their archives to make up for the lack of live sports, looking for the most adequate coverage after the stop for the coronavirus pandemic. Ben Koo of Awful Announcing - one of America's most popular sports blogs - also believes that "coming soon" is a symptom of a change in "The Last Dance" programming:
The other interesting thing to note here is that ESPN has been showing an awful lot of commercials the past few days for The Last Dance, which really wouldn’t make sense if it was indeed coming in June. While ESPN no longer has games they need to promote, and we’re seeing 30 for 30 and other programming getting a lot more promotional love instead, it wouldn’t make much sense to be hammering The Last Dance so hard 80-90 days out.
ESPN’s most recent commercial for ‘The Last Dance’ now says “coming soon”
— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) March 15, 2020
(h/t @bkoo ) pic.twitter.com/K9CqHDsezw