Winners and Losers of The Last Dance

As the spring of 2020 has brought us a world of no sports, the 1990s Chicago Bulls took the stage as ESPN bumped up the release date for the much anticipated 10 part docuseries about Michael Jordan and his dynasty with the Bulls The Last Dance.

All 10 episodes were a nostalgic ride back to the 1980s and ’90s, when Jordan seized control of basketball and seemingly the world. Each two-hour block Sunday, when new episodes aired, seemed like must watch TV for every sports fan.

“It was the perfect time to release this, because the whole world is dying for sports so ESPN knew everyone would be watching,” said Nick Giordano, a longtime Bulls fan.

The series highlighted the good and bad of the Bulls dynasty, these are the winners and losers of the documentary.

Winner: ESPN  

The premiere of The Last Dance scored 6.1 million viewers, an all-time record for an ESPN documentary, according to Frank Pallotta of CNN Business. ESPN has dominated Sunday nights with this series, so you can expect it to churn out plenty more Last Dance-related content. ESPN sister network ABC will broadcast a one-hour special titled After the Dance with Stephen A. Smith: A SportsCenter Special this coming week. During the event, Smith and Los Angeles Lakers icon Magic Johnson will break down the biggest revelations from The Last Dance. With the world starving for sports, The Last Dance was primed to capture the attention of millions and ESPN capitalized on that opportunity.

Loser: Jerry Krause and Jerry Reinsdorf

The biggest villain throughout the series was Bulls general manager Jerry Krause. The series begins with an explanation that Jerry Krause would be starting a rebuild of the Bulls after the 1997-98 season, no matter the results. Over the next few episodes there are many stories from Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Phil Jackson etc… showing their dislike of Krause. Old footage of Jordan making fun of Krause is shown many times throughout the series making it clear that the feelings toward Krause were never hidden. In the end Pippen does give some credit to Krause for assembling the team that Chicago was, but nothing nicer was said about the GM.

“Jerry Krause’s stubbornness is the only reason that the Bulls didn’t win seven or more championships, and I don’t think Bulls fans will ever forgive him for that,” Bulls fan Nathan Meersman said.

Team owner Jerry Reinsdorf did not come out of the documentary looking much better. One of the key moments of the final episode features Jordan watching Reinsdorf’s explanation for breaking up the team. Jordan watched the video with his eyes rolling the entire time clearly disagreeing. Reinsdorf insisted that the market value of all the players made it impossible to keep the team together, which Jordan claimed to be not true.

Winner: Jordan’s Teammates

Over the series, Jordan’s teammates had time devoted to them and their stories as well. From Scottie Pippen’s family struggles as a child, Dennis Rodman’s wild life off the court and grit and tenacity on the court, and Steve Kerr losing his father to a murderer in Beirut. The Last Dance gave an opportunity for these players, who were often seen as Jordan’s sidekicks, to tell and highlight their own stories and successes. Jordan is seen by many as the GOAT by many, but he didn’t win six championships by himself. These were all time great teams.

Loser: Jordan’s Teammates

At the same time there were moments when Jordan’s teammates didn’t come out looking too good. Pippen’s dismay for Jerry Krause seemed to cross the line a time or two. There was also a highlighted game where Pippen refused to enter the game on the final possession because he didn’t agree with the play called by head coach Phil Jackson. These moments and his early season holdout in 1997-98 didn’t sit well with viewers.

As for Rodman, the filmmakers did not hold back about his off-court life. In the final episode of the series, we see that Rodman left the team in the middle of the NBA Finals to make an appearance in a professional wrestling event with Hulk Hogan. Jackson expressed this as “dishonor” to the organization.

Apart from these two players, there was also a lot of footage from practices and bus rides that showed Jordan always making fun of his teammates and being critical of the way they played. Once again, the players other than Jordan ended up getting the short end of the stick in the series.

Winner: Michael Jordan

Prior to the release of the documentary, Jordan expressed that he was afraid the fans were going to see him as a bad guy because of his intensity and the way he treated the people around him. That intensity showed through, but so did Jordan’s explanation for it. He articulated his emotions well, and in the end everything was geared toward the motivation to his greatness, and fans reacted to this in the best possible way. This documentary was about greatness of Michael Jordan. Everything else was an accessory to this idea. Gambling problem? No, that was a competition problem. Ruthless and mean treatment of teammates? No, that was the game’s greatest leader preparing his soldiers for playoff battles. This was the brilliance of Jordan and after this documentary, people understand him more and further solidify him as one world’s greatest athletes and competitors ever.

“I don’t think anyone can watch this documentary and still think he isn’t the greatest player of all time. He is the best there has ever been, discussion over,” Giordano said.