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Title: The Last Dance (2020)
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Charting the rise of the 1990's Chicago Bulls, led by Michael Jordan, one of the most notable dynasties in sports history.
I've had never liked Michael Jordan (the hazards of being a Pistons fan I guess, you grab onto anything the slightest bit negative about someone you're predisposed to not like, that confirmation bias), just like as a Tigers, Wings and Lions fan I dislike all the icons over the years with the Sox and Cubs, 'Hawks, or Bears either. The rivalries between Detroit and Chicago with all our rival teams for so many years being in the same conferences and divisions, you are almost expected to loathe each others' teams and fans.
But even 25 years past it's still a real thing, whether justified or not, and I will always consider Jordan a suck for forcing Isiah Thomas off the Dream Team. Other people may be taking flak e.g. Magic Johnson now after so long to get some of it off Jordan, but at the time the sole thing stopping Thomas from (rightfully, it was a real unwarranted slap in the face to him) being on the team was Jordan, and everyone knows it.
It came close to a real abuse of power, in this case star power to interject himself into a decision he should have had zero influence in. That makes it doubly ironic that he didn't help his biggest asset, Scottie Pippen, out by using the undeniable star-power franchise-making influence he had over the entire Bulls organization from bottom to top to force the GM and/or owner to offer Pippen a wage reopener on his contract. Other athletes did this all the time to help out a teammate who got a particularly horrible contract, ones with much less power than Jordan I might add. When Pippen was traded Shaq immediately gave up 2 million dollars a year of his own salary to give directly to Pippen, and they were brand new teammates with no existing relationship of any kind.
That's what a classy player does, or one with the slightest lack of pervasive self regard. At the time I'd hoped it shamed Jordan a bit for Shaq to have done what he did without a second's thought, again, what a class act in comparison, but Jordan has always struck me as an Ayn Rand-type, with that "I at least partially lucked into this lifeboat so I hope the rest of you suckers can swim" attitude, and him never lifting a finger when he could have with absolutely no detriment to himself to make sure one way or another than the league-wide disgrace over the pittance Pippen was paid was rectified. There was no downside to Jordan to help out someone who's supposed to be not just your most needed teammate to help you do the magic, like Messier to Gretzky, but also a friend.
But maybe that really ruthless way of looking at every opportunity or situation on or off the court as toward one single goal, winning, blinded Jordan to this really easy opportunity to do something truly righteous and with the kind of fortune Jordan amassed through sponsorships he could well afford to shave a couple of mil off his Bulls salary to help out Pippen who had arguably earned that money right off Jordan for how they had eyes in the back of their heads knowing every second where the other one was on the court, it was uncanny.
And I haven't even mentioned the series yet I know, but I wanted to give the full context about how many different things I don't like about Michael Jordan before saying how much I loved this documentary series. I'm a big fan of documentaries, but especially longer series versus a feature-length, where the director and writer(s) can really dig into a subject. I watch the classic older docs like "Victory At Sea" or "The World At War" that Laurence Olivier narrated so well, and I try to watch every decent documentary series from all over the world as much as I can (other than cheesy ones with inaccuracies that don't dig very deep into the subject matter, like those churned out by "history-themed" cable channels).
I came into this wanting it to be a total hatefest on my part while watching, about this documentary was so riveting in that way that it makes you forget yourself as well as any preconceived notions one has about Jordan; maybe that is why this has really proved popular beyond all expectation in this weird time we are in. It is the ultimate escapism for a sports fan particularly, and even more particularly when sports of any type are in short supply. And I found something so very unexpected happening inside me, deeply in a way, as a person, seeing Jordan's humanity so fully exposed as it was bound to be with so many thousands of hours of film to go through, it changed the way I feel about Jordan completely just through the reaction of my own basic compassion I develop for anyone I get to know, and I feel like through watching this I really got to know Michael Jordan, the person, not just Michael Jordan, the player.
Beyond reliving something in a way that makes you feel you're right back to all those times if you'd been a basketball fan that long, and feel like you're back there still even if you hadn't been born yet maybe. The series really uses framing of the different time periods very subtly, but while still shifting the mood seamlessly in a second flat... I don't think I've ever quite seen that before. I just turn 50 and this series brought me back with such potent nostalgia to my 20s that I felt like I did watching some of those games for the first time ever, a virtual time machine, and though I still don't like some of his actions and choices back then, "The Last Dance" made me like Michael Jordan, the man. Maybe even love him. And considering my starting point, that is something.