The Last Dance aired on ESPN from April 19 to May 17, 2020, in the United States, while its episodes were released on Netflix internationally the day after their US airings; beginning on May 23, two episodes were aired back-to-back on ESPN's corporate partner ABC. ESPN2 aired an alternate version of the series intended for family viewing, which removed most of the profanity heard in the episodes. The series became available on Netflix on July 19, 2020.
However, The Last Dance received heavy criticism from many of Jordan’s former Bulls teammates, who disputed the series's accuracy and focus on Jordan. Much of the hostility stemmed from the expectation that the documentary would center exclusively on the 1997–98 Bulls season rather than be an account of Jordan's life and career. The series's creators were also accused of portraying multiple key players of that era in an unfairly negative fashion while being excessively deferential to Jordan.[5]
Phil Jackson's unique philosophy and demeanor take the Bulls to the next level. The team finally gets past Detroit and earns a shot at an NBA title, which is a dream matchup against Magic Johnson and the Lakers.
Jordan's return energizes the Bulls, the city and the NBA, but a playoff loss in 1995 fuels him to work harder than ever to get back on top; this is rewarded with their fourth NBA championship over Seattle in 1996, after a record-breaking 72-win season.
Battered and exhausted, the Bulls conclude their "Last Dance" with a sixth championship. Jordan, Jackson, and others reflect on the end of their dynasty.
Production and release
The Last Dance features interviews and never-released footage from the 1997–98 Chicago Bulls season. Over 500 hours of all-access footage was filmed and used to create the 10-part documentary series. According to Adam Silver (now NBA Commissioner, but then the head of NBA Entertainment), Jordan allowed the filming with the agreement that the footage would only be used with his direct permission. After many years, and many refusals from Jordan, he agreed in 2016 to a documentary proposal from Mike Tollin.[14]
ESPN and Netflix announced their joint production of the 10-part documentary series in May 2018,[6] with the first official trailer being released on December 25, 2018.[15][16] The release date was pushed back to June 2020 after another trailer was released in December 2019.[17][18] However, because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, ESPN released the final trailer on March 31, 2020 and moved the premiere to April 19, 2020, releasing the following statement:[8]
As society navigates this time without live sports, viewers are still looking to the sports world to escape and enjoy a collective experience. We've heard the calls from fans asking us to move up the release date for this series, and we’re happy to announce that we’ve been able to accelerate the production schedule to do just that. This project celebrates one of the greatest players and dynasties ever, and we hope it can serve as a unifying entertainment experience to fill the role that sports often play in our lives, telling a story that will captivate everyone, not just sports fans.
The series was released weekly from April 19, 2020 to May 17, 2020, with two episodes airing each Sunday.[8] Outside of the United States, the episodes were released on Netflix the day after their ESPN airing.[8]ESPN2 aired a censored version of the documentary alongside the ESPN broadcast.[19] The censored version was also aired on ABC.
According to Hehir, Jordan refused to film interviews in his home to maintain privacy. The interviews were filmed in three houses, one rented by the production and two others which were homes of friends of the production.[20] The fifth episode is dedicated to Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020. Bryant's interview was featured in the episode's opening.[21]
Reception
Critical response
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 97% based on 62 reviews, with an average rating of 8.85/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "A compelling and comprehensive portrait of one of basketball's great teams, The Last Dance's blend of archival footage and candid interviews confirms there's nobody quite like Mike or the team he led to victory."[22]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the series a score of 91 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[23]
Writing for Consequence of Sound, Robert Daniels gave The Last Dance a perfect score, calling the series "beautifully composed and edited together" and a "pulsating celebration of greatness."[24] Similarly, Alex Pattle of The Independent praised director Jason Hehir, writing that "Hehir's fear of being formulaic fosters a compelling freshness, and his ability to subtly segue between tones ensures Jordan's auras of magnetism and intensity are highlighted at the appropriate moments",[25] while Brian Lowry of CNN gave the series five stars out of five, saying that "it's a very, very deep dive, but for fans who will eat this stuff up, it hits all the right notes."[26]
The Chicago Sun-Times's Richard Roeper gave the series three and a half stars out of four, writing that "while some might question whether even one of the great team sports dynasties of all time merits such a lengthy treatment, if anything each episode left me wanting more. Not only were the Bulls a team for the ages, they also gave us a sports soap opera for the ages."[27] Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter gave the series a positive review, writing that "it's a tremendously engaging, ridiculously fun assemblage of spectacular basketball footage and reasonably introspective interviews with almost everybody you'd hope to hear from on the subject."[28] Writing for The New York Times, Wesley Morris wrote that "Hehir has this trick where any time someone says something debatable or controversial or simply worthy of running by [Michael] Jordan, he hands him an iPad and makes him watch what was said. And every time Hehir does it, Jordan turns the reaction into gold. He's an incredulous Zeus in these moments, lightning bolts falling from his toga as he laughs, zapping lesser gods."[29]
Conversely, filmmaker Ken Burns criticized Michael Jordan's involvement in the production of the series, saying that "if you are there influencing the very fact of it getting made, it means that certain aspects that you don't necessarily want in aren't going to be in [...] and that's not the way you do good journalism." Specifically, Burns pointed to Jordan's production company, Jump 23, being listed as a partner in the series.[30] Hehir would respond to such speculations stating "I ran into zero stop signs in the editorial process. Michael was involved, but in a distant satellite-level while making it. He never came close to the editing room and only received cuts as they were about to go on air. I think Michael is above the fray when it comes to what he wants in and out.”[31]
Criticism by former teammates
While The Last Dance drew positive reactions from many current NBA players,[32] many former teammates of Jordan expressed strong criticism for the series’ version of events, placing the blame on Jordan.[33]
Scottie Pippen was reportedly "wounded and disappointed" by his portrayal in the series, although he did not make any public remarks during the documentary's airing.[34] Pippen later denied any rift between himself and Jordan over the documentary;[35] however, he told Jordan he was not pleased with the docuseries and considered it to be "about Michael trying to uplift himself”. [36]
Pippen would go on to aggressively criticize Jordan in the following years. In 2021, he wrote an autobiography, Unguarded, which gives his own perspective on the Bulls' dynasty. In the book, he is highly critical of Jordan, calling him selfish, hypocritical and insensitive.[37] In other interviews, Pippen also stated that he thought Kobe Bryant and LeBron James were greater basketball players than Jordan,[38][39] and said that when Jordan first played for the Bulls, he was a “horrible” player and had poor shot selection .[40]
Horace Grant said that The Last Dance was edited to favor Jordan, remarking that the series was "entertaining, but we know [...] that about 90% of it [was] BS in terms of the realness of it"; he also denied Jordan's accusation that Grant was the source for The Jordan Rules and agreed that Pippen was portrayed unfairly.[41]
Grant also explained on Bill Cartwright's podcast that he initially planned to decline the interview offer, as he was not a member of The Last Dance team. However, after much persistence by the production crew, Grant finally "reluctantly" conceded to interview because he wanted to reminisce about his days as an NBA star. He then said he took an outspoken stance about his disdain for the documentary because he wanted to defend his character and did not agree with the veracity of Jordan's version of events.[42] Grant then doubled down on Jordan by expressing his frustrations about Jordan and the docu-series in a lengthy phone call with Shannon Sharpe. [43]
Bill Cartwright, the starting center on the Bulls’ first three-peat team, and an assistant coach on The Last Dance team, was reportedly unimpressed with the series, dismissing it as pure entertainment[44] and refused to let the series distort his own personal version of events.[45] Cartwright also explained in another interview that Jordan had been framing an inaccurate image to the public, and called his play-acting “silly.”[46]
Craig Hodges, a member of the first two championship seasons with the Bulls, said he felt disappointed about not getting an opportunity to be interviewed for the documentary, and further criticized Jordan for discussing the team's use of cocaine during the 1980s, which was also another subject that was not related to The Last Dance season. On the issue of cocaine use, Hodges remarked, "I was thinking about the brothers who [were on the team] with you who have to explain [what happened] to their families”.[47][48]
Some expressed disappointment over the omission of starting center Luc Longley in the series, including Longley himself. In 2021, an episode of Australian Story, titled The Last Dance ‘Missing Chapter’, was released with Longley's response, including interviews with ex-teammates such as Pippen and Jordan. The documentary developed into a major success in its own right.[49]
Following the positive reception of Longley’s documentary, the Bulls organization released an additional feature documentary of a key backbone for The Last Dance team, sixth manToni Kukoc. The documentary was titled, “The Waiter,” paying tribute to Kukoc’s nickname acquired in his native country of Croatia.[50]
Others also expressed disappointment in the lack of coverage of another starter on the Last Dance team, point guardRon Harper.[51] Harper was only included for a few seconds, talking about his time playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1989 when he expressed disagreement with his coach for not assigning him to defend Jordan during The Shot,[52] but never was shown discussing his role in the Bulls' second three-peat. Harper had started all 82 games during The Last Dance season.[53]
There was also criticism for the series' emphasis on Steve Kerr—a minor player on the Bulls' last championship team—which was allegedly linked to his recent success as the head coach of the Golden State Warriors. Some compared it to a scenario where ESPN did a documentary on the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers and placed Tony Dungy (who like Kerr had a successful head coaching career but a lesser playing career) in the same company as Joe Greene, Franco Harris, and Jack Lambert. Kerr himself admitted that the series emphasized him more than what was needed, and also did not condone the absence of Longley and Harper in the series.[54][55]
Some experts came to the defense of Jerry Krause, criticizing Jordan for intentionally delaying the start of the production until Krause passed away in 2017 in order to prevent him from being able to explain his own version of events. Sports Illustrated questioned Jordan's narratives during the docu-series, calling him “cruel”, and said that Krause deserved better treatment.[56]
US ratings
For the 2019–20 television season, the show tied for fifth among adults 18–49 in the Nielsen ratings with This Is Us, averaging a 2.9 rating and 15 share. It also placed 55th in total viewership, averaging 6.71 million viewers. Variety dubbed the show's performance a "consolation prize" for ESPN given the network's struggle to find live sports.[57] The series also became ESPN's most-watched documentary.[58]
The Last Dance : U.S. viewers per episode (millions)
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Viewership and ratings per episode of The Last Dance
