The Revenge of Jordan: Any Slight (Real or Imagined) Will Do

The Last Dance, presented by ESPN over five Sundays in April and May, focused on the 1997–98 Chicago Bulls' season. The Bulls general manager, Jerry Krause, had stated that he would allow Phil Jackson to coach the team one last season, hence the name, The Last Dance. Each of the ten episodes includes a look "behind the scenes" of the final season of the Bulls' championship run with numerous flashbacks to earlier periods in Jordan's athletic career. Many of these recollections did a good job of making connections to Michael Jordan's present circumstances (the 1998 playoff run), although a few of them seem a bit disjointed.

I was excited about watching the series, just as I used to be about Jordan's playoff games against the Knicks (although I was born and raised in New York), Pacers, Suns, Sonics, and especially the Jazz. I organized my Sundays around the series, making sure I had no distractions during the two-hour weekly shows. Still, to begin this review, I want to state that the film is not at all an investigative piece, not a documentary in the accepted sense. It promises us warts and all, but other than Jordan's taunting and domination of his peers (which is quite funny at times but at other times merely mean-spirited), few warts made it into this series. As documentarian extraordinaire Ken Burns has noted, The Last Dance was coproduced by Michael Jordan's company, Jump 23, and Jordan viewed all ten episodes before they were aired, likely giving him some control over the project. No, this is not what one would expect from a documentary, especially one ten hours long. Rather, it is a celebration of His Airness, and the leader was the man himself—Michael Jordan.

Once we understand that, it is easy to overlook the usual critiques that would have appeared in a film like this. For example, Jordan is extremely close to his family (I have no reason to doubt this), so one would expect that, in addition to his parents and brother, that Juanita Jordan—his wife during most of his NBA championships—might have been shown or even mentioned in some significant way during the stories about his six championships and/or his decision to leave basketball to play baseball. What did she think of this? Didn't this matter?

Moreover, Jordan was immensely popular, first nationally, then internationally, yet he avoided using his popularity to address pressing social issues. This fact is given short shrift. For example, at the height of Jordan's fame, Rodney King's beating by police officers and their acquittal led to riots in Los Angeles. Where was Jordan's voice? Maybe I have no right to question Jordan about this. Perhaps it is the NBA that has changed significantly over the last decade or so. But can you imagine LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and other present (at this writing) NBA players on mute while watching this kind of abuse? (James is not the only professional athlete to condemn the men involved in the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner, as well as the more recent killings of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, but he is a leading voice in criticizing a system of justice in the United States that has too little regard for the safety and lives of black and brown people.)

No, I understand that The Last Dance is not a documentary about Jordan and the Bulls; rather, it is a tribute to a man who was an incredible basketball player, whose shoes continue to be a fashion statement, and who did much to bring international fame to the sport of basketball. When I think of it in this way, The Last Dance is a damn good ten hours of film!

The series presents an abundance (perhaps an overabundance) of Jordan's amazing feats—gutty, astonishing last-second shots, breathtaking drives to the basket, extraordinary defensive plays, and unbelievable stamina. And what motivated him to achieve these implausible deeds? Jordan set up scenarios to seek revenge against his opponents...