"So Much Winning": Michael Jordan, The Last Dance, and Intersecting Pandemic Politics

The documentary The Last Dance was rushed for broadcast on ESPN, airing on Sundays between April 19 and May 17, 2020—even before the final episodes were completely edited. The rush was reportedly needed to help fill the media void created by the early cancellation of live sporting events during the global coronavirus pandemic. The Last Dance chronicles the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championship seasons between 1992 and 1998 while centering on Bulls' star Michael Jordan's achievements. The ten-part documentary's very existence and its original telecast during a global pandemic are indeed noteworthy. Jordan, whose company Jumpman 23 helped produce the series (although it is not listed in the credits), finally agreed to the project more than two decades after an NBA Entertainment camera crew chronicled the Bulls' final 1997–98 NBA championship season, which Coach Phil Jackson characterized as "the last dance." Much as with the public persona of Michael Jordan and those championship Bulls teams, The Last Dance is best understood as a sign of particular moments in time.

What is particularly remarkable is that the rise of Michael Jordan—as a basketball superstar and African American marketing icon palatable to white audiences—occurred amid another global health crisis, that of HIV/AIDS. The Bulls drafted Jordan out of the University of North Carolina in 1984, as the AIDS epidemic was ravaging bodies and marginalized communities and as the homophobic response of U.S. President Ronald Regan's administration largely ignored the devastation. Despite this significant backdrop, HIV/AIDS is never mentioned in The Last Dance, regardless of numerous opportunities to do so. Perhaps the most obvious place to situate HIV would have been via discussions about two players featured in The Last Dance: Jordan's 1992 Olympic "Dream Team" teammate Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers and his Bulls teammate Dennis Rodman. Johnson, who mainly appears to extoll Jordan's basketball greatness, announced in 1991 that he was HIV positive, and he remains among the most globally recognized faces of the disease. During his tenure with the Bulls, Dennis Rodman's colorful hairstyles often included a large red AIDS ribbon to raise awareness about those living with HIV/AIDS. Instead of providing context to Jordan's story through these or similar examples, the documentary serves instead as a type of "great man history" in promoting Jordan's basketball skills and masculine exceptionalism. This framing is perhaps most glaringly exemplified by an absence: while images of Jordan's ex-wife appear in the documentary—neither her name, Juanita Jordan (née Vanoy), nor her partnership with Jordan, clearly a contributing factor to his success, is ever mentioned.

Perhaps it is unsurprising that a media project guided by Jordan would mainly offer mythological storylines in lieu of sustained cultural (let alone feminist) analysis. That Jordan is so central to the documentary is additionally unsurprising, as he did excel in leading the Bulls to two NBA championship "three peats" between 1991 and 1993 and 1996 and 1998. Jordan was named the finals MVP with each NBA title and averaged thirty points per game over his fifteen-year career, while earning all-NBA honors eleven times. The silhouette of Michael Jordan—feet spread wide apparently soaring through the air with a basketball—remains central to the Jordan Brand, as his basketball persona and marketing acumen helped catapult the now long-retired Jordan to billionaire status.

Over the years, Jordan has quietly donated millions of dollars to support black and underserved communities and improve police-community relations. However, during his playing career, Jordan became famous for refusing to wade into explicitly political territory to protect his lucrative Nike marketing deal, for example, failing to support African American Harvey Gantt's 1990 Senate race versus segregationist Jesse Helms. Reportedly, Jordan justified such inaction by stating, "Republicans buy sneakers too." Jordan offers few regrets for that past stance in The Last Dance, preferring to identify as an athlete and not as an activist. In this way, Jordan stands in stark contrast to the activism embodied by African American athletes in recent years...