Michael Jordan as
He’s back. And, as we’ve become accustomed to, the timing of His Airness, the one true Goat, Michael Jordan, could not be better.
Just when we needed to be reminded of the special power of sport, the beautiful dramatic, anarchic, cosmic, seismic nature of transcendent talent and competitiveness morphing into a manically flawed yet flamboyantly successful collection of individuals doing special things together, along comes The Last Dance, the story of the last lap of the track of the Jordan-led Chicago Bulls en route to their sixth NBA championship in 1998.
What a treat it is. What a ride it will be. What a reminder it serves. Never mind that for those of us of a certain vintage, a certain inclination (hoops, hardwood, hang-time, etc, etc), the story is an exceedingly familiar one. Anyone who loves their sport, and recalls the ‘90s with anything resembling passing familiarity, surely knows this tale of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls too well.
But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t merit a retell, both to enlighten the younger generation and to entertain us oldies with a new spin on an age-old tale.
The Last Dance, a 10-part series from those sports doco wizzes at ESPN (airing on Netflix in New Zealand, a couple of instalments at a time) is what you might call the perfect antidote to the Covid-19 lockdown. It was not meant to see the light of day until later in the year, but when the world effectively shut down to battle this deadly pandemic, some very influential people (including LeBron James) demanded an early release to satiate the demand for content in these trying times.
Voila.
If you haven’t jumped on board the bandwagon, please do. Half the world, it seems, is lapping this wonderful series up and if the first two episodes are anything to go by, we are in for one heck of a ride. This is a warts-and-all peek inside the final year of one of the great sporting dynasties of all time and it hits the mark like an MJ buzzerbeater.
It isn’t just a repackaging of an old story. Far from it. The game highlights, press conference clips and old interviews are familiar, of course, but the key thread of this epic series, and essential reason for the project, is the footage garnered from a film crew that had unprecedented access to the Bulls behind closed doors for the ‘97-98 campaign.
It’s here we see the interaction