‘Last Dance,’ a look at Michael Jordan’s last title season, to air soon

The long-awaited look at Michael Jordan’s last championship season with the Chicago Bulls is finally set for release. ESPN and Netflix announced the 10-part documentary series “The Last Dance”will air in the U.S. over five consecutive Sunday nights starting April 19 and running through May 17. There will be two hour-long episodes on each of those nights, airing back-to-back at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern.

The series will include neverbefore-seen footage from that season, one where the team chased its sixth championship in a span of eight years.“As society navigates this time without live sports, viewers are still looking to the sports world to escape and enjoy a collective experience,” ESPN said in a statement. “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.”

ESPN was originally planning to release the documentary in June, when this season’s NBA Finals were to be played. Without sports to air right now because of the global coronavirus pandemic, those plans were accelerated.

The documentary is nearly a quarter-century in the making, born in the fall of 1997 when Jordan, Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf and coach Phil Jackson allowed a film crew permission to follow the team all season. ESPN said the series includes “extensive profiles of Jordan’s key teammates including Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and Steve Kerr ,” along with Jackson. The series will air in the U.S. on ESPN and internationally on Netflix.