ESPN’s Jordan documentary just what we need
When John Dahl picked up his phone Thursday morning, he had barely left his 10-by-10 home office in Westport for three days. Get something to eat in the kitchen. Go to bed. Otherwise, Dahl found himself immersed in numerous pieces of a project that, guaranteed, will become a national sports obsession over the next five weeks. Michael Jordan. “The Last Dance.” “(Last) Sunday night, we began watching the preliminary broadcast masters of the first two episodes,” said Dahl, vice president and executive producer of ESPN films and original content. “That includes sponsored content, everything, exactly how it’ll look on the air. I was working with our producer in Charlotte, Gentry Kirby. He’s amazing.
“In the meantime, I’m working on Episode 10 coming in, reviewing that, getting everybody’s notes. And then watching the updated broadcast masters for Episodes 1 and 2. I’ve been as busy as I’ve ever been.”
From 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday, ESPN will air those first two episodes of a 10part documentary focusing on the Chicago Bulls’ 199798 season that ended with Jordan’s sixth and final NBA title.
This is an all-access miniseries, directed by Jason Hehir, that will carry over five successive Sunday nights. Led by Andy Thompson — Klay Thompson’s uncle — NBA Entertainment filmed 500 hours of footage, game, practice, behind the scenes, in 199798, and it had essentially been locked away in Secaucus, N.J., for two decades.
“People are going to see stuff going on behind the scenes they’ve never seen,” Dahl said. “Adam Silver, by the way, was the head of NBA Entertainment at the time. It really is a treasure trove of material.”
Beyond that, after giving his blessing on the project, Jordan sat down for three long interviews. In all, there are an exhaustive 100 interviews. The creative genius is in the work of Hehir. There’s a lot of raw stuff. There’s a lot of truth. There’s a lot of emotion. There are the antics of Dennis Rodman. There’s basketball that ends with Jordan’s signature winning jumper against the Utah Jazz.
Scott Burrell, often the recipient of MJ’s harsh needling that season, said he texted Jordan that he has gotten more media interview requests the past twothree days than in his whole life.
Jordan’s response to Burrell?
“LMAO. It’s only the beginning.”
With coronavirus shuttering sports and the American viewing public starved, it is no exaggeration to call “The Last Dance” the most anticipated sports content in recent years. ESPN saw the possibilities. That’s why the series was moved up from June to April. If Dahl’s previous words made it sound as if the final episode scheduled to air May 17 isn’t finished yet — bingo.
This is a project a long, long time in the making with a furious finish. After failed attempts over the years by a number of others — including, according to ESPN.com, Spike Lee and Danny DeVito — producer Mike Tollin is the one who convinced Jordan and his Jump management team that the time was right for a documentary.
Dahl, who first saw the NBA Entertainment footage over a decade ago, was a year behind Jordan at North Carolina. Dahl covered him for the Chapel Hill town paper and then with the Tar Heel Sports Network courtside with Woody Durham. He was ESPN’s first Chicago bureau producer in 198991 working with Andrea Kremer. Along with cameraman Jeff Wierns, they’d shoot Bulls games. As Dahl was going through a rough cut on the third episode, sure enough, there he was sitting on press row behind then-coach Doug Collins.
“I managed to get in the series,” Dahl said, laughing. “The 1997-98 season is the spine, that’s what drives the story episode after episode. What Scott has constructed are these flashbacks, time warps, where he tells detailed backstories about Michael, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr, Phil Jackson at various points along the way. You start out, past and present are very far apart. Over time, as the episodes unfold, the past and present become closer together until Episode 10 they are one and the same.”
Connor Schell, ESPN executive vice president of content, approached Dahl after sports were shut down in mid-March about the possibility of moving the project up. Dahl talked to
Hehir and his production team. Dahl drew up a dozen scenarios for Schell. Eventually, it was decided on two episodes a week for five straight Sundays.
Dahl, one of the executive producers of “The Last Dance,” has won eight Emmys and three Peabody Awards. He has overseen a truckload of documentaries for ESPN, including the celebrated “30 for 30” series. From storylines to rough cuts to the finished product, he’s there. This is a guy who reviewed 200 rough cuts over 18 months for “30 for 30.” But the rush for “The Last Dance” during COVID-19?
“This was surreal,” Dahl said. “It wasn’t really about when we could start. It was all about when we could finish. We could have even started a week or even two earlier, putting on one episode. It was all about finishing Episodes 9, which we did last week, and 10. When could those be ready so we could create a specific cadence? I have a general rule in life that 90 percent of stuff that happens you can’t see coming. This certainly qualifies here.”
The good news? “Jason is such a talent,” Dahl said. “We first worked with him on the ‘Fab Five’ that was rolled out nine years ago. One thing I learned about Jason right then and in subsequent projects — we did the ‘The
’85 Bears’ together — he is unbelievably fast when he needs to be. He is very, very good at working under pressure.”
Jordan was driven. He was relentlessly demanding of himself and others. In his own words he challenged people when they didn’t want to be challenged. He knows the risk is people will like him less after the series. All of this and more will be debated each day by Stephen A. Smith, Skip Bayless, Max Kellerman, Colin Cowherd, etc.
“I think the audience is really going to get under the hood for what it’s like to be Michael Jordan,” Dahl said. “It may look like easy and simple and fun from a distance, but there’s a lot of challenges to be Michael Jordan. The pressure, the weight that falls on him on the court and off.
“Michael was incredibly open in his interviews, raw, unfiltered; he told it like he felt and saw it. I was particularly blown away by the emotion he showed when talking about why he is the way he is. That’s the end of Episode 7, where he actually needs to take a break. The emotion hit him really hard. Jason did a magnificent job capturing that.”
Jordan rode Burrell and he stayed on the former UConn star from Hamden and now Southern Connecticut coach. In an interview with The Athletic’s Richard
Deitsch, Hehir recounted Jordan telling him, “When you see the footage of it, you’re going to think that I’m a horrible guy. But you have to realize that the reason why I was treating him like that is because I needed him to be tough in the playoffs.”
“He knows Scott Burrell is such a nice guy, good guy,” Dahl said. “He needs him to be a warrior. He needs him to be ready for the fire when the fire comes.”
There’s one scene, the morning after the Super Bowl, where Jordan is riding Burrell for late-night socializing. He calls Burrell “Dennis Rodman Jr.”
“People are going to have their feelings toward me, toward the way I let him treat me, toward the way he treated me — those can be three different feelings,” Burrell said. “I hope people understand what he did wasn’t malicious for no reason. He wanted to make me better to help the team. There were no free rides and I didn’t expect any. I’m a new guy there, playing some minutes. You better hold your own to be part of that team. It was motivation. In today’s era it might be harassment, might be bullying, but nobody thought of it like that.”
They’re good. They’ll golf together in Florida. Burrell uses Jordan as a reference on his résumé.
“Look, Michael wants to win at everything,” Burrell said. “No matter if it’s a sprint, practice, a scrimmage, he’s going to give his all every day. And you better bring it as well. Some people feared Michael. I didn’t fear him. I respected him, listened to him. He was going to teach me to be a champion and be more mentally tough in life.”
Yeah, “The Last Dance” is going to be compelling.
“For viewers, hopefully this is a nice escape for two hours a week from the horrible realities we’re facing, something for people to look forward to,” Dahl said. “Do what sports does best. Something to play out our passions and our interests. That’s the beauty of storytelling and sports.”