As the final two episodes of ESPN’s long awaited documentary series releases Sunday night, “The Last Dance” has become everything we hoped for as it’s become a widely viewed and gripping show for sports fans and non-sports fans alike, the show dives into unseen interviews and behind the scene footage of the Jordan era Bull’s and their dominance throughout the 90’s. This 10-part series has been teased for years, as Michael Jordan, who the series heavily features, was in control of when this footage could be released. Happroved that the unseen footage could be released for the public eye in early 2016, shortly after LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers came back from a 3-1 deficit in their Finals Series against the stacked Golden State Warriors. 

The idea of this show and the main topic of the first two episodes come from the Bull’s ‘97-’98 season in which 9-year coach Phil Jackson labeled the season as the “Last Dance” since heavy speculation was in the air around the fate of the power house team of the decade, with most of the team and Phil Jackson himself, unsure of their future with the team. The Bulls came into this season winning five of the last six world championships, and trying to capture the famed three-peat for the second time, which would cement this team up there with some of the best to ever exist. 

The show uses the last season of the Bull’s dominance to jump into many other stories, including the likes of the historic USA olympic “Dream Team”, showing interviews from past Bull’s players and their thoughts and experiences throughout their playing days, and mainly showing the story of just how Michael Jordan became Michael Jordan.

This documentary has given new generations a perspective on just how big and how much of an impact Jordan and the Bull’s were on the culture in America and throughout the world, while also giving the generations who got to live through this period in time a little insight and behind the scene look into how it all really went down. This series has also been very helpful for the younger generation of NBA stars, as some weren’t even born or walking when Jordan and the Bulls were on their historic run of dominance. Trae Young is one of those players, a young star in the league today, Young was born the same year as the Bulls final championship. Young said before the first two episodes aired “I feel like this documentary gonna make me put MJ #1, instead of #2… Can’t Wait!!!” As much as this gives players who couldn’t experience this as young children a little insight, for some veterans in the league, this brings back memories. One of those players is LeBron James who has constantly been compared to Jordan throughout his career, James tweeted out “Definitely cried this day. 9 years of age. Just couldn’t believe it.” referring to the Bulls ‘94 championship where Jordan captured the trophy on Father’s day, the first that Jordan had to go through without his father, who was tragically murdered.

With the final episodes airing Sunday at 8pm, if you haven’t been able to see the series or missed episodes, ESPN replays every episode before the release of new episodes and later are will be available on the ESPN app. 

https://holttribe.podbean.com/mf/play/wzzrc9/episode-audio-770713F9-4A9D-4343-A471-643725C61791.m4a