Michael Jordan comes through in the clutch again. Who would have thought we’d be saying that almost 20 years after he played his final game for the Washington Wizards? Well, last night Jordan and ESPN delivered big in a time when we needed something to watch: The Last Dance. 

ESPN Films has always done great documentaries. Pretty much every 30 for 30 has won some sort of reward. The last multipart one they did went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary (OJ: Made in America), so you could say The Last Dance has some big shoes to fill…bigger than a basketball player’s shoes. If the way the documentary started is any indication, we are in for one hell of a ride. CUE THE ALLAN PARSONS PROJECT (the Bulls intro music).

The Last Dance takes a look at the 1997-1998 Chicago Bulls, who went on to win their 3rd straight NBA Championship that season. This is a team that is considered one of best teams in NBA history (if not the best). Right off the bat, we get drama! Phil Jackson almost was not the head coach that season because of the general manager, Jerry Krause. You then learn just how much Krause was going to dismantle the Bulls no matter what happened, which he did end up doing after the championship season. Who would have thought that this year we would find someone more hated than Carole Baskin from Tiger King. 

So many details come out in the two episodes. The first episode really focused in on Michael Jordan and how he ended up on the Bulls, his time at UNC, and high school days. Not to mention, it really is mind-blowing just what Jordan did at UNC to become the best. For young viewers who did not get watch Michael Jordan play, this was their first taste as to why he is considered the GOAT. You got to hear it from some of the biggest names: NBA legends like Larry Bird (who played with Jordan on Team USA), James Worthy (teammate at UNC), and Barack Obama (former Chicago resident).

Episode Two really focused on Scottie Pippen. Scottie is known as the Robin to Jordan’s Batman. But Scottie could B-A-L-L! Episode two really showed the hardship for Scottie and how he became one of the greats starting as an equipment manager at the University of Central Arkansas. What was even more shocking was just how little Pippen got paid by the Bulls ($18 million for 7-years). That contract would be laughed at in today’s NBA. What was interesting about how much Pippen hated Krause was how he handled getting offseason surgery, which he got literally right before the 1997-1998 season started and that Phil Jackson encouraged it so that a message could be sent. It’s stuff like this that really proves why ESPN Films does such a great job with its documentaries.

Episode three is promised to be a good one as it’s focus is on Dennis Rodman. The documentary is a 10-part series airing weekly. Honestly, the first two episodes were so good, and everyone loved it if you followed the trend on Twitter. ESPN knew what they had by airing two different feeds of it: ESPN aired an uncensored version and ESPN2 had the censored version. If you really want the full story, you’ll watch the uncensored. Hearing Michael Jordan telling Jerry Reinsdorf “Fuck these guys” when being told he was being given a time limit when coming back from his broken foot in 1987 is awesome. I think it’s safe to say that if ESPN had aired all 10-parts last night, the entire world would have watched it.

EP. 1 & 2 RATING: 9/10

ESPN’s The Last Dance airs Sundays at 9pm ET / 6pm PT through May 17th.

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