Michael Jordan Was a Capitalist Icon. The Last Dance Is His Mythmaking Commercial.
The Last Dance, ESPN’s highly touted series on Michael Jordan, is not a documentary. It’s a ten-hour exercise in mythmaking that gives Jordan one more chance to sell the corporate product that always mattered to him most: himself.
1988: Michael Jordan #23 of the Chicago Bulls rests on the court during a game. Mike Powelll / Allsport
The Last Dance, ESPN’s ten-hour commercial — excuse me, documentary — about Michael Jordan’s final year as a Chicago Bull in 1997–98, features an early sequence from 1984 of a then-rookie Jordan warming up before a game. He’s thinner, with a full head of hair. His jump shot looks awkward, not the perfection of form we’d come to know later. Young Michael is asked about the future. His future. This was so long ago the two hadn’t dovetailed yet. What does he want from his career?
“I just want the franchise, and [the] Chicago Bulls, to be respected as a team.”
The Last Dance rolls interviews with Jordan’s family, his teammates, their families, coaches, NBA executives, opponents, friends, celebrities, and, most prominently, Jordan himself to show just how much he succeeded beyond being “respected.”
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