8 / 10
The Last Dance is Jason Hehir’s 2020 American documentary depicting the Chicago Bulls’ 1997-98 NBA championship season, the final season of the Bulls’ dynasty under Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson, with extensive previously unreleased footage from a film crew that documented the team that year. The production runs across ten episodes totaling approximately eight hours.
ESPN Films and Netflix produced it. The release during the early COVID-19 pandemic generated significant viewership when conventional sports programming was unavailable.
I had a blast with The Last Dance. Jordan at the height of his powers, with a camera in the locker room, is about as entertaining as sports television gets. My reservation is Jordan himself, who had a hand in how the series tells the story, and it shows: the series settles nearly every grudge in his favor.
Jason Hehir’s The Last Dance shows how sports documentary can work at extended scale when it has footage nobody has seen before. The Bulls hold the film together on the strength of their personalities and their winning, and Jason Hehir keeps the tone accessible enough that the basketball and the personal material sit comfortably together. The series generated significant cultural conversation during its pandemic release.
The Footage Foundation
An NBA Entertainment crew captured the previously unreleased footage from the 1997-98 season that The Last Dance builds on, shooting throughout the year. That access is something conventional documentary couldn’t match, and the footage combines with later interviews to cover the whole season.
The footage shows behind-the-scenes interactions, practice sessions, and travel moments that public coverage at the time couldn’t reach. That lets the film show the team’s actual dynamics instead of its public face, and it set the template later sports documentaries followed.
The locker room material is what I enjoyed most. I could watch these men needle each other for another eight hours.
For Writers
Sports documentary at extended scale requires access to material that conventional coverage can’t provide. Notice how the previously unreleased footage enables the film’s intimate content.
Jordan Cooperation
Michael Jordan’s cooperation allowed The Last Dance to access the unreleased footage. His production company, Jump 23, co-produced the series, which gave him input on its framing. It generated debate about whether the cooperation compromised the work’s documentary integrity.
The Jordan interviews run long, which only his cooperation could have allowed, and they give his side of the key incidents in his career.
They also drew the loudest criticism, that the film privileges his account over everyone else’s. I think that criticism is fair. When the series gets to a fight between Jordan and somebody else, I always know who’s going to win the edit, and it takes some of the air out of the drama.
For Writers
Subject cooperation in documentary requires balancing access against editorial independence. Watch how the Jordan cooperation enables material while generating questions about the film’s framing.
The Episode Structure
Its ten-episode structure lets The Last Dance combine chronological progression through the 1997-98 season with thematic episodes about specific players and incidents. The extended scale makes that dual structure possible, and some episodes hold my attention more than others.
The episodes built around Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, and Phil Jackson hold material the season chronology alone couldn’t carry, and they’re my favorite hours in the series. The Rodman material in particular is a riot. The approach lets the film show how complicated that team was through individual portraits, and it shows how long-form sports documentary can fold biography into a season story.
For Writers
Long-form sports documentary can integrate biographical and seasonal material through varied episode structure. Notice how Hehir balances chronological progression with thematic episodes.
Craft Note
In The Last Dance, sports documentary uses access to previously unreleased footage combined with later interviews. The production’s pandemic-window release and significant cultural conversation confirmed its impact. Jordan cooperation generated debate about editorial independence that this film can’t fully escape, though the content rewards engaged viewing.
Is The Last Dance worth watching?
I give The Last Dance an 8 because it’s a ridiculously good time and a slightly compromised piece of journalism.
The footage is a gift, the Pippen, Rodman, and Jackson episodes are the richest hours in it, and Jordan is magnetic even when he’s settling scores. The rating stops short of 9 because Jordan had a hand in the edit and every argument tilts his way. For anyone who cares about long-form sports documentary or the Jordan-era Bulls, it’s required viewing.
