This week, Danny shared his thoughts on ESPN’s Michael Jordan documentary “The Last Dance”:
I’m running out of things to talk about. The UFC returned last weekend, but I didn’t pay to watch. I’ve seen some WWE, but having no fans in attendance just waters everything down. Golf and NASCAR are returning soon, but I can’t seem to get too excited about that.
I need to watch a baseball game. But like I said last week, I’m not so sure we’re going to see one of those this year. I hope I’m wrong, of course.
Perhaps the NFL has a chance to begin its season on time in September, but we keep getting told that there’s a “second wave” of the Coronavirus in the fall. So will that prevent football from beginning on time? Maybe.
In the meantime, what I do recommend for any sports fan to watch is ESPN’s 10-part Michael Jordan documentary “The Last Dance.” The final two hour-long episodes air this Sunday night. It’s must-see TV, and it’s be must-see TV even if there was no Coronavirus lockdown.
It’s so good, in fact, that nobody should ever make a sports documentary again. This will never be topped. The only thing that would come close is if we had secret behind-the-scenes footage of Tom Brady’s final season with the New England Patriots. A Tom Brady documentary — and his relationship with Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft — throughout all the championships and drama, would also be must-see TV. But I’m just not sure we’re ever going to see a documentary on that.
To me, the most fascinating part of the Jordan documentary is how he walked away from basketball after his third championship. I was just 11 years old when he retired the first time and went on to play baseball. I can certainly recall it all happening back in the 90’s, but I was too young to really understand all the drama that came along with it, and the impact it had on the sports world.
Imagine if LeBron James retired in 2012, after just nine NBA seasons, and went on to play another pro sport? I can’t. So seeing how Jordan’s first retirement actually played out was wild.
Watching it also made me reconsider my thought that LeBron will go down as the greatest NBA player of all time. I’m not trying to be a prisoner of the moment, but I’m going to have to change my mind on that one. I always knew Jordan was one of the all-time greats, but I guess I was too young to understand just how incredibly dominant he was.
Jordan was more than just dominant though. It was his competitiveness that puts him alone at the top of the list for me. Again, I always knew he was a competitive guy. Obviously. But watching this documentary, his competitiveness was just on a different level, a level that I guess I never really understood as a kid during his prime.
If you haven’t seen the documentary, I don’t want to spoil it for you, so I won’t. But I demand that you watch it. You will not regret it.
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