The Last Dance is essentially a Michael Jordan-approved extended defense of his career

The New York Times

As Sopan Deb points out, Michael Jordan’s production company, Jump 23, is a partner in the ESPN documentary, which obtained exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of the 1997-98 season with Jordan's approval. "That’s what The Last Dance is: Jordan reminding us who he is, or was, as James’s legacy emerges," says Deb. "Not just as a basketball player, but culturally. Would a documentary about James’s career attract multiple former presidents and A-list celebrities? The series eventually goes over some of the less savory aspects of Jordan’s legacy. But even then, he and several of his defenders are given ample time and space to explain them, or paint them in a more favorable light, such as Jordan’s bullying of Jerry Krause, the Bulls’ general manager, about whom Jordan made cracks about his weight. When teammates are described in unflattering situations, including drug use, Jordan and the documentary team make clear that he steered clear. As Jordan says, he didn’t go to clubs. He didn’t smoke or drink (at the time, he notes, though a glass of what appears to be bourbon sits next to him during some interviews)...That’s by design. The documentary is a product for Jordan. And Jordan doesn’t attach his brand to something that doesn’t benefit him personally."

ALSO:

• ESPN redacted Michael Jordan's misogynist comments when it recently re-published a 1998 Michael Jordan ESPN the Magazine interview: ESPN later restored the interview after Vice pointed out the redaction. "This was a decision made independently by editors who felt that the language used in a quote from 1998 didn’t match today’s sensibilities," an ESPN spokesperson told Vice. "The edits did not alter the themes expressed about Miller. In retrospect, athlete quotes already in the public record should remain so, and we have republished with the original full quote."
• Meet Andy Thompson, an NBA Entertainment producer who convinced the NBA and Michael Jordan to embed a film crew for the 1997-98 season: "In the ’90s, Thompson earned a reputation among the ranks of NBA Entertainment, the league’s film and television arm, as something of a Jordan whisperer," says Jake Malooley. "The younger brother of two-time NBA champion Mychal Thompson (a player Jordan had admired) and himself a former professional basketball player overseas, he had a way of soothing the Bulls’ usually taciturn superstar. His presence would keep MJ in the interview chair a bit longer, move him to pull back the curtain just a little more." It is Thompson's footage that provides the "holy grail" for The Last Dance.
• Jordan's huge baggy suits are the MVP of The Last Dance