The Last Dance shows Michael Jordan displaying a Real Housewives level of pettiness

The Muse

The ESPN Michael Jordan documentary "has been manna from heaven for sports fans who have nothing to watch, but for those less interested in the trappings of being a champion, the documentary has also provided an unprecedented look at the levels of pettiness basketball players can achieve when they really dedicate themselves," says Shannon Melero. "With all the drama going on behind closed doors and playing out in the media, the Bulls of the 1990s were the perfect model for a figure like Andy Cohen to start a Housewives franchise. Just like any good Housewives series, The Last Dance features its very own queen bee, which is, of course, Michael Jordan. In this particular doc, the story of the Bulls is told almost entirely through Jordan’s perspective, with other people’s thoughts and lives sprinkled about for flavor. The trademark of this domineering figure is to control the narrative and minimize any opposing viewpoints—just ask Bethanny Frankel or Lisa Vanderpump. They also need to exert perpetual control by any means necessary, which Jordan does without breaking a sweat. Throughout the doc, former teammates talk about how Jordan was a bully during practices and borderline verbally abusive...Jordan’s ability to hold a grudge surpasses that of even Teresa Giudice, as was made clear by the Isiah Thomas/handshake debacle of 1991. To this day, Jordan still has not forgiven Thomas, after Thomas and some Pistons players walked off the court following a loss to the Bulls during the Eastern Conference Finals. Even Teresa eventually forgave Danielle Staub for being a backstabbing 'prostitution whore,' or whatever it was Teresa felt like being angry about for a decade."

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• The Last Dance archival producer Nina Krstic was tasked with sorting through 500 hours of behind-the-scenes footage of Michael Jordan's 1997-98 season: “I was very lucky that in the early going, the day this was greenlit, Connor Schell, who’s the head of content at ESPN, called me and said, ‘I’m not going to be a backseat driver. But the one thing that I recommend you do is hire Nina Krstic.’ Nina’s talent for digging up this minutiae, I don’t how she does it but she’s literally the best that I’ve ever seen at it,” says director Jason Hehir. “All I know is that if I call her and say, ‘I need a picture of Michael in high school, or I need a sound bite from someone in Oklahoma talking about Dennis Rodman as a college player,’ it doesn’t matter what you say to her. If it exists, she will find it. Without her, this project does not happen the way that it happened.” Krstic, who previously worked on O.J.: Made in America, says of her job: “To begin with, I concentrate on characters. What I like to do is get a sense of how the character arc is going to develop throughout the show. I like to just grab all interviews available for each major character and make it into a watchable, one-hour interview stringout. You can really see a person grow and change and develop in this character stringout, so you get a sense of how the show’s gonna develop."
• The Last Dance producers had plenty of strategies for getting Jordan to open up during their three interview sessions: The three interviews took place in June 2018, May 2019 and December 2019.
• The Last Dance's "Laughing Jordan" joins "Crying Jordan" as a great Michael Jordan meme