# The Last Dance (2020), directed by Jason Hehir Source: https://thegisthub.com/documentaries/the-last-dance-2020 Last updated: 2026-11-03 Docuseries · 2020 · 10 episodes · 8 h 28 min · Categories: Business and startups, Memoir and biography, Self-improvement A 10-episode ESPN and Netflix docuseries on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, built around never-aired footage of their final title season. For anyone interested in drive, leadership and team dynamics. ## The gist **The Last Dance** follows Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls through the 1997 to 1998 season, their last together, and uses flashbacks to retell Jordan's whole career. The series argues that Jordan's extreme competitiveness, fueled by real and imagined slights, built a dynasty of six titles. It also shows the price: teammates he drove hard, a feud between the players and general manager Jerry Krause, an underpaid Scottie Pippen, and a team broken up while it could still win. Director Jason Hehir lets Jordan answer his critics on camera, often by showing him clips on a tablet. Critics note that Jordan's company was a production partner, so the story leans toward his version. ## Key ideas ### 1. The series frames competition as Jordan's core trait Every episode returns to how much Jordan needs to win. The series shows him turning small slights into motivation, mocking opponents, betting on golf and cards, and pushing teammates hard in practice. It even shows that he once invented an insult to fire himself up. The documentary presents this drive as the engine of six championships. It also makes clear that the same drive made him hard to play with, and leaves the viewer to weigh the two. ### 2. Jordan argues that leadership has a price In episode seven, former teammates describe how demanding Jordan was in practice, and the series asks whether he was a bully. Jordan's answer is that he never asked anyone to do something he would not do himself, and that winning and leadership both come at a cost. He becomes emotional and asks to pause the interview. The scene is the documentary's clearest statement of his philosophy: high standards, applied to everyone, are what separate a champion team from a good one. ### 3. Losses shaped the champion The series argues that defeats built the Bulls as much as wins did. The Detroit Pistons beat Chicago in the playoffs repeatedly with their physical "Jordan Rules" defense. Jordan responds by getting stronger and learning to trust his teammates, and the Bulls finally get past Detroit in 1991. After his return from baseball, a playoff loss in 1995 pushes him to train harder, and the Bulls then win 72 games and a title. In this telling, losing is what reset his standards. ### 4. Even a winning team can break up from within The title of the series comes from the conflict inside the Bulls. General manager Jerry Krause wants to rebuild and tells Phil Jackson the season will be his last. Pippen feels underpaid and delays foot surgery. Rodman leaves mid-season for Las Vegas. Jackson names the season "The Last Dance" to rally the players. The series shows a team that keeps winning while its relationships fail, and it ends with the dynasty broken up after a sixth title rather than defeated on the court. ### 5. A great individual still needs a system and a cast The documentary centers on Jordan, but it also shows what he needed around him. Phil Jackson brings a team-first system and a calm manner that gets the most from difficult players. Scottie Pippen grows into one of the best players in the league. Dennis Rodman supplies rebounding and defense. Steve Kerr hits a title-winning shot in 1997 on a pass from Jordan. The series uses these stories to argue that Jordan won titles only once he learned to trust the people around him. ### 6. Grief shaped Jordan's career choices The series ties Jordan's first retirement to the murder of his father, James, in 1993. Mentally exhausted after three straight titles, Jordan leaves basketball and plays minor league baseball in Birmingham, Alabama, a sport his father had wanted him to play. The documentary presents this as a way of staying close to his father. Later, it shows his bond with Gus Lett, a security guard who became a father figure, and how Lett's cancer affects Jordan during the 1998 playoffs. ### 7. Who controls the footage shapes the story Jordan's approval was needed to use the 1997 to 1998 footage, and his company, Jump 23, was a production partner. Critics such as Ken Burns argued that this kind of control works against good journalism. Director Jason Hehir says he faced no interference. The series gives Jordan the last word on most disputes by showing him clips and filming his replies. For a viewer, the lesson is to ask who made a documentary and whose version it tells, especially when the subject helped produce it. ## Questions this documentary answers ### What is The Last Dance about? The Last Dance is a 10-episode 2020 docuseries by Jason Hehir about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. It uses never-aired footage of the 1997 to 1998 season, the team's last together, and flashbacks to Jordan's whole career, to show how his competitiveness built six titles and how conflict with management broke the team up. ### Is The Last Dance accurate? The events it shows are real, but critics say the framing favors Jordan. His company, Jump 23, was a production partner, and his approval was needed for the footage. Former teammates such as Horace Grant and Scottie Pippen disputed parts of the story. Director Jason Hehir says he faced no editorial interference. ### Why is it called The Last Dance? Coach Phil Jackson gave the 1997 to 1998 season that name in a handout to his players. General manager Jerry Krause had made clear the team would be rebuilt, so the players and coach knew it would likely be their final season together. ### How many episodes does The Last Dance have? The Last Dance has 10 episodes of about 50 minutes each. ESPN aired them two at a time on Sundays from April 19 to May 17, 2020, and Netflix released them outside the United States the day after each airing. ## Full summary ### A season shot from the inside **The Last Dance** is a 10-episode docuseries directed by Jason Hehir and produced by ESPN Films and Netflix. ESPN aired it in the United States from April 19 to May 17, 2020, during the first weeks of the COVID-19 lockdowns, when there were no live sports to watch. Its spine is the 1997 to 1998 Chicago Bulls season, Michael Jordan's last with the team. An NBA Entertainment crew had full access to the Bulls that year. The footage sat unused for about two decades, because Jordan's approval was needed to use it. According to the producers, he agreed in 2016 to a proposal from producer Mike Tollin. Hehir cuts between that season and flashbacks that cover Jordan's whole career: college at North Carolina, his early years with a losing Bulls team, six championships, two retirements and a stint in minor league baseball. New interviews tie the two timelines together. Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr and coach Phil Jackson all speak, along with rivals, reporters, family members and two former presidents. Hehir uses one device again and again. When someone says something about Jordan, Hehir hands Jordan a tablet, plays the clip, and films his reaction. ### A team that is coming apart The first episodes set up the tension that gives the series its name. The Bulls have won five titles in seven years, but general manager Jerry Krause wants to rebuild. In the series' account, Krause tells Jackson that the coming season will be his last with the team, whatever the record. Jackson responds by calling the year "The Last Dance" in the handout he gives his players. Pippen is the second fault line. The series presents him as one of the best players in the league and one of the worst paid, locked into a long contract he signed early. Frustrated with management, he delays foot surgery until the season starts and misses the first part of it. Rodman is the third. The series credits his rebounding and defense with helping the Bulls win, and it shows the cost: mid-season, Jackson lets him take a trip to Las Vegas, and Jordan has to go and bring him back. Through all of this, the documentary presents Jordan as the force that holds the team together for one more run. ### Building a winner The flashback episodes trace how the Bulls became champions. In Jordan's early years, the Detroit Pistons beat Chicago in the playoffs again and again with physical, targeted defense they called the "Jordan Rules." The series argues that those losses forced Jordan to get stronger and to trust his teammates more. Jackson arrives as head coach with a team-first system and a calm, unusual style. In 1991, the Bulls finally beat Detroit, and the Pistons walk off the court without shaking hands. Chicago then beats Magic Johnson's Lakers for its first title. Episode five follows Jordan's rise into a global brand, from the Air Jordan shoe to the 1992 Olympic Dream Team. The series also raises his refusal to endorse Democrat Harvey Gantt in a 1990 Senate race in North Carolina, and lets Jordan explain himself. The episode is dedicated to Kobe Bryant, who died in January 2020 and is interviewed in it. ### Competition as fuel The series makes Jordan's competitiveness its main theme. It shows him turning small slights into motivation, and it shows that at least once he invented a slight to fire himself up. It shows him mocking opponents, betting on golf and cards, and riding his own teammates hard in practice. Episode seven puts the hardest question to him: was he a bully? Former teammate Will Perdue describes how hard Jordan was on others, and the series shows Jordan riding Scott Burrell all season. Jordan defends himself. In the series' account, he argues that he never asked a teammate to do anything he would not do, that winning has a price, and that leadership has a price too. He becomes emotional and asks to stop the interview. The documentary does not answer the question for the viewer. It presents the demands and the titles side by side. ### Loss, baseball and a second three-peat The middle episodes cover Jordan's worst years in public. A book by reporter Sam Smith, *The Jordan Rules*, damages his image, and his gambling draws scrutiny during the 1993 playoffs. The Bulls still win a third straight title that year. That summer, Jordan's father, James, is murdered. In October 1993, Jordan retires and turns to baseball, playing for a minor league team in Birmingham, Alabama. The series treats this as a grief-driven choice and a link to his father, who had wanted him to play baseball. Jordan returns to the Bulls in 1995. A playoff loss that spring, the series argues, drives him to train harder than ever. The next season the Bulls win 72 games and a fourth title. They win again in 1997 against the Utah Jazz, a run that includes the "flu game," which the series says was really food poisoning from a late-night pizza. In the same Finals, Kerr hits the series-winning shot on a pass from Jordan. ### The last dance The final episodes return to the 1997 to 1998 season. The Bulls get past the Indiana Pacers in seven games and meet Utah again in the Finals. The series also follows Gus Lett, Jordan's security guard and a father figure to him after his father's death, who falls ill with cancer during the playoffs. The Bulls win their sixth title in Game 6 in Utah, with Jordan hitting the go-ahead shot. Then the team breaks up. Jackson leaves, Jordan retires, and Pippen and Rodman go elsewhere. In the series' closing interviews, Jordan says he believes the team could have won a seventh title if it had stayed together. ### What the critics say Critics praised the editing and the access, but many questioned Jordan's influence. Filmmaker Ken Burns objected that Jordan's company, Jump 23, was a production partner, and said that a subject with that kind of control does not make for good journalism. Former teammates also objected. Bill Cartwright called it one man's view of what happened, Horace Grant said much of it was not true to life and treated Pippen unfairly, and Pippen later said it was about Jordan trying to lift himself up. Hehir has said he ran into "zero stop signs" in the editorial process. ### Who should watch it Watch it if you want a close look at how one of the most driven athletes in history thinks about competition, leadership and winning. It also works as a study of how a successful team falls apart. Pair it with a skeptical source on Jordan's teammates, since the series tells the story largely from his side. ## Do this week - Write down one recent loss or setback at work and list two specific changes in your preparation that it should trigger. - Before you push someone on your team to raise their standard this week, check that you meet that same standard yourself. - Name the one person whose work makes yours possible and tell them exactly what they contribute. - List the open conflicts in your team or family and pick one to address directly before it grows. - Before you share a story about a famous person this week, find out who produced it and whether the subject had a say. ## Read next - [Shoe Dog by Phil Knight](https://thegisthub.com/books/shoe-dog-by-phil-knight): Nike's founder tells the business side of the story that made Air Jordan, the brand the series follows into global fame. - [Grit by Angela Duckworth](https://thegisthub.com/books/grit-by-angela-duckworth): Duckworth's research on passion and perseverance gives a framework for the drive the series shows in Jordan. - [Mastery by Robert Greene](https://thegisthub.com/books/mastery-by-robert-greene): Greene studies how people reach the top of a field through long practice, the path the series traces from Jordan's losses to his titles. - [Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins](https://thegisthub.com/books/cant-hurt-me-by-david-goggins): Goggins describes the same use of setbacks and slights as fuel that the series presents as Jordan's edge. ## Where to watch - Netflix (subscription, checked 2026-11): https://www.netflix.com/title/80203144 - Apple TV (buy, checked 2026-11): https://tv.apple.com/us/show/the-last-dance/umc.cmc.1crzdh2ju2ri5bxx0xvzz0mra Summary by The Gist Hub (https://thegisthub.com). In our own words, not the documentary's script.