Michael Jordan is the greatest NBA player of all time, but everyone knows that. What most people did not know about Jordan and the Chicago Bulls is revealed in the documentary The Last Dance.

This series of 10 episodes tells all about Michael Jordan’s life in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and one of the greatest sports dynasties of all time. These legendary teams included multiple big names in the basketball world such as Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Steve Kerr, Dennis Rodman, and several others.

Born on February 17, 1963, Michael Jordan has always been competitive. This is probably because he has two brothers and two sisters, of which he is the youngest. As a child, Michael would play basketball with his dad and his brothers. In high school, coaches and players knew Jordan had serious talent. He went on to play college basketball at the University of North Carolina. While at UNC, Jordan proved that he had what it takes to play professionally, and he won the Wooden Award, which is a big honor in college basketball. In 1984, he entered the NBA draft and was chosen third overall by the Chicago Bulls. After arriving in Chicago, Jordan got off to a hot start. It was clear that he was something special.

This series, being a documentary, features lots of interviews with players and video from back in the 80’s and 90’s. Every episode of this series is slightly different. Some episodes are all about Michael, where in some, he isn’t as prevalent. Another interesting topic is Michael’s professional baseball career. Jordan played a short career in the Chicago White Sox organization. Many people do not know that Jordan played professional baseball, I only knew because of that scene from Space Jam.

In July 1993, Michael’s father, James, was murdered in Lumberton, North Carolina. Even though Michael had nothing to do with the murder of his father, some wondered if it was more than a coincidence. There were also rumors that Michael had been gambling on basketball and losing intentionally. After this, Michael made the unexpected decision to retire from basketball. This shocked the country because the Bulls were coming off thee straight championships.

Jerry Krause, Bulls GM, found out about this during a White Sox game in which Michael threw out the first pitch. Once the information became known around the city Krause said, “All hell broke loose at the ballpark on a Tuesday night.” At a press conference officially announcing his retirement, Jordan claimed he had a lack of motivation at the age of 30.

In this series, several players and coaches get an episode that is more about them. Episode 2, the story of Scottie Pippen’s unexpected fame is told. He was drafted fifth overall by the Seattle Supersonics in the 1987 draft. However, he was traded to the Bulls shortly after.

Upon his debut in 1987, Pippen was showing his talent early in his career with the Bulls. However, after his last championship with the Bulls, he knew it was the end of a journey.

Another iconic name in NBA history, Dennis Rodman, also had his own feature episode. Episode 3 is all about Rodman and his life on and off the court. Rodman says, “I could have been in jail, I could have been dead, but I worked my ass off to get here.” At this time, Rodman was seen as a bombastic and crazy guy. No matter what people thought about Rodman, he was still always working to improve his game and win another title. Many believe without him, the Bulls would not have won as many championships as they did.

This series is, in my opinion, put together very well. The interviews explain what was going on in detail and it is interesting to see footage from those seasons. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of footage from off the court that was in the series. This footage shows more of what the life of players was like in the locker room and on their off days. The most interesting parts of this series are not necessarily the interviews, but the videos from the 1980’s and 1990’s.

I definitely enjoyed The Last Dance; I think it captures what the team and organization was feeling at the time and provided more background that was unknown to many fans at the time. The videos and interviews show the chemistry between the players and the hard work they put into basketball.

Of course, the hard work payed off with six championship seasons for the team. This is probably my favorite documentary ever, and I am usually not really into watching those types of shows. I like this series because Michael Jordan is one of the most iconic names in sports history, but there were still some unknown parts of his life off the court.