🐐 Michael Jordan Is About To Get Real

“The Last Dance” will reveal MJ like we’ve never seen him before — and that’s true for both new fans and those who grew up with His Airness. [View in browser]( In today’s FOX Sports Insider: “The Last Dance” will reveal Michael Jordan like no one has ever seen him before ... the biggest star in the world of competitive chess has an idea that could change the game forever ... and the rumors and innuendo keep swirling around Tua Tagovailoa and the NFL Draft. To anyone in high school or college, anyone in their mid 20s or younger, Michael Jordan is many things. He is the greatest player in history, but largely as a film character from countless low-res YouTube clips. He is the Jumpman logo. He is a billionaire team owner. He is the guy who cried and got turned into a zillion memes. He is the lead of Space Jam. He is a set of jaw dropping statistics. He is the ghost hanging over each failed Chicago Bulls season. He is iconic. His greatness is eternal — but it is not necessarily present. That is about to change. Jordan, the man, not just the brand, is about to become known to a global audience in a way that, for all the fame and the accolades, has never happened before. He says people are going to hate him once they see “The Last Dance,” a 10-part docuseries that debuts on ESPN domestically and Netflix internationally on Sunday. [STORY IMAGE 1] Those fears are probably unfounded, understandable though they are. Film director Jason Hehir got a ton of Jordan’s uninterrupted modern time, meaning No. 23 had the platform to explain all his actions: the manic competitiveness, the sometimes cruel ways of needling teammates and opponents, the ego and the inner fire. Even if the audience doesn’t always like what he says or what he did, chances are they’re going to marvel at the curtain being pulled back. For a start, there is a lot going for Jordan and the show. There are no live sports to watch, so the love for nostalgia, especially that which deals with epic greatness and themed around an iconic figure, could scarcely be timelier. Then there is the uniqueness. A young executive named Adam Silver was head of NBA Entertainment heading into what would be the final season of the Bulls dynasty in 1997-98 and was involved in the arduous task of persuading team ownership, Jordan and head coach Phil Jackson to let a film crew follow them for the season. It wasn’t the sort of thing that happened a lot back then. [STORY IMAGE 2] And it is that behind-the-scenes access that makes the documentary what it is. During his career, what was largely seen of Jordan was national television broadcasts, a carefully protected endorsement-driven image and whatever nuggets a media led by local newspapers could glean from his increasing reticence to talk. A lot that happened has never been known, the material having been buried in a vault for a nearly a quarter of a century, adding extra intrigue with each passing year. So no matter your generation as an NBA fan, Sunday will be the start of an unveiling of the true Michael Jordan — or the closest we’ll likely ever get, anyway. For those of us who lived through the era of the Bulls, there is no two ways around it. It is going to make us feel old. Jordan and the Bulls were the biggest show and the biggest story in town, any town, anywhere. It was star power on steroids. It was big enough and vivid enough that it feels like yesterday, but, lamentably, it wasn’t. It was way, way before social media. It was before camera phones, let alone those capable of shooting videos. It was before the spread of the internet, in the midst of a media world largely dictated by newspaper deadlines and available column inches. The year Jordan entered the league, in 1984, to be stunned by the drug-taking habits of his teammates on road trips, a baby called LeBron Raymone James was born in Akron. [STORY IMAGE 3] When he broke through with that first championship, downing Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers in 1991, Kawhi Leonard was still three weeks away from appearing in his mother’s arms. By the time we get to the final season, the one with all the footage and the culmination of that shot over Bryon Russell, Zion Williamson, Ja Morant and Luka Doncic didn’t exist yet. With those Bulls, historic brilliance was played out night after night, but things were chronicled differently back then. When Jordan did something spectacular, which was all the time, there were not the platforms available to instantly transport it to billions. “If Jordan existed in today’s Twitter-mad, media-saturated world, the unstable internet would have already lost its collective mind,” wrote Sean Gregory in TIME. And that means that even those of us who lived through the Jordan years, when “Mike Jordan” became “Michael Jordan” at Chapel Hill, or when he was known as a selfish scorer who couldn’t lift a team to a championship, or when he struggled to break through against a Pistons team that established rules just for him, only saw glimpses of the man. The good, the bad — it was all shadows on the wall. [STORY IMAGE 4] No one likes a bully, and there is certainly that part of Jordan, but you can count on things being far more nuanced and layered than simple descriptors. Trying to become the best at anything is complex and laced with sacrifice. Nice guys don’t necessarily finish last, but the cream of the crop often have to let their nice side sit on the sidelines and make way for ruthlessness. If America can warm to Joe Exotic, can they really hate the warts-and-all version of Michael Jordan? “The Last Dance” will be a reminder for some, an education for others. Either way, it will help make Jordan real, both to a younger audience that knows him as a nigh-mythical figure and to those who became diehard NBA fans precisely because of his legend. Some snippets have been leaked, and Jordan himself has done the rounds to drum up the promotion. It is clear he was invested in the project, so much so that he personally called former Presidents Obama and Clinton to secure their availability for interviews. We are in a time in sports when no new history is being made, not the kind we want, anyway. But if you wish to watch sports, it is there – you have the entirety of filmed athletic history to call upon and to get to know in exquisite detail. Arguably the finest athlete ever, and perhaps the greatest team, is a good place to start. [STORY IMAGE 5] Here’s what others have said ... Jackie MacMullan, ESPN: “The 10-part ESPN documentary ‘The Last Dance’ is a rare inside look inside Jordan's world. It unfurls some revealing details and telling anecdotes of an emotion-charged final season in which history repeated itself, with the drama, the jealousy and the infighting leading to the disintegration of the Bulls all over again. In his early years, Jordan could be caustic and held less-gifted teammates to impossibly high standards. And, yet, he was also capable of bringing levity to the team. He loved to talk trash and craved good banter. Once, in the early '90s, he accosted me the moment I walked into the locker room. ‘Jackie,’ he barked. ‘What's the capital of Mississippi?’ ‘Jackson,’ I quickly replied, suddenly grateful that my husband had a habit of ambushing me with pop quizzes. ‘See?’ Jordan gestured to Horace Grant. ‘It's not that hard! It's the name of our damn coach!’” Jeff Day, Star Tribune: “I am not so much interested in remembering what it was like to be a kid and cheer for Jordan as I am in new discoveries. What will it feel like to be able to see the reality behind idolization? What will it be like for me, now 35, to be a witness to the perfect and imperfect 35-year-old Jordan? Because even if imperfection didn’t cross my mind much then, watching this team and that player, it does now. ... Whatever lessons Michael Jordan offered me about success and failure became muted as I grew up and closed myself off to the sensations of wonder that childhood traffics in so easily. But I’m ready to see him with all of his humanity restored. No longer an idol. No longer worshipped. Just a person trying his best in the face of daily obstacles.” Nein Paine, FiveThirtyEight: “The documentary should serve as a refresher for those of us old enough to have watched Jordan at the time and an introductory course for those who never had the privilege. Of course, there’s also been a lot of mythology built up around MJ over the past three decades, and ‘The Last Dance’ is sure to add to it — even as the movie’s director, Jason Hehir, says he took steps to humanize Jordan. Under the weight of all that lore, it can be difficult to cut through to what made Jordan truly great, independent of the image-making. Sometimes, when you analyze historical legends with modern metrics, the results can leave you disappointed. ... Yet Jordan’s numbers have held up to challenges from LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and numerous others in the generations that followed in his footsteps. His reputation as the GOAT was not merely a media creation or the product of ring-counting — it has withstood the tests of both time and science.” [IN OTHER WORDS] - Everyone’s talking Michael Jordan, but it seems no one is interested in MJ’s home. [Sports Illustrated’s Dan Gartland goes down]( a real estate rabbit hole on the $15 million mansion Jordan has been trying to sell for eight years. - Chess world champion Magnus Carlsen decided to take things into his own hands when a major tournament was postponed due to COVID-19. [And as David Hill details at The Ringer]( Carlsen’s idea could speed up the game permanently. - [Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller shares]( the hottest 2020 NFL Draft rumors he’s hearing, including the latest on Tua and Justin Herbert, plus opens up his scouting notebook on the top 32 players in the draft. [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED] [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED]( Why not get ready for “The Last Dance” with “The First Dance”? 1991 was the first title of the Bulls’ initial three-peat, coming against a Lakers team led by Hall of Famers Magic Johnson and James Worthy. Jordan & Co. dominated the series, winning four games to one, and His Airness gave us a highlight for the ages in Game 2, where he avoided a Sam Perkins on a drive to the rim, switched the ball from his right to his left hand in mid-air, and finished an acrobatic layup. You can probably see it in your mind — and you can certainly see it in the tweet above. [VIEWER'S GUIDE] WWE Friday Night SmackDown (FOX, 8 p.m. ET) Another unique Triple Threat match will see the SmackDown Tag Tiles on the line, Sasha Banks and Tamina clash in a match with championship implications, and Daniel Bryan faces Cesaro in a Men’s Money in the Bank qualifying match on an action-packed Friday night. FOX Football NOW (FS1, 10 p.m. ET) EA and Charissa chat with Saints defensive end Cam Jordan and answer your fan questions, plus Schrags catches up with 49ers GM John Lynch in an all #QuarantineQnA edition of FOX Football NOW. eNASCAR Pro Invitational iRacing Series: Richmond (Sunday, FOX, 1 p.m. ET) Let’s go racing! This week’s iRacing stop holds true to the original 2020 NASCAR Cup Series, as 30 drivers are set to take on 150 virtual laps at Richmond in the fourth race of the Pro Invitational Series. “The Last Dance” (Sunday, ESPN, 9 p.m. ET) The first two hour-long episodes of this 10-part docuseries on the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls premiere on Sunday, and we’ll have you covered on our YouTube channels with a very special preshow featuring Skip Bayless telling his best stories from covering Jordan, and a post-airing reaction from Chris Broussard. [BET OF THE DAY] [BET OF THE DAY] Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( 2020 NFL Draft Top 3 picks: 1. Joe Burrow; 2. Chase Young; 3. Tua Tagovailoa: +300 Are you the type to believe that draft rumors are all smoke and mirrors? If so, you might be convinced that the noise about Tua Tagovailoa slipping down draft boards is meant to cover up teams’ interest in the Alabama QB. And in that world, FOX Bet has the wager for you on the exact odds of the top 3 picks in next week’s draft. However, you should also probably know that the Tua market is moving; previously, the over/under on his draft position was 3.5, but as of today, that number is 4.5, with some pretty big juice (-225) on the over — which means you’re getting +175 on the under. A new FOX Sports app and website is coming. [Click here]( to be notified when the reimagined app is available. [WHAT THEY SAID] "Be true to the game, because the game will be true to you. If you try to shortcut the game, then the game will shortcut you. If you put forth the effort, good things will be bestowed upon you. That's truly about the game, and in some ways, that's about life, too." — Michael Jordan [FOLLOW FOX SPORTS] [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( Download the FOX Sports app for live scores and streaming [App Store]( [Google Play]( Available on: [tvOS] [Roku] [fireTV] [androidtv] [XBOX] [Google chromecast] [tvOS] [fireTV] [androidtv] [XBOX] [Google chromecast] Forwarded this message? [Sign up](. Amazon, Fire, and all related marks are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Trademark & Copyright Notice: ™ and © 2020 FOX Media LLC and FOX Sports Interactive Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Please do not reply to this message. If you do not wish to receive emails like this in the future, please [unsubscribe](. FOX Sports respects your privacy. Click [here]( to view our Privacy Policy. FOX.com Business & Legal Affairs - Manager Digital Media P.O. Box 900 Beverly Hills, CA 90213-0900