Getty The Last Dance documentary is getting an early release
LeBron James and others are likely to get their wish.
With most of the basketball world starved for some representation of the sport due to the shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, per Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, ESPN is smartly electing to bump up the release of The Last Dance.
LeBron James and Others Asked for the Early Release
James appeared on the Road Trippin podcast with Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye, and Allie Clifton, and they all called for an early release of the series, and apparently, they were not alone.
The 10-part documentary series is set to show more than 500 hours of never-before-seen footage of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls during their dynasty years in the 1990s. Originally, the series was set to run in June, but because of the lack of new hoops content, ESPN is reportedly set to drop the series in April. The exact date hasn’t been revealed, but per the report, it will be announced on Tuesday’s episode of Good Morning America.
The Original Trailer for The Last Dance
When the original trailer was released, hoops fans were immediately fired up to take the stroll down memory lane and to see some things they never knew about the greatest player ever, and one of the most-respected dynasties.
Here is a look at the trailer that got everyone excited. It was released on Christmas Eve in 2019, and it already has more than 1 million views:
The Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls Dynasty
Jordan entered the league during the 1984-85 NBA season. He took the league and sports world by storm averaging 28 points per game and stringing together highlight-reel plays.
Jordan broke his foot and missed most of his second season in the league, but returned in time for the playoffs where he scored a playoff-record 63 points against the Boston Celtics in a losing effort against the eventual NBA champions.
Jordan and the Bulls’ rise would be consistent through the late 1980s, but the team could not get over the hill presented to them by the Detroit Pistons. Finally, after losing to Detroit three years in a row, Jordan and the Bulls, also led by Hall-of-Famer Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant, broke through.
They defeated the Pistons 4-0 in the best-of-seven series to advance to the NBA Finals where Jordan and the team won their first NBA Championship, defeating Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers, 4-1.
From there, the Bulls would go on to win the next two championships with wins over Clyde Drexler and the Portland Trail Blazers, and Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns. Jordan would retire and walk away from the sport for the entire 1993-94 season, and all but 19 games of the 1994-95 campaign. He returned late in 1995 but struggled to find his old form and the Bulls were eliminated by the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Jordan would return with what appeared to be his second prime for the 1995-96 season, and along with Pippen and Dennis Rodman, the Bulls set a record that has since been broken by the Golden State Warriors, when they finished 72-10 in the regular season. Unlike the Warriors, the Bulls won the championship that year by defeating the Seattle Supersonics.
Jordan and the Bulls would win the next two championships again, defeating the Utah Jazz both times, before Jordan would retire for the second time.
He came back to the league as a member of the Washington Wizards for the 2001-02 season, but the 97-98 season was the end of his Bulls journey. The Last Dance is expected to offer more insight into this time over the course of its 10 episodes.
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