Why did Michael Jordan finally green-light ‘The Last Dance’?

The debut of the sports movie event of 2020 has a lot of people asking why it took Michael Jordan so long to release “The Last Dance” to the public.

With the NBA and every other sport virtually on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the hottest thing going right now for sports fans is ESPN’s “The Last Dance,” a 10-part documentary series covering Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls championship team.

The first two episodes, which aired last Sunday, have dominated the conversation on social media and among professional media. That should continue through next month, as two new episodes will be released each Sunday until the finale on May 17.

Fans young and old have gained new insight into the rise of Jordan to global icon, the rise of Scottie Pippen to legendary sidekick status, and some of the behind-the-scenes drama that ultimately ended the Bulls’ dynasty after it produced six championships in eight years.

On the eve of the series premiere, a theory began to grow from the speculation of some noted NBA insiders and quickly picked up steam.

The suggestion is that Jordan — who had the ownership rights to either green-light “The Last Dance” or let the precious footage collect dust into eternity — finally approved the project in 2016 because he was suddenly worried about an assault on his legacy coming from LeBron James.

The theory could’ve made all the sense in the world to anyone who is familiar with Jordan’s famous competitive streak, and to anyone who heard the news that Jordan actually agreed to sanction the documentary on June 22, 2016 — the same day that LeBron was honored during the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ NBA championship parade.

It’s likely that Jordan’s meeting with the filmmakers falling on the same date as LeBron’s coronation was entirely coincidental.

I don’t buy the claim that Jordan finally changed his mind after almost 20 years just because LeBron-mania was running wild. Or, at least, I don’t believe it was that simple.

Think about everything that happened in the NBA in 2016.

The Golden State Warriors put together the best regular season in league history, going 73-9 to break the previous record set by — you guessed it — the Jordan-led Bulls that went 72-10 during the 1995-96 season.

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As the Warriors surged toward 73 wins led by All-Star guards Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson — a.k.a. “The Splash Brothers” — they drowned opponents by an average margin of 10.7 points per victory. Their dominance created a constant debate about who was the best team of all time.

More than the 2000-01 Los Angeles Lakers or the 1985-86 Boston Celtics, it was the ’95-96 Bulls that were most often compared to the newly-fascinating Warriors.

On April 13, 2016, Golden State secured its 73rd victory to knock Jordan and Co. from their place in the record books.

Simultaneously, Curry was putting the finishing touches on his second straight MVP season.

Curry led the NBA in scoring (30.1 points per game), steals (2.1 per game) and free throw shooting (90.8 percent), and he shattered the previous league record for 3-pointers with 402 connections beyond the arc.

More than just playing great and producing numbers, Curry had become a pop culture phenomenon. He was the NBA’s dream marketing package of clean image, effortless swag, and an “every man” ability to relate. Curry was popular with little kids, millennials and grandparents. He was popular with people of all races, nationalities and incomes. His appeal crossed boundaries.

As a result, a narrative was growing among fans and media about whether Curry could eventually be the greatest player in NBA history, whether his season was the greatest season ever, and if he was impacting or changing the game more than any player before him.

Jordan, widely considered the “G.O.A.T.” (Greatest Of All Time), factored into each of those topics.

On May 10, 2016, it was announced that Curry had won the MVP vote unanimously. No one had done that before.

Curry’s moment in the sun coincided with Kobe Bryant‘s ride into the sunset.

Having announced that 2015-16 would be the last run of his 20-year Hall of Fame career, Kobe was subject to all the farewell tributes and retrospectives one would expect for a living legend.

As Kobe headed toward retirement, there was renewed interest in examining his legacy and where he stood in the G.O.A.T. argument. When Kobe shocked the world by dropping 60 points in his last game on April 13, 2016, it moved the celebration into overdrive.

Given Jordan’s status among greats and the striking similarities between him and Kobe on the court, it was another time in 2016 when Jordan’s career was a topic of conversation in comparison to a younger generation.

Finally, there was LeBron leading the Cavaliers to their historic championship.

Because it was the first title for that franchise, because it snapped a 52-year drought of major sports titles for the city of Cleveland, because LeBron’s team was the first to ever come back from a 3-1 series deficit in the NBA Finals, and because LeBron had the unprecedented distinction of leading both teams in the series in every major individual statistical category, that championship intensified the already raging G.O.A.T. debate between LeBron backers and Jordan backers.

The Cavs secured that title on June 19, 2016. Three days later, Jordan signed off on “The Last Dance.”

It’s easy to consider that last part — the LeBron part — and connect the dots that Jordan couldn’t stand to hear the deafening chorus of claims that LeBron was better than him, so he did something about it.

But I honestly don’t believe Michael Jordan just woke up and suddenly got nervous about one new challenger to his crown.

If anything, it was more likely that a handful of major NBA happenings that year played a role in Jordan’s decision.

The Warriors breaking the Bulls’ old record.

Curry winning MVP while doing things Jordan had never done and seemingly reshaping the game in the process.

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Kobe completing perhaps the greatest send-off in sports history as a mirror image of Michael Jordan.

And LeBron doing more things that Jordan had never done to bring a championship to one of Jordan’s longtime rival franchises.

All of this happened in less than 10 weeks between April and June of 2016.

It was enough to make a lot of people question whether Jordan really was the greatest of all time. Was he really the peak of what we would see from a basketball player in our lifetime? Was he really in a class all by himself?

Keep in mind too, that Michael Jordan had recently become a father again. In 2014, his wife gave birth to twin girls. Any man in that position is prone to start thinking more about his past, present and future.

The combination of events could’ve easily nudged Jordan to reminisce and reflect on his legacy in a way he maybe hadn’t before. With everyone else in the basketball world seemingly taking a new look at it, perhaps Jordan himself was also interested in seeing how that legacy could be portrayed in a new light.

And, of course, there’s the money. That can’t be overlooked.

It’s not just tangible dollars and cents from the documentary — which Michael Jordan will reportedly donate to charity — but also the intangible prestige and related profit the project will bring to Jordan’s overall brand. The actual Jordan Brand sneaker and apparel line is a beast that feeds on nostalgia from old Jordan fans along with admiration from new Jordan fans.

When the man who is the company logo hasn’t played an NBA game since 2003 and hasn’t won a championship or MVP since 1998, the brand needs to continue to find ways to maintain its place as the most popular name in basketball.

That is most likely how and why we ended up, finally, with “The Last Dance.”

Enjoy the show.