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The Last Dance: LeBron fans, do us a favor and don’t make it about him

By Ronald Agers

PARIS, FRANCE - JANUARY 24: Michael Jordan attends a press conference before the NBA Paris Game match between Charlotte Hornets and Milwaukee Bucks on January 24, 2020 in Paris, France. (Photo by Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)
PARIS, FRANCE - JANUARY 24: Michael Jordan attends a press conference before the NBA Paris Game match between Charlotte Hornets and Milwaukee Bucks on January 24, 2020 in Paris, France. (Photo by Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images) /
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Last Dance
(Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) – LeBron James /

ESPN’s First Take brought in Bill Laimbeer to make a comparison of Michael Jordan and LeBron James

ESPN is one of the companies under the Walt Disney/ABC Television group. The Walt Disney family made an obscene amount of money off of a mouse named “Mickey”. They have combined forces with LucasFilms (The company that invented Star Wars!) to make even more money into the future. Check out the tease video here, it seems kind of like a blockbuster movie feel doesn’t it?

https://twitter.com/espn/status/1244955163204423680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1244955163204423680&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ffrntofficesport.com%2Fmichael-jordan-the-last-dance-espn-star-wars%2F

What you see here is the last of three trailers spanning over 18 months to promote the documentary.

  • ESPN released the first trailer in December of 2018. This 60-second promotion rocked social media with 35 million impressions.
  • Then ESPN dropped a second trailer on Christmas Day, 2019 with a A-List people interviewed for the documentary, including Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr, and former Bulls and Lakers coach Phil Jackson. This presentation has former U.S. President Barack Obama and the late Kobe Bryant. 

Unless electricity ceases to exist between now and Sunday, this will be one of the biggest ESPN 30 for 30 documentaries since the Oscar-winning O.J. Simpson presentation, “O.J.: Made in America,”.

To put this in perspective. It will be shown on three platforms. Two ESPN channels and Netflix.

  • The version with the foul language will be on ESPN,
  • The CLEAN version will be on ESPN2.
  • The Netflix version is basically chasing the audience that took off when the season went into hiatus. 

With all of the trouble with promotion and the obvious trouble to put together a trailer that put movies to shame, what’s left to do?

Try to incite a rise out of LeBron James and Michael Jordan’s fans with a ridiculous debate over who’s better. ESPN couldn’t resist putting Bill Laimbeer on air to place his LeBron vote.

Really? Bill Laimbeer would have said “Ronald Agers is a better player” before giving Michael Jordan any props. All of the Detroit Pistons hated Michael Jordan led by Isiah Thomas at the time. If anyone uses Bill Laimbeer as a part of a debate has no clue.

However, check out the Twitter numbers here.

  • First Take: 1.5 million followers.
  • ESPN: 35.2 million followers.
  • LeBron James: 45.8 million followers.

Between these three Twitter accounts, there are 83 million followers. If their followers retweet anything from these accounts, the exposure spreads. LeBron James by himself has more followers that the top sports show on ESPN and the entire network combined with about 6 million to spare. If you make it about LeBron James, just think about how many eyeballs will be on the TV Sunday.