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

The much-anticipated ESPN documentary “The Last Dance” will premiere on Sunday April 19th. It’s the only thing these days the NBA fans have to look forward to. Lake Show Life has some advice for LeBron James fans around the world. Enjoy the documentary and please keep the comparisons and G.O.A.T. conversation to yourselves. 

The ESPN documentary “The Last Dance” airs on Sunday. Interesting sports is back on TV for awhile! Hallelujah!

It has been just over a month since the NBA shut down back on March 11th, 2020. Soon after, one by one, most of the other sports leagues around the world followed suit. The combination of the loss of March Madness and potentially the NBA playoffs has left basketball content to a grinding halt.

Due to the worldwide social distancing mandated by the federal government to battle the threat of the COVID 19, or coronavirus pandemic, we’ve all been looking for things to watch on TV.

What’s worse, TV is looking for anything that is entertaining for people to watch. ESPN, to their credit has tried, but the H-O-R-S-E challenge just didn’t do it.

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The low point of all sports creation on TV was watching Paul Pierce come out in a sleeveless ski jacket to compete against a world-class athlete in Zach Lavine in a competition. Isn’t Lavine the same dude that beat Aaron Gordon in a slam dunk contest? This live event showed that ESPN and NBA are both in the same sinking boat of desperation of showing something, no check that anything that won’t force NBA fans to Netflix.

The NBA 2K challenge only held off the inevitable for a week. Let’s be honest here, if it wasn’t for Patrick Beverley taking it as serious as he does against the Lakers, would anyone really have cared? When he exited the semifinals, the exposure of the tournament followed him. The sports content challenges aren’t only in ESPN’s laps. There is an actual article about J.R. Smith hating Hennessy as a drink of choice. 

Now the sports stimulus package will be released Sunday before some fans get their stimulus checks in the mail. Some sports fans may be more appreciative.

Thank God the requests for ESPN to release “The Last Dance,” it’s 10-hour docuseries about the final season that Michael Jordan spent with the Chicago Bulls was honored. It’s not like the NBA and ESPN had much choice at this point. The past Lakers championship games will get old after a while. With the current team sitting at the top of the Western Conference, the games will only serve as a reminder of how close this team is to another one.

Normally NBA documentaries of this magnitude usually come out in June to ride the momentum starting from the NCAA tournament through the NBA Finals. But obviously in terms of when people have more time to watch it, when just about everyone is home quarantined might be more convenient at this point. Also the documentary makes Sunday the day that all media outlets know fans will show up to watch no matter what.

LeBron James knows this all to well. His growing media company and Space Jam 2 coming out next year, he knows how marketing works.  He dropped the science on the “Road Trippin” podcast (via ESPN) before the documentary was moved up.

"”If they release that thing right now? The views on it?” James said. “Listen, if I’m Michael Jordan, I’m going in there and I’m making a conference call and I’m like, ‘OK, what’s the reason that we’re going to hold on to it until June now? Compared to now when everybody is at home?’ Because it’s done [being edited]. It’s done. Yeah, it’s done.”"

Then LeBron joked that ESPN couldn’t fire Richard Jefferson because he was his friend after Jefferson joked to release it early.

Now that it has been moved up to Sunday, Lake Show Life wants to make a small request.

Just watch The Last Dance, enjoy it and for the grace of all that’s good, don’t make this about LeBron James! 

To new readers (Welcome by the way!) that might be shocked that a Los Angeles Lakers website would make such a request, please let us explain.

Most of the basketball analysis on this site (post games and basketball features!) are not totally based on statistics. Basketball has so many facets to the game we cover which sets us apart from many other NBA sites. The easiest way to cheapen this experience is to start this LeBron James scored more points than Michael Jordan or the Finals records.

It’s also an easy way to promote the event. ESPN has already started.

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?

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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.

The Last Dance will show why Michael Jordan is the blueprint that the entire NBA uses today

Michael Jordan had a mystique that few on planet Earth could understand. The Last Dance documentary will let the world in how Michael Jordan conducted himself as an athlete. It’s actually something that Jordan himself is worried about. The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch covered things behind the scenes. One of the major snags was that Jordan thought the public would see him as a “horrible guy.”

"“‘When people see this footage I’m not sure they’re going to be able to understand why I was so intense, why I did the things I did, why I acted the way I acted, and why I said the things I said,’”"

Here’s where the line is crossed between real NBA fans that actually know the history of basketball and NBA casuals. For the real fans, most of the footage won’t shock them. Remember the best-selling book, The Jordan Rules written in 1992? ESPN’s documentary can’t be as bad as what he did according to that book. Relax Mr. Jordan, it’s all right. Let’s just start this discussion on this part of 1992.

The NBA went worldwide when the Dream Team brought back the gold. Jordan was the best player on the team and was the most recognized athlete on the planet. The funny thing is Jordan thought about saying no like this documentary. The NBA, more specifically, Rod Thorn asked Jordan (Twice!) to be on the Olympic team in 1992.

After being convinced (and a few player changes…) the world fell in love with the NBA and the international bridge was forged from FIBA to the NBA. The international players you see today are connected to him.

How about his Air Jordans? Most people reading this may have a pair. The NBA just recently released rules that players could use any color shoes to express themselves. In the 80’s Jordan had SHOES period to express himself. People tend to forget the NBA would fine him for wearing Air Jordans in the beginning.

The biggest part of Michael Jordan’s mystique is that he didn’t do the talking back then. The media, former players and fans did the talking for him while he sat back. Here’s an example.

The Last Dance will be 10 hours of opening doors of what NBA fans have been wondering for over 20 years.

The main reason why The Last Dance is a can’t miss is because of the director.

The director didn’t hold punches. Jason Hehir already has a controversial 30 for 30 on his resume

ESPN as you can see above, takes this series very seriously. It is one of the biggest diamonds on the brand. It’s about as recognizable as the flagship show SportsCenter.

It didn’t take long to realize how immaculate this documentary would be. All anyone has to do is to realize who is directing this documentary. His name is Jason Hehir. He is known for directing one of the more explosive and entertaining 30 for 30 documentaries of the ESPN library called “The Fab Five”.

This documentary was just as hyped by ESPN back then as The Last Dance is this week. Hehir will leave nothing out of this documentary like he didn’t in The Fab Five. The behind the scenes look at Michigan Wolverines basketball team was well put together and shined the light on the struggles of the cast of characters with brutal honesty.

Just read this small part of a conversation between Hehir and Jordan courtesy of Yahoo! News. 

"“Why do you want to do this?” Hehir asked him. “I don’t,” Jordan replied. “Why not?” “When people see some of this footage they’re not going to understand why I behaved the way that I behaved,” Jordan revealed. “This is not going to be just a quick clip of you talking,” Hehir reminded him. “You have 10 hours to explain things. Some questions I ask you may not want to answer but I have to ask them and you will have the chance to set the record straight on those things.” “I’ll talk about whatever you want,” Jordan replied."

This will be a blockbuster. Most projects are gauged by the respect of the director (Writer used to be a director for over 20 years in a former life.) and if Michael Jordan respects his vision, we all should. Reportedly, Mehir will go into details of these historical eras.

The Dream Team
Jordan’s high profile gambling activities (First retirement?)
The history of Jordan’s various endorsements
The murder of Jordan’s father
The Bulls-Pistons rivalry (To all readers that want to hear Bill Laimbeer again, understand now?)
Jordan’s short-lived baseball career (Who remembers the famous SI cover with “Bag it Michael” caption of the front?)
The backstories on how Phil Jackson, Dennis Rodman, and Scottie Pippen came to the Bulls
Friction with the core’s antagonist, Jerry Krause

The Last Dance is such a big event because it reminds NBA fans while teaching others one very important fact.

The Last Dance shows the world (and reminds others) why Michael Jordan is on another level and then there’s everyone else

The Last Dance documentary will actually shine the light on who really loves the game of basketball and the beauty of the NBA. Real fans enjoy all of the greatness from all eras while having an understanding of the level of great players along with the style of play.

Basketball casuals just use stats to tear down one player to uplift another. At this time, the G.O.A.T. conversations in NBA history is basically all sports shows have. Take Shannon Sharpe for example. He always hypes up LeBron James. 

Marcellus Wiley also thinks that LeBron James will be helped in closing the gap as well. Only one problem. They are former football players!

Now here’s Stephon Marbury’s take on the comparisons of Jordan to LeBron courtesy to a friend of Lake Show Life, Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson.

"“People wanna rank Jordan? Jordan shouldn’t even be ranked. It should be Kobe, then LeBron and then you can pick guys after that. There’s just no comparison man. It’s not the same. It’s just different worlds. Different mentalities. Jordan is not. Jordan is NOT from Earth. That’s different. He’s not the same. And I think it’ll really be insightful when they drop that Michael Jordan – when they drop that whole piece, I don’t know if they didn’t dropped it yet – that series…” “Yeah. The crazy part is that now everybody is home, so nobody can’t go anywhere. All the kids have to watch it and they’re gonna be like, ‘Daammmnnn! This is crazy!’ So it’s kind of like going to mess things up for guys like LeBron James and them saying like – You can’t say that LeBron James is better than Michael Jordan? C’mon man. LeBron’s a great player. Don’t get me wrong. A great, great player. Unbelievable. Amazing. But better than Michael Jordan? – it’s not even the same. It’s just different. In fact, it needs no explanation or explaining because we can’t talk about Jordan’s game. It’s like we need to talk about what people are ‘not.’”"

Stephon Marbury is a 13 year veteran in the NBA. Stories like these are endless from Michael Jordan’s peers. Just think about how many other stories will come out in The Last Dance to back up what Marbury says to Scoop B.

The Last Dance is something that all NBA fans need in this time of “Social Distancing”.  Don’t ruin it with debates. 

For the moment, this documentary will be the most important 10 hours of sports for quite a while. After May 17th, there might not be much else to talk about. The NBA is not a guarantee and baseball, tennis and golf as in the air as well.

It’s important to pay attention to ESPN’s press release here.

"“As society navigates this time without live sports, viewers are still looking to the sports world to escape and enjoy a collective experience. We’ve heard the calls from fans asking us to move up the release date for this series, and we’re happy to announce that we’ve been able to accelerate the production schedule to do just that. This project celebrates one of the greatest players and dynasties ever, and we hope it can serve as a unifying entertainment experience to fill the role that sports often play in our lives, telling a story that will captivate everyone, not just sports fans.”"

Lake Show Life will co-sign this statement with this. Just enjoy the experience and don’t screw it up for everyone with empty stats trying to say who the better player is.

• If you didn’t watch Michael Jordan because you were too young, learn something.
• If you hate LeBron James (Believe me there are a ton!), keep him out of the equation.

This documentary is “Come Fly with Me”, Michael Jordan’s Playground or “Air Time”  put together with an untold history lesson that will entertain us all.

Basically we are using this platform to say what most people will say in living rooms this weekend to that know-it-all that always has something to add to any basketball discussion.

Shut up so we can all watch this!