Critical response On
review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 97% based on 62 reviews, with an average rating of 8.85/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "A compelling and comprehensive portrait of one of basketball's great teams,
The Last Dances blend of archival footage and candid interviews confirms there's nobody quite like Mike or the team he led to victory."
Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the series a score of 91 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Writing for
Consequence of Sound, Robert Daniels gave
The Last Dance a perfect score, calling the series "beautifully composed and edited together" and a "pulsating celebration of greatness." Similarly, Alex Pattle of
The Independent praised director Jason Hehir, writing that "Hehir's fear of being formulaic fosters a compelling freshness, and his ability to subtly segue between tones ensures Jordan's auras of magnetism and intensity are highlighted at the appropriate moments", while Brian Lowry of
CNN gave the series five stars out of five, saying that "it's a very, very deep dive, but for fans who will eat this stuff up, it hits all the right notes." The
Chicago Sun-Timess
Richard Roeper gave the series three and a half stars out of four, writing that "while some might question whether even one of the great team sports dynasties of all time merits such a lengthy treatment, if anything each episode left me wanting more. Not only were the Bulls a team for the ages, they also gave us a sports soap opera for the ages." Daniel Fienberg of
The Hollywood Reporter gave the series a positive review, writing that "it's a tremendously engaging, ridiculously fun assemblage of spectacular basketball footage and reasonably introspective interviews with almost everybody you'd hope to hear from on the subject." Writing for
The New York Times,
Wesley Morris wrote that "Hehir has this trick where any time someone says something debatable or controversial or simply worthy of running by [Michael] Jordan, he hands him an
iPad and makes him watch what was said. And every time Hehir does it, Jordan turns the reaction into gold. He's an incredulous
Zeus in these moments, lightning bolts falling from his toga as he laughs, zapping lesser gods." Conversely, filmmaker
Ken Burns criticized Michael Jordan's involvement in the production of the series, saying that "if you are there influencing the very fact of it getting made, it means that certain aspects that you don't necessarily want in aren't going to be in [...] and that's not the way you do good journalism." Specifically, Burns pointed to Jordan's production company, Jump 23, being listed as a partner in the series. Hehir would respond to such speculations stating "I ran into zero stop signs in the editorial process. Michael was involved, but in a distant satellite-level while making it. He never came close to the editing room and only received cuts as they were about to go on air. I think Michael is above the fray when it comes to what he wants in and out.”
Criticism by former teammates The Last Dance drew positive reactions from active NBA players, impressed by Jordan's accomplishments, and thankful for the series providing much-needed entertainment in the initial
quarantine period of the
COVID-19 pandemic. However, the other
Chicago Bulls players on the Last Dance team who personally experienced all of the events that took place in the docu-series publicly disagreed with much of the docu-series' version of events, and placed the blame on Jordan for molding questionable narratives.
Scottie Pippen was reportedly "wounded and disappointed" by his portrayal in the series, although he did not make any public remarks during the documentary's airing. Pippen later denied any rift between himself and Jordan over the documentary; however, he told Jordan he was not pleased with the docuseries and considered it to be "about Michael trying to uplift himself”. Pippen would go on to aggressively criticize Jordan in the following years. In 2021, he wrote an autobiography,
Unguarded, which gives his own perspective on the Bulls' dynasty. In the book, he is highly critical of Jordan, calling him selfish, hypocritical and insensitive. In other interviews, Pippen also stated that he thought
Kobe Bryant and
LeBron James were greater basketball players than Jordan, and said that when Jordan first played for the Bulls, he was a “horrible” player and had poor shot selection.
Horace Grant said that
The Last Dance was edited to favor Jordan, remarking that the series was "entertaining, but we know [...] that about 90% of it [was] BS in terms of the realness of it"; he also denied Jordan's accusation that Grant was the source for
The Jordan Rules and agreed that Pippen was portrayed unfairly. Grant also explained on
Bill Cartwright's podcast that he initially planned to decline the interview offer, as he was not a member of the Last Dance team. However, after much persistence by the production crew, Grant finally "reluctantly" conceded to interview because he wanted to reminisce about his days as an NBA star. He then said he took an outspoken stance about his disdain for the documentary because he wanted to defend his character and did not agree with the veracity of Jordan's version of events. Grant then doubled down on Jordan by expressing his frustrations about Jordan and the docu-series in a lengthy phone call with
Shannon Sharpe. Cartwright, an assistant coach on the Last Dance team, and also the starting center on the Bulls’ first three-peat team, was reportedly unimpressed with the series, dismissing it as pure entertainment, and said that the series was "really one guy's perspective of what happened." Cartwright also explained in another interview that Jordan had been framing an inaccurate image to the public, and called his play-acting “silly.”
Craig Hodges, a member of the first two championship seasons with the Bulls, said he felt disappointed about not getting an opportunity to be interviewed for the documentary, and further criticized Jordan for discussing the team's use of
cocaine during the 1980s, which was also another subject that was not related to the Last Dance season. On the issue of cocaine use, Hodges remarked, "I was thinking about the brothers who [were on the team] with you who have to explain [what happened] to their families”. Some expressed disappointment over the omission of starting center
Luc Longley in the series, including Longley himself. In 2021, an episode of the documentary series
Australian Story, titled "Luc Longley and the missing chapter of
The Last Dance", was released with Longley's response, including interviews with ex-teammates such as Pippen and Jordan. The documentary was a success in its own right. Following the positive reception of Longley’s documentary, the Bulls organization released an additional feature documentary on a key member of the Last Dance team,
sixth man Toni Kukoč. The documentary was titled “The Waiter”, paying tribute to Kukoč’s nickname acquired in his native country of
Croatia. Others also expressed disappointment in the lack of coverage of another starter on the Last Dance team,
point guard Ron Harper. Harper was only included for a few seconds, talking about his time playing for the
Cleveland Cavaliers in 1989 when he expressed disagreement with his coach for not assigning him to defend Jordan during
The Shot, but never was shown discussing his role in the Bulls' second three-peat. Harper had started all 82 games during the Last Dance season. There was also criticism for the series' over-emphasis on
Steve Kerr, a minor player on the Bulls' last championship team. Those critics alleged that the reasoning behind Kerr's over-emphasis was linked to his recent success as the head coach of the
Golden State Warriors. Some compared it to a scenario where ESPN did a documentary on the 1970s
Pittsburgh Steelers and placed
Tony Dungy (who like Kerr had a successful head coaching career but a lesser playing career) in the same company as
Joe Greene,
Franco Harris, and
Jack Lambert. Kerr himself admitted that the series emphasized him more than what was needed, and also did not condone the absence of Longley and Harper in the series. Some came to the defense of former Bulls general manager
Jerry Krause, accusing Jordan of intentionally delaying the start of the production until Krause died in 2017 in order to prevent him from being able to explain his own version of events.
Sports Illustrated questioned Jordan's narrative expressed in the series, called him “cruel”, and said that Krause deserved better treatment.
US ratings For the
2019–20 television season, the show tied for fifth among adults 18–49 in the
Nielsen ratings with
This Is Us, averaging a 2.9 rating and 15 share. It also placed 55th in total viewership, averaging 6.71 million viewers.
Variety dubbed the show's performance a "consolation prize" for ESPN given the network's struggle to find live sports. The series also became ESPN's most-watched documentary.
The Last Dance : U.S. viewers per episode (millions) Accolades ==See also==