Michael Jordan’s 2020 docuseries The Last Dance averaged 5.6 million views per episode within a month of its release. It became the most-watched ESPN docuseries ever, proving that Jordan still had the attention of the world. However, the production received some flak regarding the interpretation of certain incidents depicted on the show.
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Therefore, Jordan’s former NBA rival Dominique Wilkins was recently asked to verify the accuracy of the incidents shown in The Last Dance. But as it turns out, the former Atlanta Hawks star has never watched the highly acclaimed series.
During an appearance on MMA Fighter Rampage Jackson’s Jaxxon Podcast, Wilkins said that he has seen Jordan since the latter was a freshman at UNC in the early 1980s.
Therefore, he has been well-aware of MJ’s tenacity and grit since day one. When Jordan transitioned into the NBA, everybody knew what he was bringing to the table.
Therefore, Wilkins didn’t need to see the docuseries to know about Jordan’s never-give-up attitude. Since he experienced it first-hand through numerous match-ups. Wilkins explained,
“I never even seen it [the docuseries]… because we lived it. I saw it every game, I know his mentality… I saw it in him in college when he was a freshman, I was a junior and I saw it then, the toughness, the determination, the will to win.”
“That was just common knowledge back then. So I didn’t need to see the documentary to know that a lot of stuff was factual,” he added.
Wilkins’ sentiments are understandable since he and Michael Jordan clashed in 48 games against each other. As someone who faced 30 defeats in those match-ups, the 64-year-old knows about Jordan’s killer instinct better than most.
Therefore, he felt that watching the iconic docuseries would be repetitive.
However, the docuseries struck a rather negative chord with another one of Jordan’s NBA rival, Isiah Thomas. In one of the episodes , Jordan tackled the rumors that he was responsible for Thomas’ exclusion from the 1992 Dream Team.
MJ denied his involvement and even labeled Thomas as the second-best point guard of all time.
However, he was glad that IT never made it to the Dream Team because according to him, the Detroit Pistons guard would have been a hindrance to their team chemistry. as he was an “a**hole”. These comments triggered Thomas.
During an appearance on All The Smoke pod in 2023, he demanded a public apology from MJ if the latter inadvertently disrespected him.
Thomas said, “You got on national TV and you called me a**hole. Then you said you hated me… if you don’t mean it, get on national television and apologize. If you meant it, let it ride as it is.“
Thus, The Last Dance has also sparked a lot a controversies.
Apart from Isiah Thomas, MJ’s 6x champion teammate Scottie Pippen was unhappy with it because he thought that Jordan hogged all the limelight for the Bulls’ Championship runs and he wasn’t given enough credit for all the success.
