Lessons From The Last Dance

The day that episode 1 for “The Last Dance” was released, I watched it and immediately called up our VP of TV Production and told him this was the best docuseries I’ve seen in my life. 

Here’s the top 3 things that show taught me.

YOU CAN MAKE AMAZING TV CONTENT FROM YOUR HOME

The show was originally scheduled to be released during the NBA playoffs but was rushed to completion to air during this Covid19 pandemic. The Director Jason Hehir edited the last few episodes with his team completely separated and working from their homes while being quarantined. Yes, the first episodes were done in a multi-million dollar production facility but the last 3 episodes were done on his laptop. Hehir didn’t even see those last episodes on a big screen until they aired on TV, up till then he had only watched it on his laptop. 

At ONE, we’ve spent the last few months working on the launch of our new and completely re-invented version of Apprentice - with the bulk of work being done while we’ve been quarantined. Stay tuned, it’s going to be awesome: https://www.campaignasia.com/article/the-apprentice-refreshed-leads-one-championship-bid-to-keep-brands-in-the-ring/461281

JORDAN IS A WOLF IN DISGUISE

How much of a commercial genius is Jordan? Make no mistake, this docuseries is 100% a business initiative, it’s a Jordan marketing wolf disguised as a documentary. 

Jordan’s production company (Jump23) are co-producers on this but they sneakerly (weak pun attempt) left that out of the end credits. Yes, I’m one of those geeks that read all of the credits.

Every single one of the ten episodes has a beautifully and somewhat (not) subtly crafted message of how amazing Nike is, with the Nike or Jordan logo appearing at least 50+ times per episode. It’s basically a 10-hour Nike commercial and if you worked at Nike it would not be an exaggeration to say that this is literally the greatest and most viewed ad campaign in it’s history. Go out and buy Jordan’s to be like Mike. 

How did the Nike wolf attack? They brilliantly launched their Fire Red Air Jordan 5s on SNKRS at the same time as the show. It sold out in minutes. Pure genius.

IT IS ABOUT THE SUPERSTAR

After every episode aired, NBA branded t-shirt sales flew off the shelf and the league saw a 723% increase in NBA branded water bottles. NOPE.

It’s all about Jordan as a mega-superstar athlete. Every successful sport in history builds itself around their heroes and the NBA has mastered that formula. It doesn’t matter how much money you put into a league, it will ultimately fail if it doesn’t build superheroes. Just look at these failed enterprises: XFL ($70 million lost), Women’s United Soccer ($100 million lost), NFL Europe ($30 million lost), International Premier Tennis League ($30 million) and the list goes on. Go ahead and try to name one single superstar from those leagues.

On the hand, even 20 years later, the Jordan’s Air 1s from 1985 sold for over $500,000 at an online auction a few weekends ago. Scottie Pippen saw the sales of his merchandise increase by 50%. It’s about the superstar.

And one more lesson...

The biggest lesson I took out of this series was about ego from Scottie Pippen and the GM Krause. Both were exceptionally talented and by most accounts good men. But their ego demanded recognition, they needed the applause of man, the praise, and the glory. By many metrics they may have even been better than Jordan. Maybe even smarter than Jordan, maybe more articulate, maybe better looking, taller, faster, or whatever god given gift you can think of.

In that respect the Bulls team is a lot like your office or life where you will meet people who are better than you - they’ve got better degrees, richer parents, fancier consulting words and yet you’ll be surprised at how quickly they disappear when real sh*t hits the fan. When their ego is on the line, they will bail.  Because oddly, you only know who will stick around in hindsight - after you’ve gone through some serious s*%t together. 

Who will put their ego aside to do what’s right when the easier thing is to sit down.  You never would have thought that when Scottie was really needed, he would sit down, but he did and in that moment all his greatness was tarnished. Ego. Despite having built a legacy, Krause failed because he sought glory. Ego.

Look around you, who is a Pippen or Krause and who is the Steve Kerr that is never in the spotlight but is the clutch player you want? Who is your Jordan?  Now go buy some Nike sneakers.