Previewing ESPN's "The Last Dance" documentary about Michael Jordan and the Bulls

ESPN's documentary "The Last Dance" premieres at 9 p.m. on Sunday. The documentary will focus on the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls, the final season in the Windy City for much of the team's core, most notably Michael Jordan. 

The film is directed by Jason Hehir, known by many for the widely-acclaimed ESPN documentary "The Fab Five."

The 10-part series will discuss in detail the team that earned the Chicago franchise its sixth and most recent championship. It will also give insight into Jordan as a person from many people associated with his career, including UNC's head basketball coach Roy Williams.

Williams met with reporters on Zoom last week and discussed his fondest memories of the Hall of Fame guard. 

Jordan came to a North Carolina summer basketball camp as a rising senior, and Williams, who served as an assistant coach at the time, was holding scrimmages with several prospects.

Jordan blew away the coaches at the camp, Williams remembers.

“I think I just saw the best 6-foot, 4-inch high school player I’ve ever seen,” he told fellow UNC assistant coach Eddie Fogler at the time.

Just like that, Jordan was having breakfast with Williams and Fogler and lunch with UNC head coach Dean Smith. 

It was Williams who suggested that Jordan participate in the Five-Star Camp in 1980 that marked his coming out party as one of the best high school players in the country. Jordan came into the camp with only two scholarship offers and left it with nearly every school in the nation wanting him. Having that early period to view him, though, made a difference for the North Carolina coaching staff.

“We did have a tremendous head start,” Williams said.

Jordan would go on to play an illustrious three years at UNC, years which he says were largely responsible for his NBA success.

In an interview with The Athletic, Hehir said that Jordan was a huge part of the development of "The Last Dance," giving three separate interviews and notes after watching rough cuts of the film. 

The documentary dives deep into Jordan's ferocity as a competitor by using behind-the-scenes footage of the Bulls' entire season, most of which has never been released to the public. 

"The Last Dance" will be welcomed with open arms by an audience craving sports content in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Audiences will get to learn more about the player recognized by most as the best to ever pick up a basketball.

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