ESPN's 'The Last Dance' really just proves that Michael Jordan is the GOAT of image management

Michael Jordan speaks during a press conference in Paris, Jan. 24, 2020.AP Photo/Thibault Camus

• After spending much of the years since his 2003 retirement out of the public eye, Michael Jordan has returned with a vengeance in the ESPN documentary "The Last Dance."
• The series can feel like a Jordan greatest-hits album, which can leave it feeling more like an exercise in brand management than examination of sports history.
• Incidents involving former teammates such as Steve Kerr and opponents such as Gary Payton are covered, but always in the context of Jordan as the ultimate winner.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In a televised-sports climate ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, one series unmistakably stands out as the champion: ESPN's "The Last Dance," a massive 10-part documentary about Michael Jordan's reign of NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls, especially his last one.

The extent to which the series has dominated the sports conversation represents a triumph of marketing for its main character, who left the sport widely acknowledged as its greatest-ever player. For instance, during a time with essentially no other sports programming available, the series' opening episodes smashed the record for highest-rated ESPN documentary ever, at 6.1 million viewers, compared to a previous high of 3.6 million for a 2012 program. It held strong in subsequent episodes.

It's a surprising turnabout as Jordan has largely avoided the spotlight since he last played in 2003, even despite becoming the first former player to own a team and the first to claim a personal fortune of at least $1 billion.

To much of the under-30 millennial generation and the younger basketball fans in Gen Z, Michael Jordan is best known as a meme, or as the namesake of a Nike brand. (That meme was so synonymous with Jordan that in a rare pre-"Last Dance" public appearance, giving remarks at Kobe Bryant's funeral, he joked through tears that he was providing a brand-new meme opportunity.)

"The Last Dance" is changing all that, running like a greatest-hits album of Jordan's undefeated run of six championships in the 1990s. Not only is it a marker thrown down in the "GOAT debate," but it's an excellent exercise in Jordan mythology management.

And that may be the problem.