Six years on, ESPN's The Last Dance remains the documentary that quietly settled an unsettled argument. When the 10-part chronicle of Michael Jordan's final season with the Chicago Bulls aired in the spring of 2020, it landed in a sports world starved for live action and primed to relitigate the greatest-of-all-time debate. What followed was a remarkable thing: in real time, NBA stars, broadcasters and even Jordan's most public sceptics talked themselves into — or back into — calling MJ the greatest basketball player who ever lived.
The most public conversion belonged to Colin Cowherd. The FS1 host had spent years arguing the LeBron James case in language that was, by his own admission, designed to provoke. Pre-documentary, Cowherd had said this on air about James: "LeBron comes in and after four or five years — and you don't want to admit this — but he can do a bunch of stuff Michael couldn't. He's a bigger stronger Michael, and for the record I watched both, I'm not 22 years old. There are a lot of things LeBron does [that Jordan couldn't]."
By the time the credits rolled on episode ten, that argument had collapsed. "Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player ever," Cowherd declared on his show. "This is a message because people my age know what I'm about to say but most 20 year olds in the media, in most 18, 19 year olds, there's a message in this whole damn thing."
Skip Bayless, who has built a media empire on contrarian sports takes, used the documentary moment to share something far closer to awe. "I met Michael Jordan," Bayless said. "He's as close to a god-like figure that I've ever seen with my own two eyes. The aura around him, and the way people reacted when he came into a building or he walked past them down the street still [stuns me]."
Kevin Durant — who has spent his entire career navigating the Jordan-vs-LeBron crossfire — used The Last Dance as proof that the GOAT discussion needs to account for adaptability. Durant argued that Jordan would not only have survived in today's pace-and-space NBA, he would have thrived in it.
"He can adapt his game to anything," Durant said. "He would fit in as the best player in the league. That's what he would be. He would have more possessions to do more things, more space for MJ to go to work. We'll never know, but for sure he's a masterful basketball player."
Magic Johnson, whose rivalry with Bird helped midwife the NBA Jordan inherited, called the documentary a generational bridge. "Michael Jordan's Last Dance was fantastic, I loved all two hours of it," Magic said. "Young fans that never got to see Michael play now understand why he's the GOAT of basketball."
Damian Lillard, who watched live, kept his review to four words: "Mike from another planet." Dwyane Wade was barely more verbose. "MJ had it. He had that 'it'. He was chosen to be the GOAT." Trae Young, who came up in the LeBron era, conceded the documentary had moved his own private rankings. "I feel like this documentary's going to make me put MJ number one instead of number two. Can't wait, Last Dance."
Former player Stephen Jackson focused on the one Jordan stat that even modern LeBron defenders struggle to relitigate. "Very few people can use the word undefeated in the championship games. Very few athletes in the world through sports of all time can say they are undefeated in championship games. Floyd, Jordan, who else, Rocky [Marciano]?"
And Jamal Crawford — who is friends with both sides of the great debate — circled back to a line that Larry Bird coined in 1986 and that has somehow only become more famous. "The great Larry Legend, who along with Magic helped save basketball, said that was God disguised as Michael Jordan. Think about that."
For a moment in 2020, the GOAT argument was actually settled — and the NBA's own roster of greats lined up to say so.
