For many people, myself included, sports have often served as a way to get away from the things that are troubling us in real life. Whether it’s actively participating in a sport so that for even the briefest of times you are solely focused on the game at hand, or watching a sport so your fanaticism forces you to ride the emotional highs and lows of every minute of a game, sports always seem to find a way to take your mind off of everything else and just enjoy, or anxiously fret, over a bit of entertainment.
Something like that would be incredibly welcome at a time like this with all of the chaotic and occasionally terrifying news that people are being asked to digest on a daily basis. But, like almost everything, most sporting events have been paused or canceled as a result of COVID-19 and so for much of this somewhat lonely and frightening time, people have been without one of the greatest distractions. Watching reruns of classic games was fun for a time, but ultimately those run their course as there’s only so much entertainment someone can get from a game where they already know the outcome.
Then ESPN announced it would be moving up the air date of a 10 part series entitled “The Last Dance” which was set to chronicle the final season of Michael Jordan’s time with the Chicago Bulls. The series was originally set to air in June of this year, but due to the lack of live sports coverage, ESPN decided to move the series up to April 19 when they would air two episodes a week on every Sunday until all 10 parts had been seen.
Almost immediately following that announcement, the always active, and ever funny world of NBA twitter blew up with excitement from fans who had been starved of action and robbed of what was shaping up to be a fun playoffs for the 2019-20 season.
Then when the first two episodes finally aired it was as if the excitement had spread beyond the NBA’s core fanbase. Casual fans of all ages seemed to tune in to watch with the series and people within the series dominating the trending page of twitter. For a brief moment it seemed as if the whole world had stopped worrying about the coronavirus. My social media was flooded with tweets and posts related to the series rather than being filled with people cracking jokes about how terrible social distancing is or calling out other people who weren’t taking the virus seriously.
It was only a brief respite for a few hours, but it served as a reminder of just how important sports can be for us. Injecting a bit of energy and excitement into what has been a somber and dull time and allowing everyone to forget for a few moments about quarantine, money and food struggles and rising death counts.
Here is the final trailer, released in late March, for The Last Dance.
J4804 Laird 