5 essential binges while waiting for new episodes of ‘The Last Dance’
2. Ultimate Jordan
Michael Jordan Come Fly With Me (Stream on Amazon Prime here)
Michael Jordan’s Playground (Stream on Amazon Prime here)
Michael Jordan Airtime (Stream on Amazon Prime here)
Michael Jordan: Above And Beyond (Stream on Amazon Prime here, $2.99 without subscription)
Michael Jordan: His Airness (Stream on Amazon Prime here, $2.99 without subscription)
Technically we’re cheating here, since the original Ultimate Jordan DVD box set (yes, I’m old) contains five different short films about the GOAT. But they’re all interchangeable, available on Amazon Prime and provide some great background info on MJ’s life growing up, his time in college, the 1984 Olympics, his immediate arrival to the NBA scene and his prime years in the league.
Are these late ’80s/early ’90s mini-documentaries extremely cheesy and an obvious product of their time? Absolutely. Every song in the Come Fly With Me soundtrack sounds like it belongs on the Rainbow Road course for a Mario Kart game. But it also adds to their charm (Jordan dancing in a Full Force music video at the end of Michael Jordan’s Playground is essential viewing), and as they progress later into his career, the moments gradually get more and more epic.
The younger crowd will get a kick out of the corny narration, dated production and apparent need for pan flutes on 33 percent of the soundtrack, but some of the early-Jordan highlights are still breathtaking to this day, and these short films paint a better picture of the dominant, iconic persona that Michael Jordan became during that time, even just a few years into his NBA career.
Hearing from MJ himself throughout is a rare treat, and since we don’t know how much The Last Dance will focus on early Jordan highlights or his first 3-4 championship runs, these are a great way to bring old history to life. Just don’t watch His Airness if you want to avoid 22-year-old spoilers on how the 1997-98 campaign ended until The Last Dance gets there.