5 NBA teams from the ’90s that deserve their own sports documentary
“The Last Dance” has us feeling nostalgic about a few memorable NBA teams from the ’90s that would be worthy of their own documentaries.
On Sunday evening, the greatest gift to the sports world that held us together during this period of quarantine came to a satisfying conclusion. The Last Dance, an epic 10-part docuseries focused on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dynasty of the ’90s, is over.
The question many of us are facing today is both a literal and existential one: What now?
ESPN has more sports documentaries lined up, with 30 for 30s about Lance Armstrong, Bruce Lee and Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire scheduled to release over the next few weeks. But after learning and reliving so much about MJ’s Bulls and ’90s NBA basketball in general, we can’t help but crave more content on the league’s best teams from such a memorable decade.
NBA basketball has never been more efficient than it is now, but even in the low-scoring games of the ’90s, there’s a certain sense of nostalgia about the league’s peak of popularity, mid-range magnificence and larger-than-life characters during that time. There were so many memorable teams and superstars that were denied rings by Jordan’s Bulls, and even in a 10-hour documentary, there wasn’t enough time to cover them all extensively.
While it’s unreasonable to hope for that same 10-hour treatment on these squads, here are five teams from the ’90s we’d love to see in the next hit NBA documentary.
Honorable Mentions
Reggie Miller‘s Indiana Pacers — The 1997-98 Pacers were one of only two teams to push Jordan’s Bulls to a Game 7 during their six title seasons, but since their ’94 and ’95 squads were covered extensively in ESPN’s Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks, and then the ’98 team made a guest appearance in The Last Dance, we’re keeping them in the honorable mentions section.
Patrick Ewing‘s New York Knicks — Ditto for the Knicks, who reached the NBA Finals in 1994 and 1999 (losing both) but have been covered in Winning Time, The Last Dance and the NBA TV documentary, Clutch City. Ewing deserves his own day in the sun and it’d be awesome to relive the last time the Knicks were actually a force, but they’ve gotten a decent amount of screen time in the recent past.
Hakeem Olajuwon‘s Houston Rockets — Those Rockets teams would have legitimately challenged the Bulls if Jordan’s baseball sabbatical had never happened, but their back-to-back title seasons were covered pretty well in Clutch City already.
Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway’s Orlando Magic — This 30 for 30 was one of the few that didn’t quite live up to the hype, but if you haven’t seen This Magic Moment on Shaq and Penny’s Magic squads from the ’90s, add it to your watch list.