Michael Jordan is donating his entire share of the proceeds from the documentary The Last Dance, which should reach at least $3 million to $4 million, to charitable causes.
According to Forbes, Jordan, the focus of a 10-part ESPN documentary on his last championship with the Chicago Bulls, will donate all funds he’s expected to receive from the documentary. The Last Dance was supposed to be released in June to coincide with the NBA Finals. However, the coronavirus outbreak suspended the NBA season, prompting ESPN to release it early.
The ten-part series includes never before seen footage of the Bulls 1997-’98 season, in which they won their last title. The series also includes interviews with 106 ex-teammates, opponents, coaches, general managers, and celebrities including former President Barack Obama.
Obama became a trending topic on Twitter Sunday night after the documentary referred to him as a ‘former Chicago resident‘ instead of a former president. The backlash caused director Jason Hehir to explain the reasoning to Entertainment Weekly.
“I wanted each subject in the movie to have an “organic connection” to Jordan and his story, as opposed to simply including “as many famous people … as possible,” Hehir said.
Teammates interviewed include Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr, Bill Wennington, and coach Phil Jackson. Opponents of Jordan interviewed include Charles Barkley, Gary Payton, Dikembe Mutombo, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Dominique Wilkins.
The documentary premiered Sunday night on ESPN and ESPN2. ESPN aired the explicit version, while the ESPN2 version had profanity edited out.
Jordan is considered the best player of all-time. He won the Most Valuable Player award in all six of his finals appearances and is fifth all-time in total points (32,292) and third in steals (2514). Jordan also won the Most Valuable Player award five times, led the league in scoring 10 times, was a 14-time all-star.
Jordan currently has a majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets franchise and is a former owner of the Washington Wizards.
The next two episodes of the documentary will air on ESPN networks on Sunday, April 26 and new episodes will air each Sunday until the finale May 17.