GetBuLLish wrote:MrSparkle wrote:But I’ll double back that this documentary was supposed to make Jordan “look bad.” Quite frankly, it made him look absolutely better than ever. My younger sister who barely remembered the last championship beyond Rodman’s fun hair colors and the Utah fireworks came away with the conclusion that Pippen was very selfish, and MJ is the most inspirational athlete of all-time.
So what exactly made MJ look bad? Nothing really. Him yelling at guys, calling Burrell a hoe or crying about his intensity? I appreciate the dude, he’s the GOAT and I admire that work ethic. The documentary was awesome and entertaining. But there was absolutely nothing that made him look bad. Which brings back Ken Burns’ point...
I've heard this complaint multiple times as well, but I haven't seen anyone plausibly explain what negative aspects of MJ's life/career that the documentary left out.
The documentary delved into criticisms about Jordan's gambling. I personally thought they spent too much time on this since I don't think it's a big deal at all that he liked to gamble outside of the game. Who cares if he threw thousands of dollars on golf games? Well enough people did care that apparently this was a significant controversy during his career, and the doc covered it.
The documentary delved deep into criticisms about how Jordan treated teammates (and Krause). It showed teammates calling him an a-hole, showed him yelling and chastising teammates, showed him talking crap about some teammates, and discussed the "revelations" from "Jordan Rules" that hit on these issues. In the end, though, most people generally set aside this critique of Jordan since the end result of Jordan's actions was excellence and championships.
And finally, the documentary discussed criticisms of Jordan not being politically active for liberal causes. In my opinion, this is such a ridiculous criticism that it shouldn't have taken up more than 5 minutes of the whole documentary, if that. Who the hell are people to demand that someone else (and for the most part someone they don't know) outspokenly advocate for the same causes they believe in? That's incredibly pretentious and narcissistic, IMO. But nevertheless, the doc covered this subject in depth; heck, it even included the friggin' former president of the U.S. chastising MJ for not being politically active.
So what else should the doc have covered? You can't just complain about how it did "absolutely nothing that made him look bad" without identifying the omissions. But the truth is that MJ's career is so damn pristine--relatively speaking in comparison to damn near every athlete ever--that you really have to nitpick (see above) to critique the guy.
agree with this except for the political part. nobody demanded that jordan "outspokenly advocate for the same causes they believe in." and obama did not "chastise MJ for not being politically active." those are distortions. what WAS criticized is that he seemed to avoid addressing any and all social topics because it would hurt his earning power. speaking out against a blatantly racist senator from his home state seems like a pretty minimal sacrifice to business. who would hold it against a black man that he do that? the racists that probably weren't buying his shoes to begin with? good riddance to their business