The NBA- and WNBA-Players Exit Survey on MJ and ‘The Last Dance’

Each of the past five Sundays, Isaiah Thomas has walked into his home theater just before 9 p.m. ET and asked not to be disturbed for the next two hours. ESPN’s The Last Dance has taken center stage at the Thomas household, just like it has across the nation. And though Thomas says his wife and kids have joined him for a couple episodes, he’s the one who has been locked in.

“I used to sneak out of church to go watch Jordan,” says the 31-year-old. “The Bulls vs. the Knicks, Bulls vs. Pacers, Bulls vs. Miami, all those. He was always the first game on Sunday, NBA on NBC.”

For Cody Zeller, 27, who plays for the Jordan-owned Charlotte Hornets, and Arike Ogunbowale, 23, of the Dallas Wings, the documentary has been something to look forward to every Sunday night—an event to schedule their lives around while the professional leagues are paused. And for 23-year-old rookie Admiral Schofield, who grew up an hour north of Chicago, and 27-year-old Harrison Barnes, a former Tar Heel, Sunday nights have become an opportunity to tap into both basketball nostalgia and education.

Last week, I asked Thomas, Zeller, Ogunbowale, Barnes, and Schofield about their experiences watching the monocultural event, their favorite parts of the series, their connections to Jordan, what they will take away, and more.

What was the most memorable moment of the documentary?

Harrison Barnes: I love just seeing [Jordan’s] competitiveness. Whether it was with his teammates, in practice, in games, he would motivate himself, and he was just a constant competitor. I think that was awesome to see.

Cody Zeller: The behind-the-scenes footage. I’ve seen a lot of his full games on NBA classic reruns, but I haven’t seen a lot of the highlights that they’re showing. The behind-the-scenes footage of MJ and Danny Ainge playing golf between games 1 and 2 [of the 1986 first-round playoff series between the Celtics and Bulls], and some of those. [Dennis] Rodman going to Vegas, them on and off the bus, MJ smoking a cigar in his hotel room. Stuff like that. You hear stories and you see his highlights, but I think they’re doing a pretty good job of developing what his life was really like, especially talking about the amount of people that would be outside of his hotel and then at the arena, in the locker room—there was no way for him to get away from that. Wherever he went, he was recognized.

Arike Ogunbowale: Just how passionate Michael was about winning it, how he might’ve looked like a bad guy to a lot of people and even maybe some of his teammates, but all of it was good-natured. That’s how it is when you’re trying to win. Not everybody gets along with teammates, not everybody gets along with their coach, but in order to win, you have to do things. … It doesn’t matter how it’s done, it doesn’t matter if you hurt people’s feelings or not, just [be] competitive. I think that’s probably the biggest thing I’ve taken from it.