Mark Madden: ESPN's marketing of 'The Last Dance' is brilliant

ESPN is doing big ratings despite no games.

The NFL Draft drew 55 million viewers over its three days. That’s up 16% from the 2019 draft.

Episodes 3 and 4 of “The Last Dance” documentary averaged 5.9 million viewers. The first two episodes averaged 6 million.

ESPN could go in the direction MTV did: MTV (Music Television) ditched music. Maybe ESPN doesn’t need games.

The success of “The Last Dance” was predictable. Michael Jordan is iconic at the same level as Muhammad Ali and Babe Ruth. Like Cedric the Entertainer said Tuesday on ESPN, there will never be another Michael Jordan, just like there will never be another Martin Luther King. (Cedric really said that, and he was serious.)

Jordan’s cultural imprint is such that Isiah Thomas and Bill Laimbeer of the “Bad Boys”-era Detroit Pistons appeared on ESPN Monday to discuss refusing to shake the Chicago Bulls’ hands after the Bulls eliminated Detroit in 1991.

That bit of juvenile silliness heightened the animosity between Jordan and Thomas. It almost certainly kept Thomas off the United States “Dream Team” that dominated men’s basketball at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics.

Not that Jordan wielding his influence like a club was any less juvenile. But it’s amazing that it’s news again in 2020.

Thomas used his air time to moan about being snubbed. (Thomas is great at whining. It’s his primary language.)

But Thomas is right to feel slighted, even now. He was the best player on a team that won NBA titles in 1989 and ’90. He was NBA Finals MVP in ’90. He made the All-Star Game from 1982-93. Thomas was extremely qualified and deserving.

But Jordan hated Thomas. So did a few other “Dream Team” members, and no player would take a stand for Thomas (and against Jordan). Magic Johnson and John Stockton were available to play point guard. Olympic team coach Chuck Daly was Thomas’ coach in Detroit, but he was swayed to go along.

Jordan said he wouldn’t play if Thomas did. Jordan wasn’t bluffing. That’s a testimony to Jordan’s all-consuming megalomania.

So Thomas was out. It was easy to do, because the “Dream Team” was guaranteed victory regardless.

The accomplishments of the “Dream Team” in ’92 are among the most overrated in sports history. After the initial electricity of their first game, the splendor of seeing all the best players on one team vanished during a boring series of lopsided wins. It was primarily a display of the American penchant for overkill.

The “Dream Team” won by an average of 44 points. They beat Croatia by 32 in the gold-medal game. It was akin to a high-school team playing fourth-graders. Charles Barkley violently elbowed an Angolan player during a 46-1 run by the “Dream Team.” That altered the narrative, and the “Dream Team” was seen as bullies.

Not quite as inspiring as 1980’s “Miracle on Ice.”

In tribute to Jordan’s talent (and ego), he was the only U.S. player to start all eight games.

The big winner at Barcelona was Nike: The “Dream Team” had gear made by Reebok. But Jordan worked for Nike. On the medal stand, Jordan got all the players — not just the six who belonged to Nike — to unzip their warmup jackets and use the flap to obscure the Reebok logo. Jordan draped a U.S. flag over the Reebok patch for good measure, then said, “The American flag can’t deface anything. That’s what we stand for.”

That’s real patriotism. Roll over Patrick Henry, and tell Thomas Paine the news. Not a Reebok logo in sight.

That “Dream Team” exemplified excess, greed and pettiness. It reflected Jordan perfectly.

But Jordan is the most famous athlete of his era, perhaps any era, and certainly since the advent of mass media. Maybe a social media darling can someday crack that ceiling.

It’s a good bet Jordan had some form of editorial control of “The Last Dance.” But peeks at the real Jordan have crept through. That’s because Jordan doesn’t care.

The “Last Dance” has six more installments. ESPN will air them, then cover them in the week following. Make the news, then report that news. That’s “journalism” in 2020 — or maybe brilliant marketing.