How The Last Dance shows bias against Rockets James Harden

Although ESPN’s docu-series The Last Dance was wildly addicting, the film further illustrated the media’s bias against Houston Rockets guard James Harden.

ESPN’s 10-part docu-series The Last Dance gave basketball fans a glimpse inside the mentality of Michael Jordan, while also chronicling his career. Houston Rockets star James Harden even expressed his appreciation for the film, as we learned that he’s been closely studying the Michael Jordan-produced documentary.

The ESPN feature had it’s drawbacks of course, such as how Jordan was glorified while essentially everyone else was made out to be villains, which his former teammates didn’t like. But again, that was to be expected, as Jordan had a biased reason for releasing the footage that’s been hidden for decades.

We’ve even heard Hall of Famers that played against Jordan state that the film’s depiction of then Chicago Bulls executive Jerry Krause is inaccurate, as Krause was certainly made out to be the scapegoat. But another thing that was easily noticed is how the media gave Jordan a pass on something they’ve hounded Houston Rockets superstar James Harden about.

In two separate episodes of The Last Dance, Jordan expressed his unhappiness with not winning the MVP and it was spun into “Jordan being competitive”. Jordan first said that he was upset about losing out on the MVP to Charles Barkley in 1993, which is interesting because Jordan finished third in the MVP voting that year behind Barkley and Houston Rockets legend Hakeem Olajuwon.

This takes me back to the public outcry about James Harden being unhappy about losing out on the MVP last season to Giannis Antetokounmpo, as Harden was depicted as selfish, bitter, and a sore loser. But why wasn’t this said about Jordan, who didn’t even finish second in the voting results?

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