It’s not even been a week since we found out LeBron James is now a Philadelphia 76er, and the impact of his arrival is already starting to go beyond what he’ll be doing on the basketball court — just as you’d expect. There’s also how he plans to tell the story of the final stage of his career, and it sounds like he has something very exciting lined up.
The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand has reported that LeBron and ESPN are closing in on an agreement for a behind-the-scenes documentary in a similar style
to Michael Jordan’s 2020 ‘The Last Dance’ series, which was co-produced by ESPN and Netflix.
Marchand confirmed that the talks to finalize the deal are close, and initial plans for filming during his time with the Sixers:
One of the sources described the talks as being at the “1-yard line,” with the expectation that James, 41, will have a camera crew documenting his time with the Philadelphia 76ers, who James signed with this month. The 76ers are expected to be the final home of his legendary career.
The documentary is expected to also use footage from earlier in James’ career, as NBA crews have filmed him since he was a rookie, including some never-before-seen footage.
As of now, there’s reportedly no set date of when the documentary would be completed and aired.
If you’ve somehow never seen it, ‘The Last Dance’ told the story of Jordan’s career with a main focus on the Bulls’ 1997-98 season as they made their run to secure a second three-peat. There were quality interviews and unseen footage galore, with excellent editing and production throughout. Hopefully we’ll be getting more of the same from this new story of LeBron’s career and his final shot at a title with the Sixers.
Of course, Jordan’s documentary had the advantage of uncovering more details and stories from a time when the constant coverage of social media and smart phones didn’t exist. More happened out of the public eye. It also released during the COVID pandemic, at a time when we were all at home desperate for new entertainment, which probably added a heightened level of excitement when each new episode dropped.
If this LeBron documentary goes ahead and is anywhere near as good as ‘The Last Dance’, though, it promises to be a brilliant series.
