‘The Last Dance’ Reveals ‘Space Jam’ Played a Huge Role in Michael Jordan’s Comeback

Chicago Bulls fans may have Space Jam to thank for that second threepeat. On Sunday night, ESPN’s The Last Dance gave fans an inside look at the making of Space Jam, Michael Jordan‘s 1996 Looney Tunes classic. The Last Dance reveals that Warner Bros. created a massive facility where Jordan could film, practice, and bulk up, an experience that enabled him to return to the NBA in top shape after his brief stint as a professional baseball player. Is there anything the Tune Squad can’t do?

The Last Dance spends its first seven episodes alternating between Jordan’s early days, his first threepeat with the Bulls, and his final 1997-1998 season, but in Episodes 8, viewers are given a never-before-seen look at the NBA star’s legendary film, Space Jam. Jordan filmed the action comedy in August 1995, just a few months after he returned to the NBA following a year-and-a-half ride with the Chicago White Sox organization (obviously, Jordan excelled in the minor league, but he didn’t stay long enough to make it to the majors). Jordan’s return to basketball was the biggest sports story of the year, but in the postseason, he struggled to keep up, and his lack of conditioning finally caught up with him in a brutal Eastern Conference Semifinals loss to the Orlando Magic.

Enter: Space Jam. The Last Dance reveals that Jordan used his time on the film to return to peak NBA shape, and Warner Bros. was more than happy to oblige. The studio built Jordan a one-size-fits-all facility where he could film, work out, and play pickup games with other NBA stars who happened to be in Los Angeles for the summer. “We had the Jordan dome,” reveals Space Jam director Joe Pytka. “It was like a professional facility. Beautiful, fabulous.”

Jordan spent his days palling around with Bill Murray in front of the green screen, but when he completed filming, he hit the gym. “I spent 15 months turning my body into a baseball body,” he reveals. “Basketball is a little bit more shoulders, chest. So I had to reconstruct my entire body, which was hard.”

The Last Dance also features some incredible footage of Jordan’s post-Space Jam pickup games with young NBA talent, including Juwan Howard, Dennis Rodman, and Reggie Miller. “It became a thing,” explains former teammate B.J. Armstrong. “Everybody had to come out to Warner Bros. studio to play against Michael Jordan.”

“I don’t know how he did it,” recalls Miller. “I don’t know how he filmed all day and still had the energy to play three hours. We would play until like 9 or 10 at night, and he still had to get weightlifting in. And then his call time was at like 6 or 7 in the morning. This dude was like a vampire, for real.”

When Jordan finished shooting Space Jam, he was ready to take the NBA by storm. The Bulls finished the 1995-1996 season with a 72-10 record, which was, at the time, the best-regular season record in NBA history (the Golden State Warriors broke it in 2015). That year, Jordan led the Bulls to yet another championship, their fourth in six years. He would go on to win two more consecutive championships with the Bulls before finally retiring in 1998. Not bad for a player who only defeated Space Jam‘s Monstars in the final second of the game.

The Last Dance airs its final two episodes Sunday, May 17 at 9/8c on ESPN.

Where to stream Space Jam

Watch The Last Dance Episode 8 on ESPN