Elite Players Learn Valuable Lessons From Michael Jordan’s 'The Last Dance' Documentary

Elite players plan to implement lessons from the documentary.

As the curtain closed on “The Last Dance,” ESPN’s 10-part series about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls' dynasty of the 1990s, on Sunday, opinions abound about everything from greatest player of all time to Jordan’s style of leadership.  

While the debates raged on, elite high school basketball stars were tuned in learning valuable lessons that they plan to apply to their hoops quests going forward.

Here’s what they had to say.

Eric Van Der Heijden, Millbrook (Raleigh, N.C.), 2021, SF

College: Undecided

The biggest lesson I learned from Michael Jordan in “The Last Dance” was… “Definitely the leadership traits in both Jordan and Pippen. Next year I will be the leader of the team so being able to learn from some of the best leaders in the game, I feel like I can take many things back to my team to help us win.”

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Michael Foster, Hillcrest Prep (Phoenix, Ariz.), 2021, F

College: Undecided

The biggest lesson I learned from Michael Jordan in “The Last Dance” was… “Mental toughness and setting the tone as a winner. Winning those line drills and everything was a challenge! He always played to win, and that’s what I’ll take with me.”

M.J. Rice, Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.), SG, 2022

College: Undecided

The biggest lesson I learned from Michael Jordan in “The Last Dance” was… “To believe in yourself. When you have a goal , you seek every day to reach it, and in the end you will have everything you dreamed of.”

Skyy Clark, Brentwood (Tenn.) Academy, PG, 2022

College: Undecided

The biggest lesson I learned from Michael Jordan in “The Last Dance” was… “Definitely how much he loved basketball. He was talking about his father and that situation and showed no emotion and then was talking about competition and winning and basketball and started to cry. His will to win was like no other. What I learned is just going in to practices, workouts, games, open runs with that mindset. Win, win, win, win, win at all cost. Do everything you can to just win.”

Elijah Fisher, Crestwood Prep (Can.) Academy, CG, 2023

College: Undecided

The biggest lesson I learned from Michael Jordan in “The Last Dance” was… “The way he held his teammates accountable. Just his leadership all around, but the biggest thing was accountability. That's something that I want to do more of."

D.J. Steward, Whitney Young (Chicago), CG, 2020

College: Duke

The biggest lesson I learned from Michael Jordan in “The Last Dance” was… “How to fight through the adversity because once you get through all of the adversity everything will be alright and you can accomplish big things. Also, I learned different ways to push myself and my teammates the right way and getting the best out of my teammates in the future.”

Caleb Houstan, Montverde (Fla.) Academy, SG, 2022

College: Undecided

The biggest lesson I learned from Michael Jordan in “The Last Dance” was… “How competitive you have to be and how hard you have to work to be the best. He was really determined and focused on the goal and did what he had to do to accomplish that, no matter what. That's something I'll take with me."