Media Monster

What Did You Think of “Jordan Rides the Bus”?

ESPN’s “30 for 30″ video series has, for the most part, tackled big issues that resonate with modern-day sports fans. Last night’s documentary, “Jordan Rides the Bus,” gave us a look back at the years between 1993 and 1995 when Michael Jordan decided to forgo the game of basketball in favor of pursuing his childhood dream of becoming a professional baseball player.

The 51-minute movie touches on what you’d expect: the way the NBA had to cope with the loss of its hero; Jordan’s relationship with his deceased father; and rumors that Jordan’s departure was tied to a gambling problem. All of this was to be expected from anyone who even superficially knows the story.

But two aspects of the movie stood out for me as ones that could have been delved into more than they were. The first is how Sports Illustrated forever sullied its relationship with the star athlete when it ran its famous “Bag It, Michael” cover that writer Steve Wulf would come to regret. The second is the timing and impact that baseball’s strike had on Jordan’s decision to return to basketball. It’s almost an afterthought toward the ending of the film.

Overall, I thought the movie delivered on what it sold itself to be but failed to offer more than just that. What did strike me was how many defenders Jordan has today. I remember watching the embarrassment of Jordan’s strikeouts and errors then; yet, the majority of people in this movie seem to believe that Jordan’s .202 batting average with Birmingham was quite the achievement for someone who had been away from the game for so long.

It definitely gave me something to consider, but with so many different elements at play in this movie, I can’t help but wonder if it would have been better off with a more narrow focus aimed more directly on Jordan’s decision and the media frenzy that followed.

It’s good to get Jordan’s motivations and psychology into the background of the film, but with such a short film perhaps we would have been better off beginning the tale at Jordan’s announcement he was walking away from the game of basketball. In this case, we already had the bigger picture.

Here’s what some other critics thought:

Alan Sepinwall, HitFix: “But Jordan doesn’t explain himself except in old sound bites, and while his minor league coaches talks about the amount of effort Jordan put in towards improving his awful hitting (he ultimately became at least mediocre), neither they nor his ex-teammates really gives a sense of what it was like to have this guy in their midst, and trying something he wasn’t anywhere near the best in the world at.”

Mike Hale, The New York Times: “Over the course of one season of 127 games, he became a legitimate baseball player. Mr. Shelton shows us that in its minor way, that was as impressive an accomplishment as anything Mr. Jordan did on the basketball court.”

Dan Devine, Yahoo Sports: “The unprecedented nature of the story seems to make it fertile ground for a film that can teach us something. By the time the credits roll, though, viewers who were already up on the basics of Jordan’s stretch in the minors aren’t likely to feel they’ve learned much more about the episode.”

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