Episode five of the ESPN documentary “The Last Dance” was dedicated to the late Kobe Bryant. In the wake of his death, slivers of the friendship he shared with Michael Jordan have become public. Jordan’s teary-eyed speech at Bryant’s memorial revealed that they called and texted each other at all hours, talking basketball and everything else, that they weren’t just admiring coworkers but real friends.
The episode featured the NBA’s former stalwarts bonding at the Olympics, backslapping and talking smack at All-Star Games, offering a rare behind-the-scenes lens into the NBA fraternity, unfurling a rarely acknowledged similarity between the past and the present: Despite what the man yelling at you from inside your television says, the cream of the NBA’s crop have always been friends.