Watching the first four installments of The Last Dance, one thing that has stood out to me is that there’s no athlete in the past two generations that has better exemplified The Sport Ethic than Michael Jordan.

A quick review for newbies: The Sport Ethic — first proposed by sociologists Jay Coakley and Robert Hughes in 1991 — is the worldview held by professional, Olympic and high-level college athletes. Hughes and Coakley found four distinct elements of The Sport Ethic. These are attitudes that are internalized by athletes.

Athletes are dedicated to “the game” above all other things. “Athletes must love ‘the game’ and prove it by giving it top priority in their lives. They must have the proper attitude.”

Jordan’s love of and dedicated to basketball comes through clearly throughout the documentary. No one, that I have read, that I remember or that I have since read or seen, has ever questioned Jordan’s attitude about basketball. No one every questioned whether or not Jordan loved basketball or gave it the top priority. The stories of his work ethic are legendary.

Athletes strive for distinction. “Winning symbolizes improvement and establishes distinction.”

This is central to the Jordan mythology. One of the main arguments in Jordan’s favor in the Jordan-vs.-LeBron debate is Jordan’s six championships. Six rings in six tries. Winning is the top line here. It’s also part of Jordan’s story that’s been featured in the first parts of the documentary. Jordan’s evolution in the pros, his story, is one of constant improvement, of becoming a better teammate, of trusting his teammates, of developing the fadeaway jumper as he got older. . He was already the best basketball player in the world by probably his third or fourth season in the pros. But he wasn’t recognized as one of the truly great players until when? 1991, when the Bulls beat the Lakers for their first championship.

Athletes accept risks and pay through pain. “Athletes are expected to endure pressure, pain and fear without backing down from competitive challenges.”

Of course, we have the Flu Game. But also, Jordan played no fewer than 78 games in all but one of his first 13 full seasons. Load management never comes up for Jordan in the documentary. As much as anything, that’s a sign of the times. But it is always seen as a tribute to Jordan. That he didn’t rest, he didn’t take nights off. Playing through pain is not just about playing through an obvious injury. It’s also playing through the wear and tear, the bumps and bruises, the aches and pains that come from playing a sport for a living year after year. Jordan exemplifies this.

Athletes accept no obstacles in the pursuit of success in sports. “Athletes don’t accept obstacles without trying to overcome them and beat the odds; dreams, they say, are achievable unless one quits.”

Also central to the Jordan mythology is this attitude, the pursuit of excellence. Jordan’s story is one of overcoming slights - real and perceived. His Hall of Fame speech from 2009 is testimony of this.