The Last Dance is over but Losers, Sunderland ’Til I Die and Coach Snoop can fill the hole

With the The Last Dance over there is a Michael Jordan-shaped hole in most of our lives right now, so captivating was the ESPN-Netflix co-production chronicling the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls NBA season. While sport is still re-emerging from its Covid-19 hiatus, there are plenty of documentaries to watch – or to put in the diary. ESPN have followed up The Last Dance with an even more divisive figure, disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong. The first part of Marina Zenovovich’s two-part Lance 30 for 30 documentary aired on May 24, with the second to come on May 31. That is to be followed up by the highly anticipated 30 for 30 series episode on Bruce Lee. Bao Nguyen's Be Water will air in the US on June 7. ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, which The Last Dance was not a part of, is now 157 episodes in. While everyone in the US can watch them now on ESPN+ after the company’s own streaming platform took over exclusive rights, it is not as easy for those outside the States. Thankfully, while we wait to see if and when the series will become available again globally – Lance and Be Water will be shown on ESPN Africa a week after the US – there are plenty of other sports documentaries to watch in the meantime. Netflix screened the second season of Sunderland ’Til I Die on April 1, an apt date for the club who have become the punchline for jokes about English Premier League largesse and the risk of flying too close to the sun. The club’s plummet down the leagues – and struggles to get back up – are told from the view of the fans, players, staff and board. Highlights from the first season include manager Chris Coleman sidestepping the Secret Santa and his response to an angry fan, while the second season is memorable for the new ownership team’s attempts to revamp the club. American football’s Last Chance U is about young men who have hopefully reached their nadir and are on the way back up thanks to the football programmes at East Mississippi Community College (the first two seasons) and Independence Community College (seasons three and four). Head coaches Buddy Stephens and Jason Brown have to guide players who have fallen by the wayside as they deal with the expectations of junior college, while the Netflix series charts some of their backstories. While many players transfer out to other colleges, Dakota Allen became the first to be drafted to the NFL when he signed for the Los Angeles Rams in 2019. The show is soon to be a scripted drama starring Courteney Cox. The same sport but much earlier is the subject of Coach Snoop , where rapper Snoop Dogg’s junior football team is followed for a season. It is a similar format on these young men’s struggles and how they are guided by both football and Snoop’s coaching team. Elsewhere in the rapper-sanctioned-football serial is Warriors of Liberty City , which focuses on the junior league in Miami that has produced an unexpected number of NFL players. The 2 Live Crew’s Uncle Luke has long backed the league. While the term loser could not be further from the portrayal of Michael Jordan in The Last Dance, it has made for a fascinating subject for Losers on Netflix. With episode focuses ranging from Jean Van Der Velde’s Open Championship collapse to misadventures in extreme sports such as the Alaskan Iditarod dogsled race and the Marathon des Sables, it’s a broad church. French ice skater Surya Bonaly and US streetballer Jack Ryan are also stand-out episodes in a series that suggests we can learn more from losing than winning. Basketball or Nothing takes viewers on a season with the Chinle High School boys basketball team, a school on the Navajo Nation reservation, America’s largest reservation. The Chinle Wildcats must listen to 40-year coaching veteran Raul Mendoza if they want to overcome better-stacked and better-funded teams, with winning crucial to college opportunities for many of the boys. This six-part Netflix series follows their quest for a state championship and battle against the odds. Its name is reminiscent of Amazon’s All or Nothing: Manchester City , a rather different behind the scenes look at the English Premier League club’s successful 2017–18 season. Other football documentary series are more warts and all – Sunderland’s 1990s effort Premier Passions, decidedly so – but it is still a fascinating insight into Pep Guardiola’s dressing room. While the club end up with plenty to cheer about it is no Cheer , the Netflix series on the rough and tumble lives of the tumblers of the Navarro College Bulldogs Cheer Team from Corsicana, Texas. Made by the same team as Last Chance U, it made stars of the athletes and their coaches as viewers find out who is going to be “on mat” at the national finals in Daytona Beach, Florida. Help us understand what you are interested in so that we can improve SCMP and provide a better experience for you. We would like to invite you to take this five-minute survey on how you engage with SCMP and the news.