Who’d a thunk that the talk of the sports world would one day be a self-described “six-foot, zero-inch lefthander who throws in the upper seventies”? But there you have been. By all accounts, you completely won the sports lockdown season, doing so from your seat in the director’s chair. As if your previous array of Emmys were not enough, “The Last Dance,” your ten-part documentary on the nineteen ninety-eight Chicago Bulls, and particularly Michael Jordan, caused a polar vortex on Twitter each Sunday and fueled the nation’s virtual water-cooler conversation through the rest of the week. We should say you did it from the director’s chairs since you wove together never-before-released footage with more than one hundred interviews that you personally conducted around the country with the dramatis personae, including two former U.S. Presidents. Most revealing were your one-on-ones with Jordan, which managed to reveal the human side of this Olympian figure. Even his children said they learned new things about him. In your hands this story grew from one about games to one of what drives individual greatness, of the often unstable chemistry of team excellence, of how athleticism can become an art form, and of why sports remain such a powerful force throughout human society. In fact, it is fair to say that, if basketball has never been the same since Michael, sports journalism will never be the same after Jason.
In recognition of your distinguished achievement in sports journalism, Williams
College is proud to honor you with its Bicentennial Medal.