‘The Last Dance’ director Jason Hehir talks to us about how ESPN’s long-awaited docuseries on the Jordan Bulls came together, its key revelations, and what it was like interviewing the GOAT
, which was originally set to premiere this summer, before ESPN moved it up to April 19th to accommodate a newly captive audience. ESPN will air two episodes every Sunday at 9 and 10 p.m. EST until the series wraps up on May 17th. Viewers won’t be disappointed. The docuseries is a sprawling examination of Jordan and the Bulls dynasty he willed into existence, told through the lens of their final season and the cast of characters who helped Jordan win his sixth and final championship ring.
I can’t answer why it took so long from their perspective. I can say that the story is massive and the amount of footage that we had access to was massive. It lends itself to a longform documentary series, and those were not prevalent at the time when these stories were shot. To do a 75- or a 90-minute documentary back in 1999, the year after the footage was shot, seems to almost short-change how momentous that year was.
Michael got a good laugh out of Gary Payton in Episode Eight. Gary saying that if he [guarded] him from Game One [of the 1996 Finals], it would’ve been a different series. One of the challenges with interviewing a guy like Michael was that he’s been asked every single question. So how can you make it different and how can you keep him engaged, sitting there for three hours answering questions that he’s been asked over and over again for decades? That was one of the things.
These were fierce battles that they had in the East with a lot of these teams and it wasn’t a given. I think when we look back from 35,000 feet down, you say, “Well, yeah they dominated. The East must have been weak in the Nineties.” That’s not true. Each one of these seasons brought a different challenge, so I think what impressed me the most was his ability to just keep conjuring that drive. He would conjure slights and anything else he could do to keep himself motivated.
Another thing that struck me was the power in his maniacal need prove he was the best, over and over again. Talking to him now, do you feel like this is still there relative to his legacy and how people perceive him today? Do you get the sense he feels this way toward LeBron, or has his all-encompassing competitiveness mellowed as he reflects on everything?
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