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The Last Dance was one of the best and most talked about sports documentaries of all time because it had so many memorable moments and reveals throughout its 10 episodes.
While the documentary series focused on the six-time NBA champion Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan in particular, numerous other big names in the game also got their moment in the spotlight (some in a more flattering spotlight than others).
One player who did not receive a mention in The Last Dance that many thought might appear in the series was LeBron James.
After all, you can’t have a conversation these days about who is the greatest NBA player of all time without James, Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
It turns out that was a conscious decision by The Last Dance director Jason Hehir.
During a discussion on The Bill Simmons Podcast, it was brought up that Michael Jordan “sort of blessed Kobe [Bryant]” at one point in the documentary – a scene from inside the the East locker during an NBA All-Star Game.
That led to Bill Simmons saying, “It’s interesting to me that LeBron’s not in it and not really, wasn’t really even mentioned in the doc, right?”
“Once you open that door, then you have to have that discussion and I was never interested in that discussion,” Hehir replied. “If people are at the bar having a discussion about the GOAT, if they want to cite things that they saw in The Last Dance, great, but I never wanted to sit, because what are you going to ask LeBron? And you know what he’s going to say. He’s going to say, ‘I admired the guy, I wore 23 because of him, I grew up watching him,’ showing pictures of him wearing Jordans.”
Hehir added, “We’re trying to keep it, our present tense was the 90s, and LeBron was not a part of that story.”
Jason Hehir also revealed numerous other behind-the-scenes tidbits during his sit-down with Bill Simmons, including the one scene Michael Jordan’s team asked to be deleted.
“The only time we ever got pushback that I had to take something out was there was a clip of Scottie [Pippen] in the training room with Michael and, I think, Ron Harper,” Hehir revealed.
“He was saying something to the effect that when they win the championship, he’s going to take a cattle prod and stick it up Jerry Krause’s a– and give him a heart attack. And everyone laughed and they were like, ‘Whoa, you gotta take that out.'”
Speaking of Scottie Pippen and all the anger he has expressed about his portrayal in The Last Dance, Hehir said, “I have my theory, which is that he hasn’t watched the whole thing and was told by so many people they did you wrong that he’s just like right, ‘I’m not going to watch it.’ That’s my theory.”
Hehir has no regrets though.
“I’ll never get to talk to him again about it, and I regret the way that anyone would feel bad coming out of it,” he said. “But if everyone feels great about a doc at the end of it, then you probably didn’t do your job.”