NBA fans are ready to see Michael Jordan in his upcoming docuseries, The Last Dance. However, the Chicago Bulls legend is worried about what fans will think of him when they start watching the series, which starts airing on Sunday on ESPN. Jason Hehir, director of The Last Dance, spoke to The Athletic about the series and revealed Jordan’s thoughts on what to expect.
“When people see this footage I’m not sure they’re going to be able to understand why I was so intense, why I did the things I did, why I acted the way I acted, and why I said the things I said,” Hehir said what Jordan told him, per Entertainment Tonight. “When you see the footage of [me riding with Scott Burrell], you’re going to think that I’m a horrible guy. But you have to realize that the reason why I was treating him like that is because I needed him to be tough in the playoffs and we’re facing the Indiana’s and Miami’s and New York’s in the Eastern Conference. He needed to be tough and I needed to know that I could count on him. And those are the kind of things where people see me acting the way I acted in practice, they’re not going to understand it.”
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Jordan was an intense competitor, but his competitive spirit led to the Bulls winning six NBA titles during the 1990s. Jordan was named NBA Finals MVP six times, and is a five-time winner of the NBA MVP award. These are just a few of the many factors that led to him being looked at as the best player in NBA history.
“Look, winning has a price,” Jordan says in the documentary. “And leadership has a price. So I pulled people along when they didn’t want to be pulled. I challenged people when they didn’t want to be challenged. And I earned that right because my teammates who came after me didn’t endure all the things that I endured. Once you joined the team, you lived at a certain standard that I played the game. And I wasn’t going to take any less.”
The Last Dance will take a closer look at Jordan’s final year with the Bulls, which was also the team’s final run at the championship. Along with Jordan, The Last Dance features former U.S. President Barack Obama, Kobe Bryant, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Phil Jackson, Steve Kerr, Roy Williams, and Justin Timberlake.
