One of the most acclaimed docuseries of 2020, Netflix’s “The Last Dance” chronicles Michael Jordan’s drama-filled final season with the Chicago Bulls.
While the series has been appearing on television critics’ year-end “best of” lists, one of Jordan’s teammates doesn’t believe the film painted an accurate portrait of what really took place.
“I don’t think it was that accurate in terms of really defining what was accomplished in one of the greatest eras of basketball, but also by two of the greatest players — and one could even put that aside and say the greatest team of all time. I didn’t think those things stood out in the documentary,” former Bulls star Scottie Pippen said in a new interview with The Guardian.
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“I thought it was more about Michael trying to uplift himself and to be glorified,” Pippen continued, while The Guardian pointed out that Jordan’s Jump 23 production company was among the series’ producers.
“I think it also backfired to some degree in that people got a chance to see what kind of personality Michael had,” added Pippen.
Pippen was asked whether he’d shared that opinion with Jordan.
“Yeah,” he responded. “I told him I wasn’t too pleased with it. He accepted it. He said, ‘hey, you’re right.’ That was pretty much it.”
However, he agreed that the bond the two teammates forged is something that did come across accurately in the series.
“Yeah, that relationship, we established that we felt like that in the late ’80s, playing against the Pistons, just starting to grow and mature and have each other’s backs,” said Pippen. “We grew up together and we defended each other. That respect we had on the court, that competitiveness we took through to the top — it was special. That was the respect we had for each other, because we had to be on the court to do what we did. We had to be dominant.”
