Dan Patrick: “When you have the Barack Obama comment and you have the political topic where Mike says ‘Republicans Buy Nikes Too’, and you have Obama’s comment on being ‘disappointed’ in Mike – did Jordan know what Obama was going to say in the documentary?”
Jason Hehir: “He didn’t know what Obama was going to say but he saw that episode… This goes back to saying that Michael has ‘creative control.’ He could have taken out anything we did. He had the power to do so and he never wielded that power. That soundbite where the guy compares him to Muhammad Ali and says ‘Michael will never be like Ali’, not only did Michael want to keep that in, but he wanted to answer to that.”
DP: “Jordan didn’t take out anything??”
Hehir: “He did not, no. And when you see the episodes next week you’ll be surprised. Maybe he skipped episode 7, I’m not sure… This treasure trove of footage that we have from the NBA, and what we tackle in episodes 7 and 8 is what it was like to play with Michael and what is was like to play against him. The ‘With’ Michael stuff, man, I don’t know if you would want to practice with Michael Jordan. It would be fun to watch but I don’t think it would be fun to interact with him because it was hard… There’s behavior in there that I’m shocked that Michael let us keep in… When someone like Michael Jordan grants you the access and permission to tell his story, you’d be a fool not to take it. I’m proud to say, and Michael should be proud to say too, that there was never one frame of this documentary that he exercised any censorship over.” (Full Interview Above)
Jason Hehir, director of ESPN’s ‘The Last Dance’ documentary that chronicles the Chicago Bulls during the Michael Jordan era, told The Dan Patrick Show that although Jordan was granted creative control over the 10-part series, Jordan did not make any edits to the series.
The documentary has taken some criticism since the first episode aired three weeks ago for its heavily pro-Jordan bias, with iconic documentarian Ken Burns even saying that the series wasn’t a documentary whatsoever.
Hehir says that Burns called him personally after the news broke, and apologized for his comments 'being taken out of context.' Hehir also says that although former Utah Jazz star John Stockton participated in the film, Herir says Stockton was reluctant to be interviewed for a 'Michael Jordan puff piece.'"
Listen to the segment above as Burns explains why people will soon realize in episodes 7 and 8 that Jordan didn’t censor any unsympathetic stories about himself out of the film, as well as discussing Barack Obama’s comments in episode 5 that he was ‘disappointed’ in Jordan for not becoming an advocate of the era.