Why John Stockton Didn’t Want Any Part of the ‘Michael Jordan Puff Piece’ Known as ‘The Last Dance’
John Stockton and the Utah Jazz made back-to-back appearances in the NBA Finals against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in 1997 and 1998, which will be heavily featured in the final two episodes of TheĀ LastĀ Dance on ESPN this Sunday night.
The Last Dance exists to tell Michael Jordanās story and everyone knew that going in, including John Stockton, which is why he originally wanted no part of it. While he did finally agree to participate in the project, heās one of a few players that didnāt want to relive being beaten by Jordan and the Bulls.
John Stockton isnāt the only person who didnāt want to take part in āThe Last Danceā
During the six championship runs in the 1990s, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls kept a number of great players and teams from winning an NBA championship. While the New York Knicks had their chance when Jordan was away playing baseball, they could never get past MJ himself, losing to the Bulls in each of the first four championship seasons. While he agreed to do an interview for the docuseries, Patrick Ewing is refusing to watch the majority of TheĀ LastĀ Dance because he doesnāt want to go through the agony again.
The same can be said for Reggie Miller, whose Indiana Pacers came as close as anyone to dethroning Michael Jordan in an epic seven-game set in the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals. So when director Jason Hehir came calling, Miller resisted for quite some time before finally agreeing to do it.
Thatās how things went with John Stockton as well.
It took āThe Last Danceā director two years to track down John Stockton, who called it a āMichael Jordan puff pieceā
While TheĀ LastĀ Dance tells the story of Michael Jordanās entire career, itās obviously built around the 1997-1998 Chicago Bulls and all of the interesting and interweaving storylines that came from that season. Naturally, the story ends with the Bulls defeating John Stocktonās Utah Jazz for the second time in a row, something that the all-time NBA assists and steals leader didnāt want to discuss, which is why he avoided Hehir for years. As TheĀ LastĀ Dance director recently revealed, it took some time to track Stockton down, who had an interesting take on the documentary.
āI finally got (Stockton) on the phone after like two years of chasing him. (Stockton) said, āI donāt want to be a part of a Michael Jordan puff piece.'ā
TheĀ LastĀ Dance director Jason Hehir
A āMichael Jordan puff pieceā is certainly an interesting way to describe TheĀ LastĀ Dance, isnāt it? But Hehir was happy to get Stockton on board, as his insight into those Finals series makes the story better as he, along with longtime teammate Karl Malone, were the two biggest stars for the Jazz. Hehir is just lucky he got to Stockton in time.
The two-time Hall of Famer didnāt do his interview until March
Seeing as how TheĀ LastĀ Dance wasnāt supposed to premiere until later this summer, Jason Hehir didnāt conduct his interview with John Stockton until just two months ago, March 10 to be exact. The following day, oddly enough, Utah Jazz star Rudy Gobert became the first NBA star to test positive for COVID-19, which was the first step in shutting down the league. The crisis had obviously started earlier than that and Hehir thought that he shouldnāt fly out west, where Stockton resides, to do the interview himself.
āOn Tuesday, March 10 we interviewed him in Spokane. It was so deep into this COVID crisis that we decided that I shouldnāt fly to Spokane because weāre afraid that flight would get grounded indefinitely. So we had someone from out there, a stringer from Seattle drive in and do that interview.ā
TheĀ LastĀ Dance director Jason Hehir
Luckily, the interview got done and weāll see exactly what John Stockton has to say about Michael Jordan in the final two episodes.
*All quotes courtesy of āThe Dan Patrick Show.ā