For most of us, The Last Dance was an enjoyable form of entertainment, even for those who rooted for Jordan’s opponents. But for some of those opponents, reliving Jordan’s dominance wasn’t easy.
Jordan notably prevented hall-of-famers such as Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton and Reggie Miller from winning a championship. While one of the focal points from episode 9 of The Last Dance featured the Bulls ’98 Eastern Conference Finals series against the Pacers, according to the documentary’s director Jason Hehir, convincing Miller to do a sit down interview was very difficult.
“It took us a while to get Reggie,” Hehir told Jalen Rose and David Jacoby on their Aftershow. “We called and called and called and emailed and called and called and called, and finally he agreed to sit down. “I don’t know if he just wasn’t getting those calls or if he was avoiding them or what. But he gave a great interview. You gotta hand it to the guy, because I know it must sting still to this day to get that close, because that squad was incredible.”
Rose played alongside Miller and was a member of their team in ’98 which lost to Jordan in the Eastern Conference Finals. “I was trying to initially get him to interview for this,” Rose said. “He didn’t want to do it. It was too much pain.”
Eventually, Miller agreed to be interviewed for the series.
“He and I had somewhat of a unique relationship,” Miller said in the documentary. “Most people feared Michael Jordan, and rightfully so. But I didn’t fear Michael Jordan like the rest of the league did, and we had to lock horns over it. I respected him so much, but he probably thought I was just some mouthy, skinny kid.”
He wanted to retire Michael Jordan in 1998 and believed he had the better team to do so. But the Bulls still topped the Pacers in seven games and while The Last Dance was entertaining for most of us, it opened up old wounds for Reggie.
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
