Michael Jordan’s input into the content shown in “The Last Dance” has raised some ire of late. Jordan and the NBA shared rights to the behind-the-scenes footage from the 1997-98 season and Jordan and his team were involved in the production of the hit ESPN documentary.
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns told the Wall Street Journal he would “never, never, never, never” agree to such a partnership with the subject of a documentary.
“If you are there influencing the very fact of it getting made it means that certain aspects that you don’t necessarily want in aren’t going to be in, period,” Burns said. “And that’s not the way you do good journalism ... and it’s certainly not the way you do good history, my business.”
ESPN’s Pablo Torre defended the decision on The Habershow podcast with NBC Sports national NBA Insider Tom Haberstroh.
“Michael Jordan’s participation, I think we’d all agree, is the most important thing,” Torre said. “So if we’re going to make trade-offs here -- and yes, these are editorial trade-offs -- if you’re like, this is going to be a searing portrait of Michael Jordan, except he’s not going to be involved, I don’t think we’re, I don’t know, 5 percent as interested in this thing.
“So what does it become? To me, it becomes a different sort of documentary project. And look, Ken Burns is out here talking about how this is anti-journalism, or he was saying that at some point. And if you’re standard for this is, I was expecting a searing look into race in America, told through the lens of this insane figure in American history, that’s O.J. [Simpson], go do that. If you’re looking for a story that is told through the eyes of the participants, mainly Michael Jordan, it’s this.”
Here are the timestamps for Haberstroh’s interview with Torre:
8:28 -- Receiving fatherhood advice from Shane Battier
13:37 -- Pablo on the communal experience of The Last Dance
20:40 -- Why MJ agreed to release this documentary
27:33 -- Should MJ have been granted editorial control over the documentary?
40:52 -- Pablo's journey to interview Sam Hinkie
For more on Jordan, listen and subscribe to the trailer of Sports Uncovered’s “I’m Back” episode: