Playlists

The Last Dance drew positive reactions from active NBA players, impressed by Jordan’s accomplishments, and thankful for the series providing much-needed entertainment in the initial quarantine period of the COVID-19 pandemic.^[32] However, the other Chicago Bulls players on the Last Dance team who personally experienced all of the events that took place in the docu-series publicly disagreed with much of the docu-series’ version of events, and placed the blame on Jordan for molding questionable narratives.^[33]

Scottie Pippen was reportedly “wounded and disappointed” by his portrayal in the series, although he did not make any public remarks during the documentary’s airing.^[34] Pippen later denied any rift between himself and Jordan over the documentary;^[35] however, he told Jordan he was not pleased with the docuseries and considered it to be “about Michael trying to uplift himself”.^[36]

Pippen would go on to aggressively criticize Jordan in the following years. In 2021, he wrote an autobiography, Unguarded, which gives his own perspective on the Bulls’ dynasty. In the book, he is highly critical of Jordan, calling him selfish, hypocritical and insensitive.^[37] In other interviews, Pippen also stated that he thought Kobe Bryant and LeBron James were greater basketball players than Jordan,^[38][39] and said that when Jordan first played for the Bulls, he was a “horrible” player and had poor shot selection .^[40]

Horace Grant said that The Last Dance was edited to favor Jordan, remarking that the series was “entertaining, but we know […] that about 90% of it [was] BS in terms of the realness of it”; he also denied Jordan’s accusation that Grant was the source for The Jordan Rules and agreed that Pippen was portrayed unfairly.^[41]

Grant also explained on Bill Cartwright‘s podcast that he initially planned to decline the interview offer, as he was not a member of the Last Dance team. However, after much persistence by the production crew, Grant finally “reluctantly” conceded to interview because he wanted to reminisce about his days as an NBA star. He then said he took an outspoken stance about his disdain for the documentary because he wanted to defend his character and did not agree with the veracity of Jordan’s version of events.^[42] Grant then doubled down on Jordan by expressing his frustrations about Jordan and the docu-series in a lengthy phone call with Shannon Sharpe.^[43]

Cartwright, an assistant coach on the Last Dance team, and also the starting center on the Bulls’ first three-peat team, was reportedly unimpressed with the series, dismissing it as pure entertainment,^[44] and said that the series was “really one guy’s perspective of what happened.”^[45] Cartwright also explained in another interview that Jordan had been framing an inaccurate image to the public, and called his play-acting “silly.”^[46]

Craig Hodges, a member of the first two championship seasons with the Bulls, said he felt disappointed about not getting an opportunity to be interviewed for the documentary, and further criticized Jordan for discussing the team’s use of cocaine during the 1980s, which was also another subject that was not related to the Last Dance season. On the issue of cocaine use, Hodges remarked, “I was thinking about the brothers who [were on the team] with you who have to explain [what happened] to their families”.^[47][48]

Some expressed disappointment over the omission of starting center Luc Longley in the series, including Longley himself. In 2021, an episode of the documentary series Australian Story, titled “Luc Longley and the missing chapter of The Last Dance“, was released with Longley’s response, including interviews with ex-teammates such as Pippen and Jordan. The documentary was a success in its own right.^[49]

Following the positive reception of Longley’s documentary, the Bulls organization released an additional feature documentary on a key member of the Last Dance team, sixth man Toni Kukoc. The documentary was titled “The Waiter,” paying tribute to Kukoc’s nickname acquired in his native country of Croatia.^[50]

Others also expressed disappointment in the lack of coverage of another starter on the Last Dance team, point guard Ron Harper.^[51] Harper was only included for a few seconds, talking about his time playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1989 when he expressed disagreement with his coach for not assigning him to defend Jordan during The Shot,^[52] but never was shown discussing his role in the Bulls’ second three-peat. Harper had started all 82 games during the Last Dance season.^[53]

There was also criticism for the series’ over-emphasis on Steve Kerr, a minor player on the Bulls’ last championship team. Those critics alleged that the reasoning behind Kerr’s over-emphasis was linked to his recent success as the head coach of the Golden State Warriors. Some compared it to a scenario where ESPN did a documentary on the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers and placed Tony Dungy (who like Kerr had a successful head coaching career but a lesser playing career) in the same company as Joe Greene, Franco Harris, and Jack Lambert. Kerr himself admitted that the series emphasized him more than what was needed, and also did not condone the absence of Longley and Harper in the series.^[54][55]

Some came to the defense of former Bulls general manager Jerry Krause, accusing Jordan of intentionally delaying the start of the production until Krause died in 2017 in order to prevent him from being able to explain his own version of events. Sports Illustrated questioned Jordan’s narrative expressed in the series, called him “cruel”, and said that Krause deserved better treatment.^[56]