Luc Longley was one of the absences in lastyear’s docu-series ‘The Last Dance’ that followed Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls during their 1997/98 season.
The Australian player won three titles with the Bulls, where he played from 1994 through 1998. During that time, the center collected plenty of stories that we couldn’t see in the documentary.
Longley refused to participate, but one year after the 10-part docu-series wpremiered, he decided to break the silence. Although he didn’t want to blame anybody for how things went down for those Bulls, the former center admitted that he was focused on helping the team regardless of all the drama.
“Yeah, I was confused,” Longley said in the Australian basketball documentary, Imported, via News.com.au.
“I understood it to be more about his (Jerry’s) relationship with coach Phil (Jackson), than whether or not the players had any good years left in them.
“Jerry did the right thing by me. He signed me to two contracts. My second contract which was in Chicago and then a sign and trade with Phoenix.
“I think Jerry identified me along with Phil for being good at what I did, which not everyone was doing at the time, and did the right thing by me.
“So, basically I’m not going to jump on the s**t can Jerry bandwagon. I was confused and disappointed, but I was just getting on with the job.
“I wasn’t getting engaged in who said what and who had done what and all that stuff that was going on.
“I knew what I said or cared about wasn’t really going to affect the plan, so the best thing I could do was focus on the things I can control, which was guarding Karl Malone and hitting my mid-range jumper and that was what I was about.”
The Bulls finished that season winning their third consecutive title, beating Karl Malone and the Utah Jazz again, with Longley going against one of the best power forwards of all time.
A lot has happened after that year, but plenty of people hasn’t forgotten about those mighty Bulls, the incredible things they did, and how bad things ended for that dynasty.
