Jason Hehir, director of ‘The Last Dance’ made a surprising appearance on Reddit on Wednesday, doing a little Q&A session with NBA fans about his work doing ‘The Last Dance,’ all the obstacles he faced to finish the production and all the stories he learned from His Airness, Michael Jordan.
He had a lot of access to MJ and the communication with the Chicago Bulls legend was easy, according to Hehir, who had the chance to respond to some big questions about Jordan. One user asked him what changed for MJ to become Kobe Bryant’s mentor when he didn’t like to get bothered with questions by younger players.
Via Reddit:
Q: You mentioned that initially Jordan didn’t like Kobe bugging him with questions. What was the turning point that lead him to reconsider and open up to being a mentor for Kobe?
A: I’m not sure there was a moment. I know that Michael saw something in Kobe that he saw inside himself. I think he admired Kobes tenacity, his intensity and his work ethic. They have very similar approaches. I’ll never forget the time we spent with Kobe, and it still doesn’t make sense to me that he’s gone.
Hehir had more access to MJ than any of us can imagine. He saw how Michael felt about Kobe and as we saw in the 10-part docu-series, he knew Kobe was coming when they went against each other during the 1998 All-Star game.
“That little Laker boy’s gonna take everybody one-on-one… he don’t let the game come to him. He just go out there and take it….I’m going to make this a one-on-one,” Jordan said in “The Last Dance.”.
Game recognizes game and this is a huge proof. MJ knew Kobe was meant to be great and he saw the similarities they shared. In the end, they became great friends, almost like brothers, having similar careers and styles of play.
Bryant always wanted to catch up MJ but he retired with one title less than His Airness. Still, nobody denies that Kobe is one of the greatest players to ever step on an NBA court.
