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America stunned by ‘unrecognisable’ Aussie NBA legend

Australian NBA legend Luc Longley stole the show as drama unfolded at the Chicago Bulls’ inaugural Ring of Honour reunion.

3 min read
January 13, 2024 - 10:10AM
Luc Longley. Photo by Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images.
Luc Longley. Photo by Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images.

Luc Longley stole the show as drama unfolded at the Chicago Bulls’ inaugural Ring of Honour reunion.

The Australian NBA legend appeared to leave America stunned with his cavalier look, while returning to Chicago for the first time in 10 years.

Longley and his unstoppable 1995-96 Chicago Bulls team, which featured Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, were celebrated as the first group of players inducted into the team’s Ring of Honour during a gala event on Friday.

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There was drama right from the start with Pippen and Jordan both announcing they would not be attending, while Rodman was also a no-show despite having told event organisers he would be there to rub shoulders with his former teammates.

It left Longley as the centre of attention — and his fans could barely believe their eyes.

Luc Longley & Michael Jordan.
Luc Longley & Michael Jordan.

A video of Longley speaking to the press ahead of the event has gone viral with more than three million views on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Most of the comments have been about the Grizzly Adams look he has recently been rocking.

It’s clear most fans haven’t kept up to date with Longley’s recent looks with plenty describing his 2024 appearance “unrecognisable” from the centre that helped the Bulls build a famous dynasty off three consecutive championships from 1996 to 1998.

Former ESPN host Jemele Hill suggested Longley shares some similarities with American actor Brian Cox, who plays the role of sly billionaire Logan Roy in the award-winning drama series Succession.

“Longley looks like he could be on Succession as a reckless billionaire who is attempting a hostile takeover of Waystar,” she wrote.

American baseball commentator Matt Williams wrote on X that Longley could be mistaken for American actor Matthew Lillard.

“Looks like Matthew Lillard if he was trapped in ice for 30 years and then rescued and given a suit to tell his story to reporters,” he posted.

One fan wrote on Twitter that Longley looks like a perfect mash up of US President Donald Trump’s White House lieutenant Steve Bannon and American singer Blake Shelton.

Australian basketball journalist Tom Hersz posted: “That’s not Luc Longley. That guy’s wearing a suit and tie. Must be a lookalike”.

Plenty others weren’t so kind about the 2.18m Aussie.

One fan wrote: “Luc Longley now looks like both members of The Black Keys”.

Another posted: “Get Luc Longley to play a retired Thor”.

Longley had a good point when speaking to reporters during the event: “A lot of my teammates look a bit different”.

Teammates, including Warriors coach Steve Kerr and Croatian Toni Kukoc were also among those in attendance showing they’ve aged gracefully, 25 years after the championship three-peat.

Longley told the Sydney Kings website last month he was “stoked” to get a call-up for the event.

“While that 1996 team regularly gets discussed among the greatest NBA sides of all time and has been highlighted a fair bit lately, this gives us all a chance to reflect just how special of a group we had and what fun we had doing it,” he said.

Luc Longley in his role as a member of the Boomers coaching team. AAP Image/Dan Peled.
Luc Longley in his role as a member of the Boomers coaching team. AAP Image/Dan Peled.

“I’m glad, after hearing rumblings that this might be going on for a couple of months, that the event is actually happening, as it’ll also act as a reunion for us - we haven’t properly gotten back together as a group since the 1998 championship.

“I can’t wait to re-live all those great stories and times we had together — it’ll be really nice to see everyone back in Chi-Town.”

One person he didn’t see was Jordan, who was the biggest name to skip the event — coming after the famous ‘Last Dance’ documentary further exposed a rift between himself and teammates, including Pippen.

Pippen has taken multiple public shots at Jordan since the 2020 release of the docu-series.

Pippen was displeased about how he was portrayed in the documentary.

“I’ve seen Michael Jordan play before I came to the Bulls; you guys seen him play,” the Hall of Fame forward said on the “Gimme the Hot Sauce” podcast in May 2023.

“[Jordan] was a horrible player. He was horrible to play with. He was all 1-on-1, he’s shooting bad shots. And all of a sudden, we become a team and we start winning, everybody forgot who he was.”

Pippen was fired from his role at a Bulls ambassador in 2020 and, according to the report, efforts to repair the relationship have failed.

Originally published as America stunned by ‘unrecognisable’ Aussie NBA legend

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Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/basketball/nba/america-stunned-by-unrecognisable-aussie-nba-legend/news-story/a90335b320b55e73732435db86415244