Michael Jordan’s touching tribute to Luc Longley

Luc Longley was excluded from The Last Dance documentary, but Michael Jordan has opened up on the close bond the pair shares.

Basketball legend Michael Jordan has opened up on his relationship with Luc Longley, the Australian teammate who was alongside him for the Chicago Bulls’ second NBA three-peat in the late 1990s.

Longley was the starting centre for the Bulls team that captured the world’s imagination on its barnstorming run to three championships in 1996-98.

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But the 220cm giant revealed his disappointment in not being included in the popular Netflix documentary The Last Dance, which chronicled Chicago’s 1998 championship, featuring interviews with coach Phil Jackson, Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and several other members of the team.

“Sitting there on the couch and watching episode after episode where I wasn’t in it — yeah, I was bummed about that,” Longley told the ABC’s Australian Story program.

Luc Longley was disappointed to be left out of The Last Dance documentary.

“Why was I not in the doco? I don’t really know, to be honest.

“The self-deprecating Australian in me thinks it’s because I’m not that exciting. I was playing a huge role but it wasn’t one that was that sexy.

“There were so many beautiful, bright, shiny stars out there to focus on, that, you know, it makes sense to me that that story wasn’t about me. Makes perfect sense.

Jordan revealed he deeply regrets his teammate was left out from the docuseries.

“I can understand why Australia would say, ‘Well, why wouldn’t we include Luc?’ And we probably should have,” Jordan said.

“And if I look back and could change anything, that’s probably what I would have changed.”

In the second episode of the ABC program Jordan, viewed by many as the greatest basketball player of all time, delivered a touching tribute to Longley.

When asked why he agreed to be interviewed in this new series focused on Longley, Jordan responded: “He matters to me. He does matter to me and his story needs to be told.”

“Sure, there’s some good and there’s some bad but that’s all a part of life.

“You’re going to have friends that you have good and bad things about but we shared a lot.

“We competed together and I would take him any day of the week if I had to go through a competition again.

“If you asked me to do it all over again, there’s no way I would leave Luc Longley off my team — no way possible, because he mattered.

“He had an impact on me. He made me better as a player, as a person.”

Longley’s relationship with Jordan has blossomed into a warm friendship. Photo: Basketball A/CT

Longley admitted he had a somewhat frosty relationship with Jordan during their time as teammates at Chicago.

“He just had all these sharp edges, like some sort of a ninja star,” he said.

“He felt for whatever reason like he needed to charge me with his electricity (but) I’m not a conduit for that kind of electricity naturally.

“I might not have been a killer like MJ was, but you don’t need 12 killers.

“You need a group of humans that appreciate, understand, push and pull, work together.

“And we definitely achieved that.”

But Longley said their relationship has thawed in their post-playing days and developed into an amicable friendship.

“Interestingly, MJ and I, our exchanges now are really friendly and warm,” he said.

“Now that we’re not playing together, there’s room for that.”

The 52-year-old also opened up on the anticlimactic end to his NBA career, which petered out during stints with the Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks before a persistent ankle injury forced him into retirement.

“I did sign a big contract with Phoenix, which I had struggled to live up to because my ankle was going bad and but also (because) just that there wasn’t that same magic around the group,” Longley said.

“The end of my career really felt like a fizz after those high years in Chicago and that fizz hurt.

After an anticlimactic end to his basketball career, Longley’s relationship with the game has come full circle.

“Definitely when I came home (to Australia), I was deeply saddened. I was depressed about it — depressed about the way it ended.”

For many years after retiring from basketball, Longley struggled to fill the void in his life left my basketball.

But his life came full circle, when he was asked to share his wisdom to the Australian Boomers team and became a mentor to Aron Baynes.

“Basketball sort of brought me back to being whole again,” Longley said.

His renewed passion for basketball led him to finally having surgery on his ankle, which had been causing him pain for 20 years, and he now looks back on his NBA career with immense pride.

“I didn’t plan to be the first Australian to get in the NBA. I didn’t plan to be the first Australian to win a championship,” Longley said.

“It unfolded in front of me and at the time, that was just what I did and it seemed great.

“I’ve never really carried on about it much and don’t really want to any more either, but I can’t help but be proud of it.”

Originally published as Michael Jordan’s touching tribute to Luc Longley