Michael Jordan talks Luc Longley, Chicago Bulls, The Last Dance | Full interview | Australian Story

when you return to the bulls after playing baseball there were some new guys on the team including luke longley and i'm curious what did you think about luke at that stage i didn't really have any uh preconceived ideas i mean i knew he was on the team uh i was anxious to understand who my teammates were uh my mindset was to go you know try to get back and win you know anytime that you know when i left in 93 i left on top in terms of winning i was coming back in 9-5 halfway in the season and still my mentality was about winning now granted physically i wasn't prepared for winning at that time because i had a baseball body but it took me a while to understand my teammates understand you know their motivations um you had to understand that when i started with the bulls um you know it was 5 000 people in the stands so you know it was like playing to an empty arena you know and when these guys are coming in the arena's been sold out for six years you know so i wanted them to understand you know and luke to understand as well as judd bustler and steve kerr and all the guys that were new where we transformed from so that you can feel that energy and you can understand what it feels like playing in front of the fight the fans who for years were always believing that uh we'll wait till next year we wait to next year well we were the team that was on top now i thought it was very important for them to understand that that history and that dynamic about what the what the bulls actually experienced and i experienced so i felt compelled once i got to know those guys to kind of push them to understand okay we we're not in the bottom anymore we're on top and when you're on top everybody's coming at you so you have to be prepared you got to be ready to play and did you think luke was ready did you think that he had what it took to work with you to win a championship again i didn't know i i think what would uh i think luke can answer that a little bit better than i can i i felt the need to push him i know at that time they hadn't won uh a lot of those guys have never won in terms of the you know world championship or something to that their magnitude and um so i knew it was going to take it takes some learning uh for them to understand that that's where my role uh became very vital uh to lead and to give them that you know that that knowledge that they need along with phil obviously phil was you know the leader but in terms of basketball leadership when i say i led i led based on you know physically you know i get out there first one there last one the lead work on my skill set blah blah blah you know listen to what the coach try to you know do whatever the coach is asking uh that was the leadership that i wanted everyone to see and then reinforce it with my voice when i felt the necessary need to do so so i felt that you know no i don't think luke had the mentality of what it took to win uh but i think he earned that over the years that we played together and obviously you know following our leadership phil myself scotty you know just so that he can understand what it would take and how his skill set could fit and so what sort of skills did he need to develop or was it skills or attitude or both i think it was both you know he had the skill set you know seven footer pick and pop shoot rebound block shots uh defensively understood uh exactly what to do set great screens uh but the mindset of being able to do that every single night do that against teams that were more physical and teams that are less physical it was a mindset that i felt like luke had to learn and i think he did learn uh you know and and we all had had to learn over the period of our careers and um you know but when we were going against the teams like new york knicks you know indiana pacers miami heat you know it's a certain mentality that those teams are being coached at we had to match that if not surpassed that and i think that was a growth of what luke had to learn and so luke was the first australian in the nba what did you think of his australianness laid-back i i never seen luke mad to be honest and uh his his personality is that he you know every day good day mate you know you you feel that warmth coming from him and you know and that's good you know it's good to have that mentality and you feel like you know you're very fortunate each and every day and you wake up you enjoy your life you live it by the moment but there's times when you have to push yourself a little bit and then you know you want to see that frustration you want to see a little bit of anger and luke did at times you had to do a little pushing to get that but his mentality is that he you know he just enjoys being around people he is he is that gentle giant you know he's always been big you know wherever he was growing up and been around so it's quite naturally he always wants to feel welcome and wanted to you know and connect with someone you know maybe a smaller person or you know anybody that's a great trait to have also that trait has to be adjusted especially when you're in competition you know because you want that dominance to be shown you want that intimidation to be shown in competition uh it's not a negative thing it's always a positive thing in terms of you know how you utilize it but you know it took a while for him to get to that so he had to toughen up he had to show him a little tough love you know that's what i call it tough loving you know great i i loved him as a teammate you know i think that you know any day that i felt frustrated and angered i can look at luke and know that you know what it's not that hard it's not that you know this is not you know life of death you know he simplifies things his whole mentality is to do that that's his personality and it's good to have people around that can do that you know when you have people like myself who are somewhat aggressive you know we live in every moment you know we want to dominate every little moment and we forget about how simple life is how simple the moment may be uh this is where he was a great you know a great teammate and helped me mature as a person a sort of balance to your intensity sometimes you're absolutely right absolutely right okay and so what did you think were luke's strengths and what did you think luke's weaknesses were his strength was he could shoot you know he was very smart good passer physically you know he he could use his his body very well in terms of rebounding positioning his weakness with i would say is you know making sure mentality was to be aggressive you know uh you know have that kill instinct you know in in that you know you want to dominate you know and there's times where i had to push him on that you know and uh you know and and he received it well i mean you know it wasn't as if you know it was a constant resistance or oh i felt it necessary to need necessary need to do it every time we played no it was you know it's a process that you know when you win and you learn you apply that over a period of time and and with luke he did but his strong points his athleticism he didn't have the athleticism as most bigs but he had the smarts you know he he knew how to position himself well he knew he he knew how to play against someone like patrick ewing who he knew was far more gifted athletically but he was able to utilize his strength which is shooting on the perimeter post up using his left his right hand his physicality to you know to at least make himself known you know um and it was up to us to compliment him you know make him as important as a patrick ewing in situations where he could dominate or he can actually you know lead us um and we we did that you know i think phil did a good job in trying to gauge luke's uh motivation that per game let's just say we start the game and obviously our focus is to go inside and we were going to luke early and luke knew that and if luke felt compelled that or he felt like he was into the game he can give us that you know that that lift that we needed from that inside play if not then you know we would have to go to other you know other routes to try to you know assert ourselves as a team were there times that you were aware that luke was finding some of your criticisms quite tough yeah i i felt that i mean and you know that's look i i i think there was a lot of situations where people were you know somewhat critical in terms of the way that i perceived it and you know but i had a mission you know i wanted them to understand what it took to win you know and winning has a price um and the thing is is that you know i wanted to make sure they were prepared for the worst you know especially in competition and you know they're i'm pretty sure there were times they were not happy with me uh i think if you look back now i'm pretty sure they are you know based on how we achieved and with successes that we you know we were able to to overcome and um but you know as a leader you you know you sometimes you don't you're not gonna be well liked uh you're not gonna be you know but you have to pull them along um you know because you know you've experienced it you understood it uh the other side of that road is success and i think that you know the the gratification would be there once we get over that hill and uh i felt that and and i can sense some of that coming from from my teammates but you know the thing is is that we for us to be successful someone had to do that you know especially from a leadership world did you sometimes wish that you didn't have to be like that yes yes only because i felt like you know everybody you would you would assume that everybody had the same mentality as i had and that every day the first one in the gym last one to leave you know uh you live within the moment you know you strive to be uh strive for perfection each and every time you step on the basketball court but unfortunately everybody don't have that same mentality uh and if they did then makes my job so much easier it's like looking at you know a mirror of 11 or 12 people you know and unfortunately the world is not made that way um and you know sometimes you have to push pull or do whatever you need to uh to get over that hill you know and the gratification is always going to be in the work and once the work is done and you see the you know see how where the achievement has has been met you know um so yeah i wish you know i could have you know laid back and enjoyed it as much as everybody else but that that didn't guarantee us success you know that didn't say we're gonna win you know um you know so i had to do what i had to do over the years you know that you played together did your opinion of luke change did you enjoy playing together by the end of those years and come to really value what he gave to the team i did i valued it and i also understood how to get get it out of him you know how to challenge him you know as a teammate you know and and the things is and i think luke understood you know he understood that you know if he if he mix he missed that box out then he's going to hear you know obviously some verbal you know words coming from me from you know the expectations were solely totally different once he proves that he could do it the task is to do it every single night you know that's the thing you know and that's where i felt like i knew he was capable we all felt he was capable but you have to be capable every single night for us to maintain success so i pushed him obviously i did and verbally you know i would challenge him in certain situations where i felt like you know look you just you're not you're not doing what we expect you to do you know and i would welcome that too for my you know if they see that i was doing something that they pretty much expected and i was taking shortcuts which wasn't too often uh i'm pretty sure that i was open you know phil would criticize me you know other teammates would criticize me and you know the purpose of improving and the purpose of being a good teammate and the purpose of being a good team is we all have to look in the mirror and understand okay what can i do better to make this team better you know and we also have to be willing to accept constructive criticism nothing personally you know we hung out we had fun you know we would joke around you know it's nothing personal but in competition when you're trying to you know exceed and be successful we have to hold each other accountable that's what teammates do and and it's nothing really personal about it yes luke admits that consistency was his big issue and that he struggled with it and you struggled with the fact that he wasn't consistent enough yeah it was times like that and i'll give you a good example he may not like this story um in 98 we're playing utah jazz did he ever tell you this i'm not sure which story this one's going to be in utah jazz scottie pippen was out you know and we knew we just played utah in the finals the year before so every game we play against utah is a message you want to send a message so he is we go to i go to luke at the beginning of the game and say look look we have to we got you have to establish yourself inside you have to dominate we're going to come to you early you're gonna really got to set the tone for us because we don't have scotties me and dennis and you uh so he understood that he knew the importance of that the first quarter ends luke has 12 points four blocks and four rebounds and i go to luke i said that's how you play man you do that we dominate we up by 16. you're up at 16 we're killing them in their building at the end of the game luke had 12 points four rebounds and four blocks it's like he sufficed the anticipation or or what we wanted him to do in the first quarter but he forgot it was three other quarters we're winning by 16 we lose about 15. so now my frustration is like you know it's boiling and i'm uh and i go into the locker room and i'm sitting down i'm just trying to figure out how did we lose this game we seemed like we had a good rhythm the first quarter blah blah blah and and luke sitting across from me and once again luke has this demeanor that you know he doesn't really show like i'm i'm like i'm i'm like boiling over here but i'm really trying to hold it in because it's just one game but i understood the significance of the game because we're playing against utah you want to make sure that we send a message and luke says it's okay mate it's okay and the way that he said it made it seem like he didn't really receive it the way that i was receiving it and i just chuckled and i and you know and i just looked at luke and i said you know what look that is the last time i'm gonna give you a compliment in the middle of the game because you don't receive compliments well in the sense that you feel like you just you stop and you don't really pursue and i said it you know from a you know chuckling because i was really frustrated as opposed to yelling i wanted him to understand look man you don't have to just you know you you have to keep playing you don't play just for one quarter just so that now i can look at you and say you're doing a great job blah blah blah and i get it but we still have to play the other three three quarters of the game and it told me more about luke in the sense that you know you got to keep pushing him you got to keep pushing him you got to keep pushing you can't let him get comfortable because he gets comfortable then he relaxes you know and we need him to keep being aggressive you know and from that point i didn't do it in a way i don't think i did it in a way to to point point or jab a jab a punch punch it was almost like okay i gotta i gotta keep encouraging him i gotta keep encouraging even when he's doing well i gotta keep encouraging because he needs that you know that reinforcement you know that was the thing i learned about luke and once i learned that then i understood how our relationship was going to be established and you know a hug is probably more than a yell you know you know a you know a pat on the back is probably more than a punch you know that type of thing and you know once i was able to understand that as a leader then we can always have a certain dialogue okay may you know i can i can you know go back and forth with you but also i know how to get you to this point that we need you to be consistent phil was good at it i learned it from phil phil understood that with dennis he understood that with me he understood that with scotty tony steve oliver and that was the strong points about who phil jackson was i had to learn that through him you know and then when i got back obviously i had different personalities that i hadn't been with so i had to understand who these people were so that i couldn't have a relationship you know the steve kerr and the punch and you know tony cucoch from the 92 you know dream team blah blah blah once we understood how those dynamics would work the communication aspect was much simpler so you obviously taught luke a lot did luke teach you anything you kind of intimated a little bit then that you realized that you had to kind of meet the person where they were at was there anything else that luke taught you no i think i mean his calm demeanor and and his acceptance for all different types of people uh is an unbelievable trait you know and i was able to learn and watch and analyze how he built his relationship that you know coexist within in his personalities and his his friends and things of that nature that okay i could take bits and pieces of that now could i change my personal i can't you know but at least i can have a better understanding for how other people are thinking so it can alter my thought process and how i would adapt to certain people so yeah i learned things from luke i learned things from other players but my my personality is always going to be dominant no matter what but at least it was a a consideration to understand and appreciate who i'm playing with and and what gets them to tick and how do you you know relate and and have a relationship with them i mean those are things that i had to make adjustments to so you won two three-peats which is just beyond incredible how hard was that second three-peat for you sort of just summarizing all of that up for me uh well it's it was harder than the first three-peat um mainly because i think you know anytime you continually repeat things it's harder from a mentality standpoint to create that hunger as if you never won or you you know you're just winning for the first time uh the first three-peat was a team that was together for a long period of time you know pretty much eight nine years you know we were together uh second three-peat was a patchwork you know we got players from different places um you know and i wasn't there most of the time when they got there you know the first time i was there i was a you know the existing parts from the previous year and then we just kept plugging in plugging in plugging it in and everybody you know saw the mentality everybody adjusted to the mentality well the second repeat was i bought my mentality to a team that was already existing so now i had to apply that and it was much more difficult to do that you know in the second three-peat than the first uh and you know not that it you know obviously it worked but it put a lot of you know mental and physically you know straining you know situations um you know with teammates you know and and understanding you know the mentality that it took to win uh and we got there and we appreciate it and you know the 96 was probably the toughest one uh because i was coming from you know a defeat in 95 when i played baseball everyone thought i was a step slower um you know so i had to prove myself you know and uh my father you know the first time i actually done it without my father so i mean all these emotions and all these different things are coming at me and you know to me that was the most difficult if i had to pick of the six uh and then once we were able to understand okay this is michael jordan he's he's gonna be aggressive this is luke he's gonna be somewhat passive but you gotta pull him along steve kerr you got to give him encourage dennis you got to pull him in every now and then he's going to be dennis scotty's going to be scotty you know once we understood how the players were on that team it clicked you know no wonder we won 72 games you know the following year and then you know we was able to to maintain you know what we did uh pretty much in the second three peak but it took a process so it was much harder thank you now look the last dance was absolutely huge in australia everyone loved it um but australian viewers also wondered why luke wasn't involved and why luke wasn't interviewed what's your take on that michael you know you can say that a lot and the thing is i i had no control in terms of who you who you were going to interview um it was a lot of guys that said the same thing and jason could answer it much better than i because it was more of their control you know and once again um he was and is you know an integral part to this whole process and i think that you know we if you look back and say well we we should have included luke we should have included you know other players that were significant to the team and it's hard you know but you know i had no control over that and you know it's unfortunate and i can understand why australia would say well why wouldn't we include luke and we probably should have and and that was i guess if you look back and see if i could change anything that's probably what i could have changed where uh you would want to interview every single body and get a perspective from a lot of different angles now your desire to win and your your toughness on the team as a result of that is absolutely legendary and was explored in the last dance luke describes your leadership style as carnivorous what do you think about that yeah i mean i can see that from his perspective quite naturally yes i can see that and look i didn't go in there with that mentality that's how it's gonna it's just so so you know my mentality was to win at all cost you know and and pull push yank whatever to get everybody on the same page uh and you know it's i understand it i understand it and you know the thing is is that if i were to change my personality back you know to to something totally different i wouldn't be who i would have been i don't think we had the same successes i think a lot of players probably wouldn't have been the same in terms of their perspective you know um so yeah i can see them saying that but the thing is is that i think it was needed in some respect and um and i think our success illustrates that one of the themes of this story in luke's life it's sort of charting luke's life is the fact that he did have to change he was a gentle giant he got to the nba he had to kind of put on the armor and toughen up and then he found once his mba career was over he found it very difficult to shed that sort of tough armor that he'd had to sort of gird himself with um and that he quite struggled with that for quite a long time can can you relate to that 110 part of my struggles after the game is my competitive drive you know i was such a competitive player and each and every day felt the need to always get ahead of my opponent well when you're out of sports and you're in you know in normal life you know you don't shed that armor that you actually have coated yourself with you know based on your your lifestyle and work ethic you know it's just you have to find your way around it and that's frustrating and sometimes that's even tough you know because of the competitive nature that i have i look at everything from a competitive nature you know and i i i tell my wife all the time is that i'm cursed i'm cursed from a competitive standpoint that you know i cannot watch or compete or be a part of things without competition you know um and that's something that you know i live with today but i would not want to live without you know because i think it it says so much about me and helped me define who i really want or was or am and attained all the things i really wanted uh now it's the challenge is to calm those nerves you know that's why i do a lot more fishing now i would i would have never thought i would get on a boat and go fishing but the competition of patience and being you know trying to catch a fish trying to be patient is not going to happen you can't make it happen you just have to be ready when it does happen those are all things that i think calms me down a lot more than if i'm playing a sport you know if i'm playing golf or if i'm doing anything competitive because i think that you know that's what i need that's the therapy that i need to help soothe some of these competitive juices that i have well that's interesting because luke loves fishing too loves boats and fishings when you look back on those years was it sad to say goodbye to your teammates like luke once the sort of chicago bulls and that team were no more yes and it's still sad i mean look luke emails me all the time and every time i see you know g'day mate it brings a smile to my face in a sense that you know we don't spend the type of time we used to even though you know if you ask him or you asked me i i think it was genuine time you know even though we were competing and we were learning about each other and we were pushing each other blah blah blah those are still genuine times you know and you don't share those with too many people you know so yeah i miss i miss spending time with him you know i miss seeing you know that face that's never gonna be sad no matter what happens you know um you know he's just he's just funny i think the thing that was in amazement of every time i spin and see luke it was a shock to see someone he was looking at me and i could feel this coming from him and say how can one person be so competitive each and every day and blah blah blah and yet he doesn't seem like he's enjoying life when that's in actuality i was i was enjoying the competition that was who that was my enjoyment i sensed that sometimes when he used to look at me you know and just kind of you know and i didn't take it negatively i i took it as a badge of honor i take my my job seriously i take my competitive nature very seriously um but sometimes looking at him and seeing and joking and you know we sense of humor and you know uh it it's funny and you missed that you know you missed that you know that celebration of of of you know starting a goal at the beginning of the year and then at the end of the year you you know the gratification that we we went through hell to get here but we got here and let's just enjoy it let's have fun and let's do it again in another three months you know that was the mentality you missed that in 98. and you're a busy man michael uh why did you agree to take time out of your schedule for um for luke to do this interview for luke he matters to me yeah you know he does matter to me and his story needs to be told and i i'm pretty sure i can enlighten it from my perspective and you know and and give him give people his meaningfulness to me you know as a teammate as a competitor uh sure i mean there's some goodness and bad but that's all a part of life you know you're gonna have friends that you have good and bad things about you know but we went through trenches we we we shared a lot you know we competed together and and you know i would take him any day of the week if you know 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 luke longley off my team no way possible because he mattered you know he had an impact on me he helped me change as a person so i mean um to hear that they're they're recognizing him and you would think you would think you know most people think what can they be saying about luke in a documentary you can be saying a lot about the guy and i i'm i am a you know example of what he meant to me and how he made me better as a player you know as a person you know and that story needs to be told about a person that people think it's very you know very minor but they're not they're very major when it comes to winning a championship those people do matter well that's lovely and at the end of the day luke credits you with um compensating for his weaknesses with your brilliance and dragging him across the line three times so thank you very much for that no problem it was my pleasure and once again you know they are motivating to me you know they were you know for me to ultimately get them where they needed to go and ultimately we got where we needed to go i mean it was teamwork it wasn't a one band it was teamwork they made me better as well you

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 1,324,709

Keywords: abc news, australian news, abc news indepth, documentaries, long-form journalism, Michael Jordan, Australian Story, MJ, MJ Bulls, Chicago Bulls Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan interview, Michael Jordan Australian interview, Luc Longley, Michael Jordan Australian Story interview, Chicago bulls three peat, The Last Dance, Jordan pedia, michael jordan retirement, the jordan vault, michael jordan leadership style, michael jordan uncut, basketball, GOAT, Michael Jordan today

Id: q27fAO1emHM

Length: 32min 13sec (1933 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 10 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/shor]

Fantastic interview.

When MJ brings up the '98 game against Utah where Longley had a 12 point, 4 rebound and 4 block first quarter and proceeded to go scoreless for the rest of the game...

This is the game in question: https://www.basketball-reference.com/.../199802040UTA.html

MJ got some of the stats slightly wrong, as Longley had an 8 point, 6 rebound and 2 assist first quarter, powering the Pippen-less Bulls to 35-13 lead vs. the Jazz 😮

After MJ complimented Longley, presumably during the 1Q break, Longley added zero points, 5 boards and 1 assist to his tally and the Bulls ended up losing to the Jazz by 8.

No wonder MJ was "boiling over" in the locker room post-game.

[u/pascarooba]

MJ giving 30 minutes of his time for an interview purely shows his appreciation for Luc.

[u/Scombussolato]

Thanks for sharing! Good interview

[u/PleaseSeekChrist]

Mike needs to show some love to Stacey King too

[u/doyouhaveanypaper]

Idk why jordan sounds like he’s interviewing for a job he’s slightly unqualified for

[u/deck4242]

the goat. Wish he was going to TNT with Chuck and Shaq sometimes.

[u/trevors417]

Anyone know what shirt he's wearing here? Is this for sale anywhere?

[u/AlbrechtSchoenheiser]

That was very nice of one of the best basketball players in history to invite Michael Jordan into his documentary

Edit: calm tf down it's just a joke

[u/ReagansRaptor]

He's drunk as fuck idk how anyone hasn't mentioned it.

He scotched his way through the last dance but at least they didn't lead footage with him slurring his words and sounding like he had a scoop of peanut butter stuck on the back of his tongue