Director of 'The Last Dance' says he had to 'work hard' to get insight from Kobe Bryant about Michael Jordan

• "The Last Dance" director Jason Hehir told Insider what it was like interviewing Kobe Bryant for the docuseries.
• Hehir said he was unlike the other interviews because Bryant was not instantly open to talk a lot about his feelings about Jordan.
• "I had to work hard," Hehir said about getting something about of Bryant.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Episode five of ESPN's acclaimed docuseries "The Last Dance" features an interview with late NBA great Kobe Bryant. He shows up talking about facing off against Michael Jordan at the 1998 All-Star Game.

Bryant died earlier this year in January along with his daughter Gianna and seven others when a helicopter they were all in crashed in Calabasas, California. The episode began with text that read, "In loving memory of Kobe Bryant." 

Bryant was only a rookie when he came face-to-face with Jordan at the All-Star Game back in 1998, but he was already considered to be the next Air Jordan. So it was important to get him in the doc.

However, "The Last Dance" director Jason Hehir came to find that would be easier said than done.

Hehir told Insider on Monday that the interview with Bryant was one of the shorter ones he conducted for the docuseries. He only had around 25 minutes with Bryant when they tracked him down in July 2019. And at the time of the interview, Bryant was preoccupied as he was putting the final touches on a speech he was giving at the ESPY Awards to Bill Russell as that year's recipient of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.

"I had to work hard, which was unusual in this process because normally people are ready to sit down and heap praise on Michael," Hehir said.

In true fashion of a player known as The Black Mamba, Bryant was anything but predictable.

Hehir said that when he tossed Bryant a softball question like what was the first pair of Jordan sneakers he owned, Bryant brushed it off and said growing up he was a Magic Johnson fan.

"We were kind of circling each other for a while," Hehir admitted.

However, Hehir said the two finally found a groove when they began talking about the 1998 All-Star game leading to Bryant revealing some insight on his interaction with Jordan.

Here's a clip from "The Last Dance:"

 

Hehir said the icing on the cake with the Bryant portion of the episode was discovering the footage of Jordan talking about Bryant in the locker room before the All-Star Game.

In one part, Jordan refers to Bryant as "that little Laker boy" and said if Bryant was on his team and took as many shots as he does in a game, he would never give him the ball.

Hehir said that kind of unfiltered material wasn't found until long after he had done the interview with Bryant and had looked through the footage numerous times.

"We would rewatch and rewatch these things because someone in the footage could murmur something and you would run it back and realize you've struck gold," Hehir said. "I knew we had footage of Kobe brushing shoulders with Michael at the beginning of the All-Star Game and them playing each other on the floor, but those little moments, like him saying 'little Laker boy,' that's where the gold is. You really had to have your eyes and your ears open for a lot of this stuff."

"The Last Dance" airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Read more about "The Last Dance:"

• How "The Last Dance" got Michael Jordan to open up about his life and career like never before
• Michael Jordan said he would only appear in "The Last Dance" if he always had the final word
• How "The Last Dance" got ready to air 2 months ahead of schedule

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