Even in a decorated NBA family with five rings, Andy Thompson may be the most qualified to debate which dynasty drew the bigger media circus. Whenever his brother Mychal or his nephew Klay claim their teams were a bigger deal, Andy points them to the late 1990s Chicago Bulls.
Mychal Thompson won consecutive championships on the Magic Johnson- and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar-led Lakers in 1987 and 1988. Klay Thompson’s Warriors went to the Finals every year from 2015 to 2019. Andy Thompson was around for all of them, but he was also “a fly on wall” for Michael Jordan’s final year, filming the entire 1997-98 season with unprecedented access.
“No way either one of those two eras, those two teams, come close to being in the same type of stratosphere as the Bulls,” Andy Thompson said.
After a knee surgery ended his own playing career, Thompson worked at NBA Entertainment for 10 years before coming up with the idea to document Jordan’s final season in Chicago. He tagged along with Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and Steve Kerr as the Bulls went on to win their sixth championship in eight years.
Those Bulls, Thompson said, experienced a kind of Beatlemania that went beyond basketball celebrity, something that will become evident in the following weeks as Mychal and Klay watch the Jason Hehir-directed documentary based on Andy’s footage.
“That hasn’t happened for any of the Warriors, or any other team in the NBA today,” he said. “Not even close.”
More than 20 years later, the resulting documentary is “The Last Dance,” ESPN’s 10-part series that focuses on Jordan’s final season in Chicago. After the first two installments aired last Sunday, the final eight will be unspooled over the next four weeks. Thompson talked with the Bay Area News Group about filming that team and what to expect over the final episodes.
———
— What was the trip to France (that was shown in the first episode) like?
— The thing about Europe is their paparazzi is really aggressive. We went to Paris two and a half weeks after Princess Diana was killed tragically in that accident. And she was killed in Paris, because the paparazzi was just all over. Well, when we got to Paris, as you saw, they were all over the buses and hotels. They were basically stalking. Everywhere the Bulls went, there were cameras and paparazzi just trying to get a cool shot or whatever. I asked Michael about it. He said two years earlier he could go to Paris, sit at a cafe, smoke a cigar, and nobody would bother him. But for some reason, in that ’97-’98 season, maybe it was because it was the last time they got a chance to see him, he said they went ballistic, and it continued for the rest of the year.
———
— After the first two episodes aired, have you been surprised by how positive the reception has been?
— No, I haven’t, because when we followed this team back in the day and we captured so many different storylines along the way and with the way the season ended, being so dramatic, a storybook ending that Michael just capped off in a perfect way. Once he sealed the game with that last-second shot, we knew we had the holy grail. I knew we had one of the best sports documentaries in the can.
———
— When they’re coming off the fifth championship and going through that rough patch to start the 1997-98 season, were you worried at all?
— Every day I was worried. Every day was a negotiation with (Bulls head coach Phil Jackson) because it was a loose arrangement that we have access. So whenever we showed up, it wasn’t like he opened up the barn doors and said, ‘Come on in guys and just have at it.’ We showed up and we had to discuss whether we were going to get the pregame speech, were we going to get postgame access, if we got a bus ride. So, yeah, we were walking on eggshells for the first couple of months because it was a feeling-out process. So when they were going through that rough patch, you really had to mind your P’s and Q’s because you don’t want to be a distraction in a practice, you don’t want to be a distraction in the locker room. It was difficult.
———
— With more than 500 hours of footage, what is it that you had to leave out that hurt the most?
— Well, that’s easy. We followed Dennis a lot in his late-night excursions. I’m sure a lot of that stuff is not going to make the final edit.
———
— One of the big talking points after the first two episodes was just the fact that Michael Jordan, during the interviews, had that glass of tequila next to him. Have you ever tried it?
— Yeah, it’s delicious. Little too expensive for my taste though. It’s, like, over $100 a bottle.
———
— When you were filming that season, what was it that you captured behind the scenes that you were most excited about and hoped would make the final product?
— I’m not sure it’s going to make the final cut, but we did a shoot in Michael’s house, where he had a home gym, and he lets us in his house and he’s in there eating cereal before he goes out to the gym and I’m like ‘Wow, Michael Jordan eats cereal just like everybody else.’ Then we walk down to his basement, and he’s got a huge gym — as big as LA Fitness — and then we shoot him working out. But, the initial meeting with him in his house, he’s just like everybody else, in his flip flops, eating cereal before he goes and works out.
———
— What was something that made Michael Jordan uncomfortable when you were filming?
— He guards a lot of his conversations with his business partners. He keeps that private. Everything else, though, was open game, but when he’s talking Brand Jordan business, that was something that he definitely didn’t want any microphones or cameras around.
———
— Was there anything you were uncomfortable trying to film because you didn’t want to breach their trust?
— Most of these guys were married. These guys had families. These guys were really settled in who they were. So when we caught up to them in their hotel rooms, they’re just sitting there watching TV or playing cards. It was a very mature and veteran team that I was following.
———
— I want to ask about working with Adam Silver because he was the president of NBA Entertainment at that time and helped get this idea off the ground. In working with him back then, could you sense that this was an ambitious person who wanted to move up the ranks?
— How many new execs would stick their neck out on the line for an ambitious request like that? Because this wasn’t just an NBA team, this was the Bulls. This was Jordan. But Adam knew that this was a great opportunity. It was risky, but he took the chance. And here’s the thing: Adam was really new to the entertainment production world. So once he green-lit the film, Adam would sit in a meeting every Friday or whenever we could, and watch documentaries from all genres. That shows you just how dedicated, how smart he is. If he’s going to do a documentary on this season and the Bulls, he wanted to have all the information and have a sense of how the story should be told. Not many people in his position would have done that with about four or five other producers in the room.
———
— There’s a moment in the second episode when you captured Jordan yelling at teammates during a practice. We always knew how ruthless of a competitor he was, but how important do you think it is to actually show those scenes?
— Most people have read about it, so it’s no secret that he can be salty with his teammates, but it’s one thing when you read about it and it’s another thing when you see it. For some people, it might be a little cringe-worthy. But it’s Michael, right? So you have to accept him, warts and all. He’s not perfect. I come from the old school where coaches yell at you all the time. Today, when somebody watches that, they might cringe at it.
———
— You’ve been around the Warriors the last few years. What was the biggest difference between filming them and the filming the Bulls?
— Steve was really guarded at the time as a new coach, but there are ways you can get access by not getting it formally from the team, by knowing where to be at certain places at the right time. When you think about Phil Jackson, (Bulls general manager) Jerry Krause said it was his last year. ‘You go 82-0, it doesn’t matter, you’re out.’ For a lot of reasons, Phil wanted us to document that season. I really felt he understood his place in history. He was already established as one of the greatest coaches of all time, he had nothing to lose. Jordan really didn’t have anything to lose. So, Steve Kerr coming in as a brand new coach with no experience, the last thing he would want following him around is a camera crew. So, we never really asked, because we knew what the answer would be. From time to time, we would get that access, but I don’t blame Steve for not letting a camera crew like us follow him around for the entire year. As a rookie coach? That would be suicide.
———
— Without giving away spoilers, what’s something our Bay Area readers can look forward to in this documentary?
— They’re still editing nine and 10, but I’ve seen rough cuts of nine, and the ninth episode is Steve’s story. That’s the only episode where I cried. You’ll get to hear Steve’s story about how his dad was assassinated, and it was unbelievably powerful. It helps me to understand why he’s such a grounded person. When that happens to your dad, it changes you. It’s really, really powerful.
———
— Draymond Green brought up the Kevin Durant stuff this week. When you were around the team, were you cognizant of the tension building between those two?
— I wasn’t around the team a lot that year. I was on another project in L.A. So, no, I did not see that coming. I remember even asking Klay when some of that stuff was starting to hit the press, I was like, ‘You think KD is leaving?’ He was like, ‘No way, man, and go where?’ So I don’t think anybody knew that was coming.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
———
©2020 The Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.)
Visit The Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) at www.mercurynews.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.