Michael Jordan’s ‘The Last Dance’ documentary served as a refuge for sports fans in a COVID-afflicted sports desert last year.
The in-depth look at Jordan’s life and career provided an interesting window in the mind of arguably the greatest athlete of all time.
One of the standout moments from the documentary came when Jordan spoke of his Chicago Bulls’ match-ups against the Seattle SuperSonics – and more specifically his one-on-one battles with Gary Payton.
“The Glove? I had no problems with the glove,” Jordan dismissively laughed during the documentary.
This past Wednesday Payton appeared on The Colin Cowherd Podcast and offered a fairly blunt reaction to Jordan’s words.
“He couldn’t guard me either!” — @GaryPayton
The 9-time NBA All-Star told @ColinCowherd how he felt being the target of Michael Jordan’s now-famous “Last Dance” meme pic.twitter.com/F4OY617f3p
— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) June 16, 2021
“If he didn’t say that, I wouldn’t respect it,” Payton said.
“I wouldn’t even look at him anymore, because he’s a competitor like me. I looked forward to guarding him. He laughed. I would’ve laughed at the same thing because I don’t think he could guard me. So if he would’ve did that I would’ve been like, ‘Ha… please.’”
Yikes. https://t.co/rP9DViKpei
— Game 7 (@game7__) June 14, 2021
This isn’t the first time Payton has spoken out about Jordan’s dismissiveness of him.
The Last Dance led to a lot of interesting fallout – including Scottie Pippen’s anger regarding how he was portrayed.
Overall, ‘The Last Dance’ was a very impactful documentary – and nothing reaffirms that more than the fact that we’re still talking about it all this time later.
Related: Brett Favre Gets Brutally Honest About Aaron Rodgers, Packers
Jennifer Withers Hoey is a former Business Development Manager who transitioned to writing about sports. With valuable connections all over the West Coast, she has used those contacts to break some of the most interesting stories pertaining to the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Seattle Supersonics (RIP), and more.
