“Allen Iverson sealed the deal for producing ‘The Last Dance’ on LeBron James and the Cavs’ parade day!”: How Michael Jordan was swayed to allow production of the ESPN docu-series by Iverson’s producer

Michael Jordan took 18 years before allowing anyone to use his ’97-98 footage, with Allen Iverson playing a part in him finally saying yes

In 1997-98, the Chicago Bulls were on their path to a second three-peat within the decade. Michael Jordan was leading the Bulls and was by far, the most well-known basketball player around the world. The Bulls, despite all their success, were having troubles of their own. Phil Jackson was asked to leave after the ’97-98 season. Michael Jordan did not want to play if he didn’t have Jackson as the coach. Scottie Pippen was constantly being dangled as a trade piece by GM Jerry Krause. One thing was certain, the ’98 season would be the last one for this Bulls dynasty.

Considering how it could be the last season of the best player to ever play basketball, NBA Entertainment producer Andy Thompson pitched the idea of an all-access, season-long documentary. Adam Silver, the then head of NBA Entertainment, was all on board with this idea. They went to Bulls’ owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who was all-in, as long as Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan were onboard.

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Phil Jackson, as long as he was given the power to waive off the cameras from time to time, had no issues. Convincing Jordan, on the other hand, wasn’t easy. The only way he agreed was that the footage couldn’t be used without both MJ and NBA Entertainment mutually agreeing. After getting this control, MJ let Thompson and his camera crew in.

How did Allen Iverson convince Michael Jordan to finally use the 18-year-old footage?

Ever since Michael Jordan hung up his boots for good, there were producers who wanted to use his tapes and make a documentary. Famous producers like Frank Marshall, Spike Lee, even actor Danny DeVito tried their hand at convincing Jordan. However, according to Jordan’s business partner, none of them could even get a face-to-face meeting.

Slowly fewer and fewer people knew about the tapes. Producer Mike Tollin got to know about the tapes from MJ’s agent, David Falk making an appearance on an HBO show. Tollin had worked on a lot of critically acclaimed documentaries, but could never get the idea of MJ’s tapes out of his head. In February 2016, after the success of OJ Simpson’s 8-episode docuseries, he saw an opening.

After a lot of talks, Tollin had no meeting set, but he flew to Charlotte to meet with MJ. Coincidentally, this was the same day LeBron James and the Cavs were having their championship parade.

“The first page was a letter that I’d written to him,” Tollin said. “Dear Michael, everyday kids come into my office wearing your shoes, who’ve never seen you play.

“It’s time.”

The final page had all the other works Tollin had done, “So there’s Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], there’s Hank Aaron, there’s ‘Varsity Blues,’ there’s ‘Coach Carter’ and so forth,” Tollin said. “He’s actually looking at them all, and in the bottom right corner is ‘Iverson.’

MJ asked, ‘you did this?’, after looking at Allen Iverson‘s documentary. Tollin replied and said ‘yes’ meekly.

Jordan took his glasses off, looked up, and said, “I watched that thing three times. Made me cry. Love that little guy.”

Then he walked around the desk, extended his hand, and said, “Let’s do it.”

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The rest, as they say, is history.