Horace Grant believes the editing process has made a mockery of history.
The former Chicago Bulls forward ripped “The Last Dance” as “B.S.” and a “so-called documentary” Tuesday during his appearance on Chicago radio station ESPN 1000’s “The Kap and Co.” show. Jordan’s often harsh treatment of his teammates was one of the main themes of “The Last Dance,” but Grant, who played for the Bulls between 1987 and 1994, claims filmmakers purposefully edited the footage to suggest other Bulls players never responded in kind.
“I would say (it was) entertaining, but we know, who was there as teammates, that about 90 percent of it — I don’t know if I can say it on air, but B.S. in terms of the realness of it,” Grant said, per ESPN’s Nick Friedell. “It wasn’t real, because a lot of things (Jordan) said to some of his teammates, that his teammates went back at him. But all of that was kind of edited out of the documentary, if you want to call it a documentary.”
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Jordan in “The Last Dance” accuses Grant of leaking information Sam Smith used in his famous book, “The Jordan Rules.” Grant vehemently denies the allegation.
“Lie, lie, lie,” Grant said. “… If MJ had a grudge with me, let’s settle this like men. “Let’s talk about it. Or we can settle it another way. But yet and still, he goes out and puts this lie out that I was the source behind (the book). Sam and I have always been great friends. We’re still great friends. But the sanctity of that locker room, I would never put anything personal out there. The mere fact that Sam Smith was an investigative reporter. That he had to have two sources, two, to write a book, I guess. Why would MJ just point me out?”
These are only two examples of what Grant believes was a systematic effort to portray Jordan favorably on the part of the filmmakers, among whom are Jordan confidants and “The Last Dance” executive producers Estee Portnoy and Curtis Polk.
“When that so-called documentary is about one person, basically, and he has the last word on what’s going to be put out there … it’s not a documentary,” Grant said. “It’s his narrative of what happens in the last, quote-unquote, dance. That’s not a documentary, because a whole bunch of things was cut out, edited out. So that’s why I call it a so-called documentary.”
Grant is among the first of Jordan’s former teammates to take issue with the film. Something tells us, he won’t be the last.
