The Director Of 'The Last Dance' Opens Up About His Interview With Kobe Bryant

The director of "The Last Dance" Jason Hehir discussed his interview with Kobe Bryant that aired in episode five of the documentary series on Sunday.

In an appearance on Jalen and Jacoby: Aftershow, Hehir said he interviewed Bryant last July on the day of the ESPYs, hours before Bryant honored Bill Russell with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. Bryant was preoccupied with what he was going to wear that evening and what he was going to say, and when the director showed up to his office for the interview, it was go time.

"It felt immediately like a game," Hehir said.

The interview started off a bit rocky.

"I think one of my first questions was, 'When was your first pair of Jordans that you got? And tell me about your idolization of him as a kid.’" Hehir said.

"He said, 'I was a Magic [Johnson] guy and I didn't wear Jordans because you couldn't get Jordans where I was. I was in Italy, so I couldn't get them.' He wouldn't give it up. I wanted him to say, 'That was my guy.'"

But Bryant eventually opened up.

"What you get from me is from him," Bryant said in the documentary. "I don't get five championships here without him because he guided me so much. He gave me so much great advice."

The documentary also showed footage of Jordan trash-taking Bryant before the 1998 All-Star game at Madison Square Garden in the Eastern Conference locker room.

"That little Laker boy is going to take everybody one-on-one," Jordan said. "He doesn't let the game come to him. He just go out there and take it."

Even though Jordan was ribbing Bryant, Hehir said that conversation in and of itself showed how much respect Jordan, a five-time NBA champion, had for the 19-year-old Bryant during his All-Star debut.

"How much does that say about Kobe as a player, and as a person, and as a presence, that the greatest player of all time is sitting there in his last All-Star game as a Bull in the mecca at Madison Square Garden, his favorite place outside of Chicago to play in the world, and the topic of conversation right before tipoff is not him, it's not his All-Star memories, it's not what's going on in the East that year," Hehir said. "It's that 'little Laker boy' is going to make this a one-on-one game."

Hehir added that the mere fact that Bryant had any control over that game is powerful.

"Kobe is going to exert his will at the age of 19 over all of the best players in the NBA at that time," Hehir said. "...It speaks volumes about Kobe and the fact that they knew this player was a different species when he came in. Even MJ, even the GOAT, is saying he's going to dictate the pace of this game and there's nothing we're going to be able to do about it."

Hehir said the footage from Bryant's interview was added into the documentary series about 10 days before Bryant tragically died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26 along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other people.

"We finished it around January 16 or so, midway through the month, and then the accident happened," Hehir said. "It was mind-blowing for all of us. I still can't wrap my head around that. Especially to see him on screen talking like that. It still doesn't make sense to me. The only thing we changed about that scene was to add the dedication [In loving memory of Kobe Bryant] to the top of the scene and the top of the show. Otherwise that scene plays exactly like we cut it when we finished it when Kobe was still with us."

At one point during Bryant's interview, he referred to Jordan as an older brother. Hehir acknowledged he was a bit skeptical that they were truly that close.

But at Bryant's public memorial at Staples Center in February, Jordan cried as he spoke in front of nearly 20,000 people, echoing Bryant's words and revealing the extent of their relationship.

"When Kobe Bryant died, a piece of me died," Jordan said, before ending his speech with the following line, "Please, rest in peace little brother."