One Giant Leap to not invited to The Last Dance

As a young Australian in high school, I found my second love (behind comics of course) that was NBA Basketball.. And no team in the 1990s dominated like the Chicago Bulls did, they were led by arguably the greatest of all time Michael Jordan. From 1995 to 1998 the Bulls were in the midst of their second Three-peat. Being a fan in Australia I felt a real connection as there was an Australian on that Chicago Bulls squad, not only playing but the starting center was Luc Longley.

2020 was an interesting year, during the pandemic and most of the world was in lockdown. Netflix gifted us a spectacular Docuseries named the Tiger King and once curious minds glanced over the obscurity which was the life of Joe Exotic we found ourselves earning for more… What could Netflix deliver after this?

Then we were given the Last Dance, this was the story of the legendary Chicago Bulls and their final season as a unit in 1998. The rift between Bull’s executive Jerry Krause and coach Phil Jackson came to … end eventually leading to Over ten episodes we explored the lives of the Chicago Bulls all but except one.. Where was Luc Longley? We saw the story of MJ (of course), Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Toni Kucoc and Steve Kerr.

Why was Luc left off? Some say money was an issue… really? Video streaming is readily available, imagine how it would feel to be the starting centre of the best team in history and be left out.. He was thinking the same! Recently a two part episode of Australia Story, a long running TV docu-series on ABC TV (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) which is a public TV service, I found astonishing that they’d create an episode centered around the Chicago Bulls’ big man.

This two-part episode titled “One Giant Leap” talks about the life that Luc Longley lived growing up in Fremantle, Western Australia who accidentally represented Australia in the 1988 Seoul Olympics to play four years in college for New Mexico in the United States where he fell in love with his first wife and being drafted to the NBA in 1991. One that a lot of people may not know, he was the first Australian player to be drafted into the NBA, this is where his legacy is tremendously underrated.

Moving onto his time with the Chicago Bulls, former teammate heavyweights agreed to be interviewed such as Scottie Pippen, Steve Kerr and Michael Jordan as well as his former coach Phil Jackson. This gave the documentary some extra dose of authenticity, “Luc and I got along well because of our laidback personalities” Scottie remarked with fondness. “Phil loved Luc and Luc adored Phil” said Kerr. As one would imagine Michael was hard on Luc, images in film showed that. Luc was seen as soft and doesn’t have that same killer mentality that is synonymous with Michel Jordan.

One thing that reflected their chemistry, a lot of MJ’s cut passes were courtesy of Luc as his bulk enabled him to screen defenders to create clear paths for his teammates. Steve Kerr mentioned that MJ did respect Luc and what he contributed otherwise he wouldn’t have started in the second three-peat. It is true that Longley’s game isn’t polished but sometimes one’s contributions don’t show on the box scores. In the 1990’s there were some athletic and skilled big men in the league such as Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O’neal. These were physical bigs and there’s no rest when one would suit up against. Longley did mention that he enjoyed the battles, the bangs and bumps were part of the Job.

In Part 2 we see Luc at the tail end of his career as injuries sink in and his marriage failing as he and his family make the move back to Australia.

You can watch this Two Part Australia Story: Luc Longley: One Giant Leap here:

Part 1: https://youtu.be/TdjBOdG9VF8

Part 2: https://youtu.be/5Xw5C9fhj3Q

Author Profile

Shane Tydeman

The Wonder from Down Under,
Dodgy is a senior contributor to Comic Crusaders. Co-Host of The Yeah-Nah Wepa Show! An advocate of indie comics and is creator of Indie Comics podcasts Flipside Focus, Sunderkatz and Think Indie Podcast!

An unapologetic movie fan, NBA fan, action figure, trading card fan! Also an advocate for Depression awareness!