Jordan had the final say in what would be showcased in "The Last Dance." Naturally, that has led some to ask, just how much influence did Jordan have in the final product?
Not as much as you might think, Hehir said. Jordan never once told Hehir something couldn't be included, Hehir told the Dan Bernstein Show on 670 The Score on Monday morning.
"We're trying to be as accurate and truthful as we possibly can," Hehir said. "I think the criticism that's prevalent is, 'Well, Michael gave permission, so he's going to have final say on these things.' That's true. It's also 100% true that he never once pushed back on anything, either on or off camera. He never said, 'You can't ask me about this.' He and his team never said that. He never said, 'You have to take this out of this cut. I don't like this.' The only notes he gave were to add a couple of things in, and that was to add more color to the story."
As an example, Hehir described how Jordan approached him about a scene in the seventh episode, which focused on his return to basketball in 1995. The original cut transitioned from Jordan's first game back to a game at Madison Square Garden in which he scored 55 points in a win against the Knicks.
Jordan told Hehir that in between those games, he hit a buzzer-beater to defeat the Hawks that he felt was important because that's "when I knew I could be my old self," Hehir said of what Jordan told him.
The seventh and eighth episodes, which aired Sunday night, offered the most revealing look yet into Jordan's demanding ways with his teammates. Scenes in those episodes offered proof of Hehir's freedom in directing this documentary.
"I just went into this entire process expecting the worst and hoping for the best," Hehir said. "When I say that, I mean expecting it to be really policed. Michael has an image that was crafted over the course of decades. I know that people protect that image. It's worth a couple of billion dollars. I was afraid that there was going to be a lot more over our shoulder and policing. But, episode seven, the proof is in the pudding.
"We always were honing things, and that comes from the top down. It certainly is an attitude that (Jordan) has about anything that he's going to be involved with. You do it your best, all the time, or why be involved at all?"