Allen Iverson was the clincher to the new Michael Jordan documentary, according to executive producer and Philly native Michael Tollin.
"So he's looking, oh Hank Aaron, oh Kareem, Varsity Blues, Coach Carter, whatever," Tollin told Angelo Cataldi and the 94WIP Morning Show on Friday about the pitch meeting with MJ for the documentary.
"And the bottom right corner, he gets to the last one and he sees a photo of Iverson, the documentary we did and he takes his reading glasses off and he looks up at me and he says,
'You did that? Watched that thing three times, made me cry. I love that little guy.'
"That was kind of the clincher."
Tollin explained that there was incredible exclusive footage of Jordan's final season in Chicago, who only agreed to the film crew that year if he could control if and when the footage was ever released. Tollin said he was able to pitch Jordan on a ten-episode series, which would show MJ's true character arc and not paint him in a bad light.
"One thing I got to clarify," Tollin explained. "It's not just the 97-98 season. The Last Dance is the spine of the show. Every one of the ten episodes you precede from preseason, all the way to those insane playoffs where Michael hit that last shot against Utah. But then you use it to jump off and go back and tell the stories of Michael's whole career, the back stories of Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Phil Jackson, Steve Kerr. So you really get an all encompassing portrait of this incredible team."
With the coronavirus pandemic shutting down sports, people are craving for live entertainment and appointment TV. Well, this documentary is finally that for so many.
"I've been doing this for 40-plus year and I've never been involved in a production with this level of anticipation," Tollin said.