"Give that guy a heart attack" - 'The Last Dance' director reveals Scottie Pippen's deleted insensitive locker room remark
Scottie Pippen allegedly was part of a controversial moment in the award-winning docuseries "The Last Dance." The six-time NBA champion became a hot topic during and after the broadcast of the series, especially for his attitude towards then Chicago Bulls general manager Jerry Krause, team owner Jerry Reindsorf and even teammate Michael Jordan.
Jason Hehir, director of "The Last Dance," revealed that the NBA made him delete one clip from the final product. The now-deleted scene showed Pippen making a distasteful joke about Krause as an idea to celebrate the Bulls winning a championship.
Hehir told journalist Pablo Torre that his plan for the docuseries was to get people to feel sympathy for Jerry Krause, but the final product did the complete opposite.
After taking the blame for how fans perceived Jerry Krause after "The Last Dance," Hehir said that the league only pushed back on one aspect during the making of the docuseries.
"The one thing the NBA pushed back on in the entire process was a clip where Scottie, in the locker room, they were joking around, saying what they were going to do when they won the title, and Scottie — I'm paraphrasing — basically said, 'I'm going to stick a cattle prod up Jerry Krause's butt and give that guy a heart attack or something like that.'"
Hehir insisted that he wanted to keep that clip in the film to let people know how the players felt about Jerry Krause despite him bringing them together to win multiple NBA champions.
'The Last Dance' director feels sorry about Jerry Krause's wife during Bulls' anniversary night
Jason Hehir added that he felt terrible while watching Jerry Krause's widow Thelma getting booed by Chicago Bulls fans when the team paid homage to her late husband in January.
"Thelma Krause, when they spotted her and said his name, a lot of the crowd in the United Center booed. I felt terrible about that," Hehir said. "Like, I don't feel responsible or guilty, but part of me is, 'You know, if we never did this, this poor woman wouldn't have gone through what I'm sure was one of the worst moments of her life.'"
"The Last Dance" made a strong impact on the lives of many people, which is still visible four years after its release.