Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen to star in new Luc Longley documentary

Basketball greats Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen will head an all-star cast in a two-part ABC series centring on the life of their former Chicago Bulls teammate Luc Longley.

In the Australian Story series scheduled to run on August 2 and 9, Longley breaks his silence on his relationship with Jordan and his bizarre omission last year from his three-time NBA championship teammate’s Netflix documentary, The Last Dance.

The notoriously-private Australian basketball legend, who is living in the Great Southern town of Denmark with celebrity cook wife Anna Gare, was largely overlooked in The Last Dance series despite playing a vital role in the Bulls’ championship three-peat of 1996-98.

But the three-time Olympian has finally revealed his thoughts in an exclusive tell-all interview.

The star-studded series also features rare interviews with Jordan and Pippen about Longley as well as the towering Australian’s former Bulls teammate Steve Kerr and coach Phil Jackson.

Longley has, until now, declined to comment publicly on The Last Dance, which detailed Jordan’s influence on the all-conquering Bulls team and the brash operation run by then-general manager Jerry Krause.

He is understood to have rejected several big-money interview offers, opting to speak to Australian Story, which filmed Jordan’s exclusive interview in Florida last week. The package also includes interviews with Longley’s brother-in-law and comedian Ben Elton, close friend and author Tim Winton, Gare and other family members and friends.

“Luc reflects on his whole basketball career, how it changed him and how he’s still ‘unlearning it’,” Australian Story executive producer Caitlin Shea told The West Australian. “He also gives a good insight into his relationship with the notoriously competitive Michael Jordan.”

After being initially drafted by the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves in 1991, the 218cm centre moved to the Bulls in the 1993-94 season and became a starting five staple in the team dominated by Jordan and Pippen.

He was the first Australian to play in the NBA and the first from the nation to win an NBA championship. He is still the only Australian to win three.

The 52-year-old is also an inductee in both the Australian Basketball and Sport Australia Halls of Fame.