Here's Why Barack Obama Was Given That Hilarious Title In MJ's 'Last Dance'
By Lauren Crawford
April 20, 2020
That "Former Chicago Resident" sure looked familiar.
On Sunday (April 19), the first two parts of the long-awaited ten-part Michael Jordan documentary “The Last Dance” premiered on ESPN. While it featured a number of surprising moments — Scottie Pippen signing that controversial contract with the Chicago Bulls in 1991 was quite a shocker — one of the biggest talking points came when two former presidents of the United States, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, made an appearance.
Despite holding the highest office for eight years a piece, Obama was simply listed as a "former Chicago resident" and Clinton was merely titled "former Arkansas governor."
The surprisingly casual chyrons weren't lost on viewers, who shared their hilarious reactions on Twitter.
I damn near fainted.
— George Wrighster III (@georgewrighster) April 20, 2020
Barack Obama “Former Chicago Resident” #TheLastDance pic.twitter.com/Z61McoSTwS
Greatest title ever!!! @BarackObama #TheLastDance pic.twitter.com/YdjGXXpSHR
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) April 20, 2020
Best part of Last Dance is how they title two presidents only in relation to the 90’s Bulls. “Former Chicago resident” for Obama and “former Arkansas governor” for Clinton. It’s Jordan’s world and even y’all are just living in it. #TheLastDance
— lylemorgan (@lylemorgan) April 20, 2020
"Former Chicago resident" Barack Obama.
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) April 20, 2020
I don't care what side you're on - that's good stuff. #TheLastDance pic.twitter.com/QB177aC88a
Imagine having the pull to get two former United States presidents for your basketball documentary and calling them “Former Chicago Resident” and “Former Arkansas Governor”#TheLastDance pic.twitter.com/3jyN0vHET8
— Cade Onder (@Cade_Onder) April 20, 2020
While Twitter had a good laugh about the factual yet hilarious way Obama and Clinton were identified, the director of the docu-series Jason Hehir told The Athletic the casual labels were chosen because he didn't want to include celebrity for the sake of celebrity. Instead, he wanted to make sure Obama and Clinton's connections to MJ and Scottie were meaningful, not simply based on their professional titles.
"I was pretty adamant that we don't have people in here who don't have an organic connection to the story," Jason shared. "I think the temptation is because Michael was super famous, let's get as many super famous people in here as possible. There were conflicting philosophies amongst all the (production) partners of what makes a good documentary and what makes a documentary sizzle. I'm a filmmaker first and I just want to tell the story of this team as if they were not super famous. Who were the human beings who make up this team and how did they become famous and how did they handle that fame?"
"So that was an interesting part of this whole thing," he continued. "The good thing is that we all have the common goal – that it should be fantastic and everyone should enjoy watching it. I think the temptation would be to say, well, Bill Clinton was president in the 1990s. He has to talk about Michael because he was the President when Michael was playing and he saw Michael play live. My question was, okay, what is Bill Clinton going to say that is different than any other fan would say about watching Michael play? Why should he be considered an authority on basketball just because he's Bill Clinton? Now if Bill Clinton says I was governor of Arkansas when Scottie Pippen was in high school and I saw Scotty play, that's organic to the story and much more interesting."
Photo: Getty Images