Celtics
Big names such as Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas declined to participate, Simmons said.
Celtics City, the nine-part documentary series about Boston’s NBA franchise, has done a tremendous job of getting past and present Celtics players, coaches, celebrity fans, and historians to sit down for interviews.
From Bob Cousy to Jayson Tatum, the documentary covers decades of history and prominently features the voices who made the moments.
Robert Parish revealed an untold story about why he didn’t stick up for Larry Bird during a fight against Dr. J. Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Joe Mazzulla all spoke about the responsibility of carrying on the Celtics tradition.
There were some rival voices involved as well, such as Pat Riley, James Worthy, and Jerry West.
But, some big names from rival teams, like Magic Johnson, were missing.
During a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, executive producer Bill Simmons explained why he wasn’t able to get everyone that he wanted for interviews.
“What happened is the guys on the other teams, they don’t want to be the villains in the sports movies anymore,” Simmons said. “They’ve figured this out with sports documentaries. We didn’t get Magic”
“If you asked Magic right now to do your show he’d probably march through the door,” he added. “Magic would do anything and he was like ‘no, I can’t do it’. We didn’t get Magic, we didn’t get [Charles] Barkley, we didn’t get Isiah [Thomas], but we basically got all the Celtics.”
Thomas said during an interview on Sirius XM that he had an issue with the way he was portrayed in the “The Last Dance”, a ten-part documentary that chronicled Michael Jordan’s final season with the Chicago Bulls.
“I decided not to do the Boston documentary because of what (Michael) Jordan and ‘The Last Dance’ did,” Thomas said. “They totally set me up and blindsided me, and I wasn’t gonna get fooled twice. So I just decided not to participate in the documentary and be able to talk about it. But I wasn’t gonna go on film and sit there and be potentially set up again, like I was set up in ‘The Last Dance.’”
Simmons, a longtime Celtics fan who started ESPN’s 30-for-30 documentary series in 2009, was asked why it took so long for him to do a film about the team he grew up watching.
“We found out that the Lakers were doing one and immediately got competitive,” Simmons said. “So, it was two things: One, I wanted to be better than the Lakers, and two, somebody is going to respond by doing a Celtics one, and if they screwed that up I’m never going to forgive them, I’ll probably have to kill them.”
Seven of the nine episodes are available to watch on HBO Max. The episodes drop every Monday at 9 p.m.
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