‘The Last Dance’ director on Obama’s viral ‘former Chicago resident’ title
Jason Hehir never meant to disrespect the beloved president's office and just wanted his inclusion to be organic
Jason Hehir, the director of ESPN’s documentary 'The Last Dance,' responds to the show's controversial captioning of President Barack Obama.
Without a doubt, Americans are more protective of President Barack Obama than they have been over any other president in recent history. He represents so much to so many people. For some he represents change. Others he represents youthfulness and swag. Still, for an entire race, he represents what Mother Maya Angelou called, “the hope and the dream of the slave.”
So, one best watch how the publicly referred to him, else they just might get the backlash of millions of supporters who are not tolerating any disrespect to him, his family, and his legacy. #AskDonaldTrump
READ MORE: Barack Obama given an ‘unusual’ title in Michael Jordan doc
Or you can ask Jason Hehir, the director of ESPN’s documentary on Michael Jordan and his final season with the Chicago Bulls entitled The Last Dance.
In the first episode, Hehir and his team referred to the 44th president of the United States of America simply as “former Chicago resident.”
The truth of the matter, that is one of his titles. He lived in “The Windy City” from 1985 to 2008, when he was elected to the highest political seat in the country. He was a member of the historic Chicago church, Trinity United Church of Christ, was a community organizer with the Developing Communities Project servicing the South Side Chicago parishes of Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverside and met his wife, Michelle Obama was interning at her big named Chicago law firm, Sidley Austin.
CHICAGO – SEPTEMBER 7: U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama speaks to the media. (Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images)
Still, many saw this as a blatant sign of intolerable disrespect and took to social media to lambast the production for such a faux pas.
Hehir had no idea and believed he and his team were being smart in their positioning of Obama in context of the storyline, relationship to the NBA All-Star during the time being presented, and the city that he [Obama] has said repeatedly that he loved.
“What’s been the most fun is to see the little subtle things that we’ve done and just kind of forgot about that are catching people’s attention, like the ‘former Chicago resident’ that we put under Barack Obama,” Hehir says according to sports columnist Chad Finn for the BostonGlobe.com and Boston.com.
“That was just kind of a little inside joke in our edit room because I was pretty adamant that when we have a celebrity, we wanted it to be organic to the story. We don’t want to just have a president for president’s sake”
President Barack Obama tosses up a basketball given to him by coach Geno Auriemma (L) while honoring the 2015 NCAA Women’s Basketball Champion University of Connecticut Huskies. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
“Even though Obama is a basketball fanatic, he’s not qualified to speak on the significance of the Chicago Bulls and Michael’s style of play like a Bob Ryan would be. The reason he was in there is that he was a former Chicago resident.”
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Hehir had no idea that the chyron would cause such a stir, especially since he actually a fan of Obama.
“It was crazy that the internet being what it is, I’ve seen people who are investigating whether I’m a Democrat or Republican. I’m a huge Obama fan, so for people to say it’s disrespectful and I did that on purpose. I mean, come on. I promise you he will be the president by the end of the series.”
People don’t play about Barack. They will get straight Benita Butrell on you if you do.
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