Is Former NBA All-Star Tom Gugliotta In ESPN’s New Michael Jordan Documentary ‘The Last Dance’?

Basketball is akin to poetry. Artistic relevance lies in the eye of the beholder, but to me, the only difference between Emily Dickinson and former Washington Bullets big man Gheorghe Mureșan is that Gheorghe Muresan can slam dunk the daylights out of a basketball. But Muresan wasn’t just my giant, oh no. He was our giant because basketball is a unifying elixir that connects us all.

Dickinson’s famous poem “‘Hope’ is the Thing with Feathers” isn’t technically about the sonic beauty created when a Voshon Lenard three-pointer harmonizes with the silky smooth polyester of an officially licensed Spalding NBA basketball net. But art, poetry, and basketball are three branches intertwined on the same oak tree.

On Sunday, April 19, Jason Hehir’s The Last Dance, a ten-part docuseries centering on Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls dynasty, premieres on ESPN. Upon hearing this news, basketball enthusiasts across the globe collectively implemented a full-court press on one question: Is former NBA All-Star Tom Gugliotta in this documentary or what?

Gracing the world with his presence on December 19, 1969, Thomas James Gugliotta was taken by the Washington Bullets with the sixth pick of the 1992 NBA Draft. For 13 seasons, the man known as “Googs” played for seven NBA teams, with his peak years happening while adorning the midnight blue and aurora green of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Mr. Gugliotta made the 1997 NBA All-Star team and if you don’t count Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Christian Laettner, and LaPhonso Ellis, Tom was the 1993 NBA Rookie of the Year.

At this point in the article, I’m afraid I must insist that you take a four and-a-half minute break to listen to Vitamin C’s pensive last day of school classic “Graduation (Friends Forever)” in its entirety. Do not skip ahead. I’ll know.

Like any basketball fan with a beating heart and an enduring appreciation for John Tesh’s “Roundball Rock” (aka the iconic NBA on NBC intro), I wanted to know if Tom Gugliotta was interviewed for The Last Dance. When I’ve embarked on similar pop culture journeys in the past, I started small, but much like Gugliotta’s FT% from the 92-93 season to the 93-94 season, I improved over time (.644 to .685). If I wanted to know if Tom Gugliotta was in ESPN’s Michael Jordan documentary, why not simply ask Michael Jordan? Since I didn’t have MJ’s phone number and was too scared to ask Charles Oakley for it on Twitter, I contacted the living legend on social media.

No response. That’s okay, Mike. This isn’t my first rodeo. My first and only rodeo was, coincidentally, at Madison Square Garden, the home of basketball icons Walt Frazier, Patrick Ewing, and Renaldo Balkman.

Growing up, I was taught that the only way to be “like Mike” was to drink Gatorade. Now, as an adult, I learned that I could also be like the greatest basketball player in NBA history by simply ignoring inquisitive journalists on Twitter. Disappointed yet thankful not to be on the receiving end of Jordan’s 894th career block, I decided to reach out to ESPN President James Pitaro. During my daily morning meditation in which I toggle between listening to Enya’s “Sail Away” and Marv Albert repeatedly yelling “Yes! And it counts!” I noodled on a thought: Perhaps I had been too direct with Mike? To remedy my social faux pas, I decided to employ a breezy intro in my email to Pitaro.

Around this time, my inbox was filled with PR emails regarding the hit Netflix docuseries Tiger King, which got me thinking: How could I make this culture phenomenon all about me? Much like the entire NBA suddenly realizing that three-point field goals were worth more than two-point field goals, I had an epiphany: I could use Tiger King to break the ice with Pitaro.

Similar to a poorly constructed internet headline from 2007, what happens next will BLOW YOUR MIND: I received a response from ESPN.

As I mentioned above in the rodeo section I wrote so that I could include that chef’s kiss of a Renaldo Balkman reference, I’ve written a few of these types of articles. Shockingly, the strangers I send unsolicited messages to about complete and utter nonsense rarely reply to my tomfoolery. I’ve illustrated my lackluster history below via a helpful pie chart:

FYI: If you don’t want Kato Kaelin to go full Dikembe Mutombo on you, never, ever ask him if he knows when the 1997 Jim Carrey comedy Liar Liar is exiting Hulu.

ESPN delivered the bad news: Tom Gugliotta was not interviewed for The Last Dance. They also explained in their email that The Last Dance wasn’t just about Michael Jordan but centered on the entire team, so referring to it as “ESPN’s Michael Jordan documentary” wasn’t totally accurate.

Noted. I will no longer refer to The Last Dance as the “Michael Jordan documentary.”

The one question I couldn’t quite shake about ESPN’s Bill Wennington documentary was how Tom Gugliotta felt about those ’90s Chicago Bulls teams. “What would Tom Gugliotta do?” I asked myself in my empty apartment as I wistfully stared out my window like I was in an above average 1997 Folgers Coffee commercial that aired during a Saturday morning Hang Time commercial break. If Tom’s career had taught me anything, it’s that he’d take a shot… and if it were a three-pointer, there’d be a 28.4% chance it’d go in.

First, I decided to try Cameo. If you’ve never cycled through NBA Cameo before, say goodbye to your afternoon. The topsy-turvy pricing structure can best be described as “I was cursed by a ’90s warlock and can now only see the world through Magic Eye puzzles.”

Ben Gordon costing 14x more than Damon Stoudamire?! Maybe if you squint at the photo long enough you’ll see the sailboat Ben Gordon bought with his Cameo cash.

Smart, topical Magic Eye humor aside, Tom Gugliotta wasn’t on Cameo, but I did find a way to contact the 16th best scorer of the 1996-97 season — finishing two spots ahead of Scottie Pippen (18th) and many spots ahead of Hakim Warrick (not yet in the NBA) — online. I found a website where you can book athletes for public speaking engagements. Even though the site’s visual aesthetic can best be described as “someone designed a website based on how Lou Bega’s ‘Mambo No. 5’ sounds,” I decided to reach out.

My Tiger King intro worked with ESPN, so much like Michael Jordan the night before Game 2 of the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals against the Knicks, I decided to double down.

Hey, all you cool cats and kittens!

On Sunday, April 19, ESPN is airing a documentary about Michael Jordan, a former basketball star who played for the Washington Wizards and Chicago Bulls. He also played baseball for a little bit. I’m writing an article about Tom Gugliotta’s involvement (or lack thereof) in the documentary, and I was hoping to get Mr. Gugliotta’s thoughts about both the film and the ’90s Chicago Bulls in general. Any contact information you have would be much appreciated.

Despite the obvious breeziness of my letter, AthleteSpeakers didn’t respond to my inquiry. If — and let’s be honest when — I become a CEO of a zeitgeist-shifting tech company, I’ll be looking elsewhere when trying to hire Jamal Mashburn, Jason Kidd, or really any member of the 94-95 Dallas Mavericks to motivate my staff about teamwork.

Also, the “$5,000-$10,000” minimum fee to hire Gugliotta to speak at a corporate event makes Ben Gordon’s Cameo demands look comparably sane.

I started this very normal quest with a question and that question was answered. Did I want to learn Tom Gugliotta’s thoughts about the ’90s Chicago Bulls? Absolutely. Am I losing my mind after weeks and weeks of self-isolation? Impossible to tell. But this venture has taught me that sometimes in life even the most perfectly executed 15-footer rims out.

Wallflowers lead singer Jakob Dylan once said “Man, I ain’t changed, but I know I ain’t the same.” Dylan, whose dad was also a performer, was singing about a busted car he wasn’t legally supposed to be driving, but the phrase can also be applied to our journey. Sometimes in life you’re the pinball machine, other times you’re the Todd MacCulloch. We may never know Tom Gugliotta’s exact thoughts on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dynasty but you know what? Perhaps that’s for the best.

Oh wait. I just googled “Tom Gugliotta on the Chicago Bulls” and apparently he was interviewed earlier this month by Twolves Digital Content Manager Kyle Ratke about this very subject.

“Yeah, (the Bulls) were the perennial powerhouse,” Googs told Ratke during the interview. “You kind of knew they had bigger fish to fry. Their goals were championships. You definitely knew when you stepped on the court with Michael Jordan, it was the one guy you just had to look at for a little while just to be like ‘Wow, there he is.’ All the stuff he’s done and the reputation he’s built, when there was a moment, say the start of the game at a jump ball, you just had to get a glance at him and just be like ‘Wow, he’s really there. He looks just like he does on the commercials.’”

Huh. I probably should have started by googling “Tom Gugliotta Bulls” instead of immediately jumping to asking Michael Jordan and bothering the president of ESPN. Chapter read, lesson learned.

I did it. Well, Kyle Ratke did it, but I found the interview which is equally impressive. Thanks for the assist, Ratke. You only need 2,139 more to tie Tom Gugliotta.

Thank you to the heroes at Basketball Reference for all the help. The first two episodes of The Last Dance air Sunday, April 19 from 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Where to stream The Last Dance