Jerry Seinfeld Explains His Awkward Exchange With Phil Jackson in ‘The Last Dance’ Doc (Video)

“Hey Phil”

ESPN’s “The Last Dance” has treated Michael Jordan fans to hours of behind-the-scenes footage from the Chicago Bulls 1997-1998 season — Jordan’s last with the team. Among the docuseries’ most memorable moments — so far — is a cringeworthy locker room exchange between a noticeably nervous Jerry Seinfeld and then-Bulls coach Phil Jackson.

Seinfeld told Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday that he hasn’t watched “The Last Dance” yet, but even he has heard about the moment where he’s laughing with Jordan and the team, and when Jackson walks into the room and says “Let’s go guys,” Seinfeld nervously says “Hey Phil,” and quickly moves to leave.

“I’m the last person to log on to that but I will get to it, I know, I will get to it,” Seinfeld told Kimmel via a video interview on Tuesday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” quarantine edition. “I haven’t seen it yet, but I heard about this part, but I don’t know what it is.”

Jimmy then rolls the clip, just so Jerry can see his awkward exchange with Phil and attempt to book it from the locker room as fast as possible — but not before making a quick joke about the play board.

“Were you scared of Phil Jackson?” Kimmel asks Seinfeld. “No, just too tall,” the 5’11 comedian says of the 6’8 former Bulls coach.

“You know, it’s funny because Phil Jackson is an intimidating guy, especially when you feel like you’re interrupting some kind of preparation,” Kimmel says. And I was wondering because you did seem a little confused there in the locker room.

“Yeah, well that’s not a place I would normally be,” Seinfeld explained. “But I think I had another conversation with him, ’cause that was his last season and I was in the middle of my last season [of ‘Seinfeld’]. And I remember teasing him about, who do you think is gonna end bigger — him or me?”

Watch the full interview above. The Phil Jackson stuff starts around the 1:35-mark.

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