Rockets Daryl Morey prefers jumping off balcony over The Last Dance

Although the rest of the basketball world is watching the ESPN docu-series The Last Dance, you can count Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey out.

To say we’ve all been tuned in to each week of ESPN’s docu-series The Last Dance would be an understatement. We’ve even been glued to the trailers of the following week’s episodes, to get a glimpse of yet another reason why we should devote two additional hours of our time to this featured film, as if we weren’t going to be watching anyways. For Houston Rockets fans, there have been plenty of ties to the film, such as the Rockets era of Scottie Pippen and the false belief around basketball circles that the Rockets’ titles wouldn’t have been won if it weren’t for MJ’s unexpected retirement in 1993.

But for as much as we’ve been addicted to the film, there are those who don’t feel the same excitement. Case in point Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey, who explained on ESPN LA’s Mason and Ireland Show that he’s not been watching the 10-part docu-series, which may seem hard to believe. Morey offered the following response when asked if he’s been tuning in.

“I am not. If I’m on a balcony, I’d might rather jump off. Cause I grew up in Cleveland so I do not want to watch Craig Ehlo get burned again. I’ve got no interest in re-living my childhood of my wonderful teen-based Cleveland team getting beat by Michael Jordan.”

Morey has an interesting perspective as a Cleveland native, and with him being a Cavs fan it’s easy to understand why he’d feel this way. From the 1987-88 season through the 1993-94 season, the Cavs made the playoffs six times and were eliminated by the Bulls five times.

This includes the Cavs getting beat in the Eastern Conference Finals in 1992, and getting swept in their postseason series’ of 1993 and 1994. This also includes the 1988-89 series Morey referenced in which Jordan ended the Cavs season on a buzzer-beating shot he hit in Game 5 over Craig Ehlo.

This shot was highlighted in episode three of The Last Dance, as Jordan explained why Ron Harper would have been the better defender against him than Ehlo. This series represented a major upset, as the Cavs had the third seed while Jordan’s Bulls had the sixth seed and came out victorious.

Morey was 16-years-old when this happened, and was 15 at the onset of the first heartbreak the Cavs suffered at the expense of Jordan’s Bulls in the 1987-88 season. This lasted until Morey was 21, which is when the Cavs’ 1993-94 season ended in a first-round sweep.

In this same interview, Morey selected LeBron James as the better “human to play basketball” between Jordan and LeBron, which is interesting considering the heartbreak he witnessed first-hand at the hands of Jordan. If nothing else, at least we know not to expect Morey to be tuned in to the next two weeks worth of episodes.