Behind the scenes of Luc Longley’s Chicago homecoming
As Luc Longley and the 1996 Bulls were honoured in Chicago, Sam Tolhurst was there to capture the moment and share it with the world.
It was a typically cold evening in Chicago, but there was nothing ordinary about the hulking figure wandering down a quiet alleyway in the heart of the city. A pair of locals were hard at work, edging their way down the lane as they changed the baits in rat traps, but they were quickly distracted by the seven-foot-two behemoth ahead of them. He looked familiar, they agreed, but they couldn’t quite place the bearded, bespectacled face, or the mop of red hair, until they were quietly told that it was Luc Longley.
Yes, that Luc Longley. Luc Longley, one of Australia’s greatest basketball exports, and the first Australian to play in the NBA. Luc Longley, the long-time enforcer for the likes of basketball icons Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Luc Longley, the three-time NBA champion. Luc Longley: Chicago Bulls legend.
That certainly jogged their memories, and took one of the pair back to a very specific time in his life. He approached Longley and excitedly told the former Bulls centre that he had a story for him. “When I was young, I used to roll these joints – if it was a single paper it was a normal joint, but I’d roll three papers together and I’d call my joints Luc Longley!”
As Sam Tolhurst puts it: in Chicago, “it’s a different sort of love”.
Credit: Sam Tolhurst
Tolhurst was there with Longley, capturing every moment of the basketball icon’s return to Chicago for the first time in more than a decade.
In January, the Bulls inducted their 1996 title-winning team into the franchise’s Ring of Honour; Longley was in town for the celebrations, with Tolhurst leading a small team in making a mini-documentary for the occasion. That particular anecdote didn’t make the final cut, for obvious reasons, but it was a favourite of Longley’s that he promised to tell his kids about once he landed back in Australia.
“I love the town - it’s just authentic and real, and you know, that appeals to me.”
Luc Longley
via Luc Longley: A Love Letter to Chicago
The documentary, titled ‘Luc Longley: A Love Letter to Chicago’, was a unique experience for Tolhurst, as was its recent premiere at NBA All-Star Weekend as part of the NBA’s Films for Fans series. It was far from his first time working with Longley, though, or seeing the gravitational pull that the big man could have when out in public. Having spent the last three years working with Total Sport & Entertainment (TSE), who represent Longley, and the Sydney Kings, where Longley has been a special advisor, Tolhurst had spent some time with the basketball legend and slowly built a relationship.
An introductory fist bump at their first time of meeting quickly set the tone. “Just seeing the sheer size of his fist compared to mine, that was my first impression of Luc,” Tolhurst laughed. “He has this energy where you want to listen to what he has to say… he commands respect with great spirit, I would say.”
It was on a road trip with the team to Tasmania that Tolhurst was first really exposed to Longley’s celebrity status, and to the challenges of fame for a man that can never hide away. “I saw him get stopped maybe five times on the one journey and just thought, wow, I’m not built for that,” Tolhurst remembers. “Getting stopped on the way to the airport, outside the hotel, waiting to get in the van, at the airport, getting on the flight, landing in Sydney, getting stopped for photos, and he always gives his time.”
Moments like that have become more and more common for Longley over the last three years. A two-part feature on his life and career aired on the ABC’s Australian Story, ending a long stretch spent largely out of the spotlight; his Bulls playing jersey was rereleased by Mitchell & Ness last year to much fanfare; and this year, he is embarking on the No Bull Tour, speaking alongside former teammates Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant.
Listen to our interview with Luc Longley on Unwrapped: The Pick and Roll Podcast
As much as he still likes to keep to himself and spend his time at home in country Western Australia, his profile and celebrity in Australia has climbed once again.
As Tolhurst says, though, it’s a different kind of love in Chicago. That’s something that both he and Longley weren’t quite prepared for when they landed in the Windy City, Longley for the first time in more than a decade. “It’s hard to comprehend how much impact that team has had on their city until you’re there and you see it,” Tolhurst said. “Walking around on the streets and seeing him stopped by everyone for photos, we loved the way that he’s loved in Chicago. I don’t think he anticipated it.”
Image from Luc Longley: A Love Letter to Chicago
In Australia, celebrities often fall victim to “tall poppy syndrome” – they’re celebrated for their achievements, but never for too long or with too much compassion. In Chicago, Longley was never just stopped for a quick photo or a passing acknowledgement. Everyone had an anecdote, a story, a memory of those Bulls teams. From standing by the side of the road at a championship parade, to clear recollections of where they were when Luc had a big game, and even to the kid rolling Luc Longleys in his bedroom.
“Their identity is really tied to the success of the team that they root for,” Tolhurst explained. “The way that they show love is very different to the way that Australians show love, I want to say… it’s like a deeper love.”
“If ever I’m feeling down on myself, having a really bad patch, I’m just going to come back to Chicago and walk into a random sports bar, sit down and try to buy a beer, because you can’t.”
Luc Longley
via Luc Longley: A Love Letter to Chicago
That much was clear when they filmed at Mr. Beef, a long-time staple of the local food scene that has become a pop culture sensation in recent years. The restaurant features heavily in acclaimed TV series The Bear, but for Mr. Beef’s manager, the presence of Jeremy Allen White and his fellow Hollywood stars paled in comparison to a visit from a shaggy-haired man from Fremantle.
“People think that The Bear would be the highlight, but he was like ‘nah man, I just served Luc Longley, that’s the highlight of my life’,” Tolhurst said. Maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise – the huge Bulls tattoo on his forearm is a dead giveaway, and in his teenage years, he camped out overnight in Grand Park waiting for one of many NBA title celebrations to kick off.
Image from Luc Longley: A Love Letter to Chicago
“This is like the biggest restaurant in Chicago at the moment, and someone even bigger was in there – I guess that put it all into perspective for me,” Tolhurst said.
The biggest moment of all, though, came back at the scene of Longley’s greatest basketball triumphs. It was a packed house at the United Center for the Ring of Honour ceremony, with a crowd eager to see and celebrate one of the greatest teams in sports history. The players weren’t introduced individually, but a spotlight panned over them one by one; when it hit Longley, the classic chant of “LUUUC” broke out in the stands, and by Tolhurst’s judgement, only legendary coach Phil Jackson received a louder ovation.
For any basketball fan with a beating heart in their chest, being in the stadium and hearing that roar would be something to soak in and savour. For Tolhurst, it was a very different experience, with a camera in his hand and a job to do.
“You can’t be a fan in that moment, you can be a fan later,” he said. “In the moment it’s for Luc to experience, and I just have to be there to capture that.” It wasn’t until days later, when he sat down to cut and edit the footage, that he saw a few tears rolling down Longley’s face and felt the full emotional weight of the moment.
Image from Luc Longley: A Love Letter to Chicago
By now, Tolhurst has had plenty of experience capturing the big moments, with Sydney Kings championships, NBA games and more on his resume. Still, every project is a unique challenge, and finding the best way to capture and share Longley’s return to Chicago was no exception. “Everyone knows The Last Dance, everyone knows the way that the ball bounced essentially, that’s written in history and everyone wants to tell that story,” Tolhurst said.
“Our thing was like, how do we access these icons and tell the story differently, how do we bring a new angle to a story that’s so well known?”
Credit: Sam Tolhurst
The answer that Tolhurst settled on, along with Assistant Camera/Assembly Editor Max McRae and Producer Zack Brust, was to drill down even further into Luc’s personal experience and his connection with the city of Chicago. That meant speaking with a wide range of characters that were there in the ‘90s – from Longley’s former security guard, who went on to collect plenty of stories while working for Dennis Rodman and Pearl Jam, to the old Bulls trainer that bought the Australian a sandwich on his first day with the team, to five-time championship-winning player turned four-time title-winning coach, Steve Kerr.
Ordinarily, a project like that with so many moving parts would take months to plan, organise, and execute. Luckily, they had a cheat code in the form of Longley – Zack would only have to mention the big man’s name, and everything would fall into place. “He just dropped that we were bringing Luc Longley and it’s a project where we’re working with the ‘96 Bulls, and they would validate that that was what was happening and then be like ‘whatever you want!’,” Tolhurst said.
Image from Luc Longley: A Love Letter to Chicago
In the case of Kerr, it was Longley himself that called in a favour and made their interview happen. Tolhurst says that NBA staff were incredulous when they found out that he had managed to get 15 minutes with the Golden State coach, whose team is currently in a dogfight for a spot in the playoffs. “That sort of ties the little bow on the whole project… I don’t really think that we can take too much credit for it, that was all Luc,” Tolhurst said.
“I think what defines Luc is, he’s lighthearted and he’s friendly, and you can always kind of have a good time and BS with Luc, but he’s also going to go deep.”
Steve Kerr
via Luc Longley: A Love Letter to Chicago
With so many personal stories and memories filmed, but less than eight minutes of screen time to work with, a lot of fun material has been left on the cutting room floor. Tolhurst fondly recalls some of those moments, but he was forced to be brutal in culling them from the final product. The project was initially planned to be double that length, but when the chance to air at NBA All-Star Weekend was presented, they were given a week to turn around a shorter edit in order to make the cut.
“Even though I was there and experienced it and it was meaningful to me, if it doesn’t translate on screen then the priority should always be creating the best possible product,” Tolhurst explains. “If that means you have to kill your babies, then you’ve gotta kill your babies.”
Credit: Sam Tolhurst
Making this project was a full circle moment for Tolhurst, in more ways than one. He shot his first NBA game at the United Center, and then four years later found himself back there capturing one of the greatest teams in basketball history. His relationship with Longley has come a long way too – he says he was wary of asking Longley about the Bulls in his early days working with Sydney, but now, he’s been tasked with telling the story to millions of people across the world.
“I’ve been really fortunate to have so many career highlights that mean so much to me,” he reflects, “but in terms of basketball bucket list jobs, I think this has to be at the top by far.”
For Longley, the circle was a little bit wider, but he’d still come all the way around and rediscovered his second home in Chicago. “I haven’t really arrived before at, this is my American home - this is where my kids were born, and the people here are so great to me, to us from this team,” he says in the documentary.
“I guess it’s fun to get back to America after a decade and feel like I’ve got a home.”
Listen to our chat with Luc Longley on Unwrapped: The Pick and Roll Podcast
Luc Longley: A Love Letter to Chicago will be available via NBA platforms soon
Read about how Sam Tolhurst made his way to NBA courtside photography
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