One of Australia's most successful sportsmen only ever received one compliment from basketball's greatest-ever player, Michael Jordan.
Luc Longley, the 2.18m centre from Perth, Western Australia, who played in the all-conquering Chicago Bulls team during the mid-1990s, was 'dominating' against the Utah Jazz in 1998 when Jordan gave him some words of encouragement.
The American sporting legend was known as an ultra-fierce competitor and used tough love tactics to whip his teammates in shape and get them up for game day.
But on this occasion Longley had 12 points, four blocks and four rebounds and the Bulls were up by 16 against the Jazz at quarter-time, so Jordan decided to show his more sensitive side.
'So I go up to Luke and say "that's how you f**king play man, if you do that we dominate",' Jordan told ABC's Australian Story.
But it would be the last compliment he would ever get from the basketball icon.
Australian Luc Longley won three NBA championships alongside Michael Jordan while playing for the Chicago Bulls between 1996 and 1998
'At the end of the game Luke still had 12 points, four blocks and four rebounds,' Jordan said.
'We were winning by 16 and we lost by 15.
'I looked at Luke and I said that's the last time I'm ever going to give you a compliment.'
The two constantly clashed throughout their careers with the laid-back Aussie often the target of Jordan's competitive rage.
Longley, who is the brother-in-law of British comedian and writer Ben Elton, admitted that he never really took basketball too seriously as a youngster but made a drastic move after his parent's divorce that would see his career flourish.
He took off from Perth and relocated to Canberra after securing a scholarship for basketball at the Australian Institute of Sport.
His live at home as a teen had become chaotic with his mother Sue Hansen, and architect dad Richard, struggling to come to terms with the end of their relationship.
'I never took basketball too seriously but it provided me with a family when mine was broken down and I think that become my loving focus, that's what I poured myself into,' Longley said.
Longley (pictured, left) playing for the Chicago Bulls during game one of the 1998 NBA Finals
Luc Longley is introduced before a Chicago Bulls game against the Utah Jazz in 1998 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, when Jordan gave him the since-regretted compliment
The legendary Chicago Bulls team has recently been thrust back into the spotlight after the smash hit Netflix documentary series The Last Dance was released last year.
Longley admitted he felt 'bummed' to be left out of the doco which centres on the brilliant career of Michael Jordan and his effect on the Bulls and the sport.
Australian fans expecting an insight into Jordan's relationship with Longley, a key member of the Bulls' championship-winning teams of 1996, 1997 and 1998, were left sorely disappointed.
'Sitting there on the couch and watching episode after episode where I wasn't in it — yeah, I was bummed about that,' Longley said in tonight's Australian Story episode.
'Why was I not in the doco? I don't really know, to be honest,' Longley said.
Other than some glimpses of Longley on court and in dressing rooms he was otherwise missing from the doco, while other team members were extensively interviewed.
'I would like
