Scottie Pippen has not cooled his heated opinions about his former teammate Michael Jordan. Pippen recently appeared on the “Gimme The Hot Sauce!” podcast, which features Pippen’s former teammate Stacey King, who now broadcasts Bulls games.
Pippen was asked about the greatest player of all time, and explained that he views basketball more as a team game. After discussing a number of players, Pippen finally focused on Jordan.
“I’ve seen Michael Jordan play before I came to play with the Bulls,” Pippen said. “He was a horrible player. He was horrible to play with. He was all 1-on-1. He was shooting bad shots. And all of the sudden we become a team and we start winning.”
Michael Jordan Was A Horrible Player Though?
It is a hard sell to convince the world that Jordan was a “horrible player,” as his exploits are literally the bedrock of basketball for this generation. His name evokes athletic greatness, and players like LeBron James don the number 23 based on Jordan’s massive influence over their athletic lives.
However, his likability as a teammate is questionable, as Jordan’s super competitiveness, demanding nature and downright meanness are legendary.
Pippen has been critical of “The Last Dance” docuseries about the Chicago Bulls and their 1997–98 season, Jordan’s final season with the Chicago Bulls. The docuseries focused heavily on Michael Jordan versus the rest of the team, a significant point of contention for Pippen, who was under the impression that the documenting of the team at that time would be more universally beneficial.
Pippen Says Jordan Misused Their Vintage Footage
“I looked at it once, and I was a little disappointed. I was more disappointed at what the NBA did. I thought that they really set all this up. They really got a lot of the footage and things from the players, they volunteered thinking that this was supposed to be about the team and from what Phil Jackson expressed to the team and me, I was one of the leaders on this, to allow us to have video to follow us that season.
“We opened up a lot to the NBA to be able to deal and get into our private life and we felt that as a team or at least I did as a leader, from what it was expressed to me that it would be fruitful as a group. But it turned out that the NBA sort of turned their backs on the players and pretty much sold the video to Michael or gave it to him, but as we all know, Michael has always had a different hand inside with the league; he was always dealt with separately, differently, or however, you want to break it down.”
With the current release of “AIR,” the based-on-a-true-story film about how Michael Jordan settled with Nike for his signature shoe that has now become a full-fledged lifestyle brand of its own, the Jordan narrative is as popular as ever. Pippen suggests that Jordan is carefully curating his image through the film medium and converting the original intentions of the vintage footage to serve his purpose.
Pippen is still hot about how Michael Jordan plays both on the court and in real life.
