It’s hard being Scotty Pippen Jr.
The young professional basketball player has to deal with the pressure of being the son of an NBA legend with multiple championships. He also has to contend with his mother getting her groove back publicly with the son of his father’s most famous teammate and basketball icon, Michael Jordan.
Then lousy news hits before the season begins: Scotty Jr. was cut from the Los Angeles Lakers. On Tuesday, the Lakers announced they were trimming down their roster, and the team waived guards Scotty Pippen Jr., Damion Baugh, and forward Vincent Valerio-Bodon. After going undrafted in 2022, Scotty Jr. was playing on a two-way contract with the Lakers after spending much of last season with the team’s G League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers.
Although he only played six games during the 2022-2023 regular season, during his time in the G League, he averaged 21.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, 5.6 assists, and 1.6 steals, earning a selection to the G League’s inaugural Next Up Game.
It Is What It Is
However, is having Scotty Jr. a potential team distraction, given the tension between his mother, Larsa Pippen, and his father, Scottie Pippen, over her relationship with Marcus Jordan, the son of Michael Jordan?
Rapper Cam’ron laid out the potential for conflict in a recent episode of the podcast “It Is What It Is.”
“It’s his mother, ain’t nothing to do with Scotty,” the rapper speculated to his co-host, fellow rapper Mase. “They [Lakers] don’t need that to mess up the game. Jeanie Buss and them don’t got time for that nonsense.”
Cam presented another potential scenario where the high-level friendships between legendary players and the Lakers’ ownership may have affected Scotty Jr.’s security on the Lakers.
Two Calls
“It only takes one call,” Cam’ron continued. “Michael Jordan calls Magic Johnson, Magic Johnson calls Jeanie Buss, shut it down. Two calls, that’s all it takes.”
“Listen, you’re costing your son a job with this public s**t,” Cam’ron said about Larsa Pippen’s relationship with Marcus Jordan. “Keep the s**t under wraps.
Pippen appeared in two preseason games this year, posting small numbers: 4.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.5 steals in 15.7 minutes of action. His performance in the big leagues has been paltry, and the drama within his family looms more prominent than his career potential. If the potential for two warring parents courtside to support him factored in the Lakers’ decision to waive him, it is one of the weirdest examples of social media and pop culture gone wrong.
