Scottie Pippen is convinced he was the most important player on the Chicago Bulls during their two three-peats in the 90s. Pippen was the Robin to Michael Jordan’s Batman, helping the squad win six championships from 1991 through 1998.
They looked like the perfect duo on and off the court. However, Pippen recently started attacking Jordan, calling him a bad teammate, saying he was selfish for retiring right before training camp in 1993, and claiming he wouldn’t have made it to the Finals without Scottie by his side.
In his recently published book ‘Unguardable,’ Pippen takes some shots at MJ, calling him a bad teammate, claiming he was a much better one than Jordan. In fact, Scottie said the Bulls won despite having Jordan on the roster, not because they have him on the court.
“In the doc, Michael attempted to justify the occasions in which he berated a teammate in front of the group. He felt these guys needed to develop the toughest to get past the the NBA’s more physical teams. Seeing again how poorly Michael treated his teammates, I cringed, as I did back then.
“Michael was wrong. We didn’t win six championships because he got on guys. We won in spite of his getting on guys. We won because we played team basketball, which hadn’t been the case my first two seasons, when Doug Collins was our coach. That’s what was special about playing for the Bulls: the camaraderie we established with one another, not that we felt blessed to be on the same team with the immortal Michael Jordan.
“I was a much better teammate that Michael ever was. Ask anyone who played with the two of us. I was always there with a pat on the back or an encouraging word, especially after he put someone down for one reason or another. I helped the others to believe in and stop doubting themselves.”
This book contains many controversial statements, including Pippen calling LeBron James the GOAT or saying that Jordan ruined basketball because he didn’t want to pass, rebound or guard the biggest threat on the opposite team.
It’s curious to see how what looked like a great friendship turned out to be this. We don’t know if Scottie is doing this to get money or if this is how he felt during all these years and was tired of keeping it to himself.
He once claimed Michael Jordan carried him for 11 seasons while praising his flu game, but now he’s downplaying that, acting like it wasn’t a big deal. NBA fans don’t like what he’s doing, but there’s nothing they can do to change Scottie’s mind and future plans.
