Draymond Green is not a fan of how Michael Jordan felt and acted when Scottie Pippen underwent surgery to rest out during the Chicago Bulls 1998/99 season. ‘The Last Dance’ documentary aired on Sunday and the second episode of the docuseries focused mainly on Pippen and the 7-year, $18 million deal he signed with the Bulls in 1991.
As the years went by, Pippen felt the Bulls, especially the GM Jerry Krause, weren’t paying him what his value suggested, which led to rifts between the player and the executives. Moreover, Jordan also expressed how he felt with all the situation, claiming he believed Pippen was being selfish for not getting surgery on his foot during the offseason, only to have a reason to sit out well into the season.
Green chatted with Uninterrupted’s “WRTS: The After Party” recently, revealing he was ‘disappointed’ in MJ, as he believed he had to back up his teammate instead of throw shade at him.
“Me as a teammate, if Scottie Pippen does that, I’m not going to be mad at Pip,” Green said. “Because I understand what you’re doing, and at the end of the day, I’m rolling with you. Because when it all boils down to it, clearly that (Bulls) organization showed they’re going to take care of themselves. They’re not going to take care of (the players).”
“And so I was kind of a little disappointed when Mike, still to this day, is like ‘Scottie was wrong.’ Like, no. You roll with your dogs, because they ride with you,” Green argued. “(Jordan’s) making $36 million, and (Pippen’s) making $2 (million), yet you’re saying when you mention (Michael Jordan’s) name there’s no way you can not mention Scottie Pippen’s name? And he’s just supposed to sit there? That don’t make sense. It’s very easy to say, like, ‘no, you should be good’ (when) your house is huge, you got $36 million coming in, and this man got $2 (million). That’s crazy.”
That was complex situation and Pippen explained why he decided to sign that contract, choosing security instead of gambling on him during the early years of his career. Jerry Reinsdorf, the Bulls owner, said he warned Scottie about that contract but the forward agreed to it.
MJ was different, he had a different mentality than everybody around him. Draymond has reasons to disagree with the way His Airness acted, but we saw how he pushed through an injury that could end his career only to take the Bulls to the playoffs in his second season.
