Over the past few weeks, Bulls legend Scottie Pippen has really gone out of his way to illustrate his frustrations with his former teammate, Michael Jordan.
In fact, from the feelings that Pippen has recently revealed, it seems like he’s never had a fondness for Jordan or the mega-star spotlight he carried around throughout his career and even into retirement.
In one excerpt from his book ‘Unguardable,’ Scottie asserts that he was a much better teammate than Jordan ever was, apparently due to the way MJ always brought others down.
Well, as it turns out, not everyone feels the same way. In a recent interview with Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald, 3x Bulls Champion Scott Williams (who played with MJ and Scottie during their first three-peat) offered his own perspective on things, revealing one key difference between his former teammates.
“I text Jordan and he always responds,” Williams said. “I know he’s on the golf course or doing his business with his car or the Hornets. That I can appreciate. Like, ‘Hey, I see you’re going to be on Good Morning America to pump up The Last Dance. Are you up? You ready?’ Little stuff like that. He’s like, ‘Yeah, my brother, I’m up. I’m ready to go.’ Little things like that mean a lot. I know plenty of times I’ve texted Pip and it’s been radio silence. Or Amare Stoudemire, ‘Hey, happy birthday, Stat,’ and then crickets. So you tell me who’s been the better teammate over the years?”
So, it’s pretty clear that Williams considers Jordan to be a better teammate, if for nothing else than because he always takes the time to respond. Not hard to blame him for thinking that way.
Still, it hasn’t been easy for him to watch this beef play out.
“I’ve seen some of the excerpts and I’m a little saddened by it, to tell you quite honestly,” William said in a phone interview. “I have such fond memories and I hung out a lot with Scottie and I like Scottie. I’ve never said a bad thing about him. But I just never saw any of that disappointment or hatred or animosity while I was a teammate of his.”
“As a teammate and loving all my teammates from those years, I don’t want to say it’s painful, but it just makes me sad.”
In the 90s, there were no outward signs that Pippen had issues with MJ, and (judging by Williams’ testimony) there weren’t any internal signs either.
Whatever happened to prompt Pippen’s attack on No. 23, it has really taken everyone by surprise.
At this point, nobody is really sure what to think about this whole situation anymore, but it certainly says a lot that folks who played on those Bulls teams are coming to Michael’s defense.
