There are plenty of stories about Scottie Pippen and his great relationship with Michael Jordan. They created one of the best duos in NBA history, leading the Chicago Bulls to win six titles in the 90s.
Although they had rocky moments in their friendship, Pippen and Jordan always stood up for each other. Yet, that doesn’t mean they didn’t tease or trick one another. In fact, MJ pulled off one of the biggest jokes on Scottie when he tricked him into betting on jumbotron races.
It’s well known that Jordan was an avid bettor and always tried to get people to bet with him on everything. Well, Pippen was one of those. In 2016, ESPN’s Amin Elhassan told the story of when Jordan made Pippen lose hundreds of dollars with prerecorded jumbotron races.
Via CBS Sports:
According to ESPN’s Amin Elhassan, Jordan one day found out that the animated bull races the Bulls showed on their Jumbotron were prerecorded. So he started asking the Bulls’ operations staff before each game, which color bull would win the race that night. They would tell him and then Jordan would use this information to trick his teammate Scottie Pippen into a bet.
So whenever the Jumbotron race would occur during a timeout, Jordan would bet Pippen a hundred dollars that he could name the winner. Unaware that Jordan had insider information on the race, Pippen would agree to the bet and then instantly lose. According to Elhassan, Jordan did this for basically an entire season and Pippen just kept agreeing, losing a hundred dollars to his teammate at every home game.
This is a big joke from Jordan. His Airness was an all-time troll, and this is a big proof of that. Unfortunately, the underpaid Pippen was the victim of this one, but none of that matters when you win so much alongside No. 23.
