Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen dominated 90s basketball as a duo on Chicago Bulls. They managed to win 6 championships that were split into two separate three-peats. There’s no doubt that many view them as the standard for a partnership between two players on the court, and it’s clear that their basketball abilities meshed together extremely well.
Despite their connection as Chicago Bulls’ co-stars in the past, Scottie Pippen has recently made a lot of negative comments about Michael Jordan. One of those comments had Scottie Pippen ripping Michael Jordan for being selfish.
During a recent interview on Good Morning America, Scottie Pippen clarified those comments. He admitted that Jordan was “a great scorer” but noted that a lot of Jordan’s actions were “based on him as an individual”. (1:15)
I mean he was a great scorer, but a lot of things that he did was based on him as an individual. I think basketball is a team game.
It is true that sometimes top-tier scorers can dominate the ball, but Michael Jordan’s playstyle obviously worked. Basketball is a team game, but Michael Jordan’s individual brilliance was obviously necessary for the Chicago Bulls to get to the heights that they did.
Later in the video, Scottie Pippen clarified his relationship with Michael Jordan off the court. He stated that outside of basketball, their relationship “wasn’t what you saw on the court”, though added that there would always be “that respect” for one another between the two stars.
It wasn’t what you saw on the court. We always will have that respect from each other, but our friendship is not where people see it on TV think it is.
While their relationship obviously wasn’t the best outside of basketball, we’ve seen co-stars that didn’t like one another succeed at other times in NBA history. There’s no doubt that if everyone is on the same page on the basketball court, the off-court stuff matters a little less.
It remains to be seen if Michael Jordan will respond to the various comments made by Scottie Pippen in recent memory. While it’s clear that Michael Jordan was the better player, he always praised Scottie Pippen and appreciated playing with him. Neither of them won without the other, so hopefully, they can put this behind them in the future.
