Scottie Pippen has been doing a lot of press appearances and interviews lately to promote his new memoir. In these appearances, much of the focus has been on Pippen’s opinion on Jordan, after an excerpt from the memoir was publically released, and carried many incendiary comments about Jordan.
Pippen claimed that Jordan used him and his other teammates for ‘The Last Dance’ docuseries, and made them look bad while making himself look great. Clearly, Pippen was unhappy with the way he was presented during the docuseries that came out in the early part of 2020.
On top of that, he accused Michael of being patronizing toward him, when Jordan called him his best teammate ever. Scottie’s main gripe with Jordan is the fact that he didn’t treat Pippen with the amount of respect he should, given how much they accomplished together.
But it’s hard to see where he gets that idea. Jordan has been nothing but complimentary towards Pippen on numerous occasions and spoken highly of him each chance he gets.
And now, Pippen may have just said the most outrageous thing in his press tour yet. During an interview with GQ, Pippen said that he wanted people to know that he was just as good a player as Michael Jordan and that only one player could take home the Finals MVP trophies in the championship series they won.
"I was as great a player as Michael Jordan." @ScottiePippen
Watch his LIVE interview with GQ's @TylerRickyTynes now: https://t.co/DTZrkzY4zx pic.twitter.com/IPsd5eqt7z
— GQ Sports (@GQSports) November 8, 2021
“I just want to let people know and set the record straight that I was just as great a player as Michael Jordan. Only one player can take home the MVP and that’s that.”
It seems rather than shying away from the backlash his comments against MJ have garnered, Pippen is doubling down. Recently, he even suggested that his performance in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals with a herniated disc was better than Michael Jordan’s flu game in the previous year’s Finals.
Most people have pointed out that Pippen’s comments could just be a ploy to generate controversy and interest for his new memoir. But even then, these comments will help the book short term, but hurt Pippen’s legacy and relationship with MJ and the other Bulls in the long run.
