Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen might well be the greatest NBA duo of all time, but the two Hall of Famers haven’t been on the best of terms in recent years. Pippen has fired a lot of shots at Jordan, and his interview at the recent Chicago Got Sole festival caught the eye.
Pippen was asked what he thinks is the greatest sneaker of all time and chose the red-and-black Nike Air Pippen 1. The 60-year-old then revealed he doesn’t only wear his own sneakers, which inevitably led to him being asked if he wore Jordans as well. Pippen shared that he does, but he prefers the Nike Air Force 1.
Jonathan DiModica: “What’s your favorite pair of Mike’s?”
Scottie Pippen: “I don’t really have a favorite pair.”
DiModica: “You don’t? Favorite retro? Like a 1 or a 4?”
Pippen: “No, I, no.”
DiModica: “And none that you think are the greatest. Not like, ‘Oh, this is the best one?'”
Pippen: “No, I’m more of an Air Force 1 guy now.”
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That sure was a little bit awkward. Pippen was also asked earlier in the interview with Got Sole if Jordan is the GOAT. He believes multiple players deserve that title and that his former teammate is one of them. Pippen thinks there can’t be one GOAT because basketball is a team game. That’s an interesting take.
Now, Pippen has called Jordan the GOAT in the past, but has changed his mind since. If we look at the positives, though, Pippen at least isn’t calling Jordan a horrible player anymore. It’s a shame that two men who had so much success together, winning six titles on the Chicago Bulls, are no longer on talking terms. It doesn’t look like this relationship, which soured after The Last Dance came out, will ever recover.
While Pippen has issues with Jordan, all is well between him and another iconic member of those Bulls teams, Dennis Rodman. Rodman had previously claimed on Got Sole that rapper Travis Scott had copied his sneaker design.
Scott showed off the backwards swoosh on his shoes in his 2019 collaboration with Nike. Rodman said his Nike Air Darwin, which debuted in 1993, was the first to have it. Those comments were brought up in this interview, and Pippen agreed with his former teammate.
“Yeah, he’s right,” Pippen said.
Pippen says that is Rodman’s design. Staying on the topic of sneakers, there has been a lot of talk about Nike lately. The stock isn’t doing too well, and Pippen was asked here what he’d do to bring it back up.
“I don’t know, just keep waiting on [Victor Wembanyama] to develop,” Pippen said.
San Antonio Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama doesn’t have a signature shoe with Nike just yet. Wembanyama is also reportedly going to be a sneaker free agent in October, so he might not be with Nike for much longer. It will be interesting to see how this pans out.
Getting back to Pippen, he raised eyebrows recently when he made a public appearance with a 23-year-old woman, who is allegedly his girlfriend. He is, of course, 60, as mentioned earlier, and that is quite an age gap. Pippen hasn’t confirmed whether they’re dating, though, so this is all speculation at this point.
