The Michael Jordan/Scottie Pippen partnership is widely recognized as one of the greatest in sports history. As two superstars in the prime of their careers, they absolutely dominated basketball for the better part of a decade, making history as they achieved great success.
But according to Pippen, in a recent chat with GQ, he and Michael never really developed an off-the-court relationship, a rather unusual thing for co-stars as successful as they were.
Pippen: Michael was bigger than the game, you know. Even my initial arrival to Chicago he was a big, iconic figure for the NBA (Pippen was drafted three years after Jordan). So, we never really had that off the court relationship.
Although, he did clarify that they had a pretty good dynamic as teammates:
Our relationship between the lines was impeccable. We pushed each other to be great. We trained with each other to be the best. So, everything we did, from a basketball standpoint, it was a high level of respect there that we knew we could be the best. We could be dominant. We had went through pretty much the Vietnam War to get where we got to. We were battle tested.
Michael Jordan achieved unprecedented fame during his NBA career. Even before his peak, the guy was world-famous and already regarded as a legend.
That was never really the case for Pippen, who spent his entire career living in his teammates’ shadow.
After “The Last Dance” documentary aired, Pippen did express frustration with how he was portrayed, which might have been a hint at some friction between him and MJ.
Whatever the case, nothing can take away what they did together on the court and no matter how close he is (or isn’t) with some people from his past, Pippen has been immortalized in the NBA history books.
