Lately, Scottie Pippen has gotten back in the news cycle for a really stupid reason. He has been bad-mouthing one of or THE G.O.A.T Michael Jordan, stating that MJ was not a great player and while he didn't directly say it, he was suggesting that the true star of the iconic 90's Bulls was actually Pippen, not Jordan although you would be really hard-pressed to find anyone that actually thinks that is true.
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What prompted Pippen to start talking like this is anyone's guess. Maybe he has a new book coming out and needs some quick publicity. There isn't anything like that happening as far as I am aware so I can't understand Pippen's motivations here, but let's just say that the internet was not very kind to Scottie after he did this.
There are some out there that think that Scottie has been "sore" since the epic documentary The Last Dance was released and has been taking pot shots at Jordan ever since. By the way if you are a basketball fan and haven't seen that documentary you really should go and see it as it is one of the best sports docos that I have ever seen.
Pippen earlier has cast shade on Jordan stating that MJ was "only in it for himself" and wasn't trying to win games. He was trying to get as many points for Jordan, not the Bulls, as he possibly could. In the past Pippen has stated or eluded to this idea that if it hadn't been for Phil Jackson sorting Jordan out, that the Bulls never would have been a championship team because Michael Jordan was never a team player on his own accord.
I think that if you are to look at the history of the NBA, and at Jordan and the bulls during their dynasty period. you could very easily make the claim that without Jordan, those titles and the Bull's dominance wouldn't have happened. Take Scottie out of the equation and they still could have been a championship with scores of other players, but there is no one to replace MJ.
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Image included because I do not recall Jordan ever wearing 45
Pippen is also still sore, no doubt, about the fact that when the Bulls were on everyone's lips Pippen actually had a terrible contract and was making dramatically less money than Jordan, as well as most of the rest of the Bulls' lineup. This has everything to do with Pippen and his agent being idiots as far as contract negotiations were concerned, and nothing at all to do with his own talent on the court. Had he not locked himself into a long-term, terrible contract, he certainly could have made a lot more money than he did during his career. I suppose that is a good reason to be butthurt, but it isn't Jordan's fault that this happened. Honestly, I think we can pretty safely say that there would be a very good chance that almost no one would remember Scottie Pippen had he not be on the team with Michael Jordan.
Something else has come to the forefront because of all of this whining on the part of Pippen though and I think that he would rather this have been kept in the dark. As it turns out Michael Jordan's son is dating Pippen's ex wife and that can't feel very good.
Michael Jordan himself is yet to comment at all about any of this and I'd be very surprised if he did. He, just like Pippen, stands to gain nothing by getting in a war of words here and he certainly doesn't need to do any self-promotion. I can't see this ending well for Pippen though.