?Pretty Painful for Me?I Stuck It Out?: Moments After Ripping Michael Jordan, 6x NBA Champ Scottie Pippen Gets Real on ?Excruciating? Struggles

Back in the 1990s, there was one prevalent force in the NBA – the Chicago Bulls, led by the all-time great Michael Jordan. His undaunting courage and unbreakable will to compete took center stage during the Bulls’ purple patch. Playing through pain and suffering wasn’t unusual for Jordan. But basketball is a team sport, so MJ wasn’t the only star on the team who had to endure.

During a recent conversation, Bulls legend and six-time champion Scottie Pippen opened up about the struggles he had to go through during his career, especially in the 1998 NBA finals against the Utah Jazz.

Scottie Pippen opens up about his struggles during the title runs alongside Michael Jordan

Pippen came on as a guest on Stacey King’s Gimme The Hot Sauce Podcast. The cast discussed his NBA career and Pippen’s Bourbon project. When it came to the topic of Michael Jordan, the 57-year-old launched yet another scathing attack. He called his former teammate a ‘horrible’ player. Justifying his take, the seven-time All-Star believes it was the Bulls clicking as a team that hid the ugly parts of Jordan’s game.

While staying on the topic of Chicago and his run with the Bulls, the podcaster asked about his run-ins with injuries. Throughout a 17-year-long stretch in the NBA, Pippen had to go through many crippling injuries and subsequent surgeries to recover. But for him, the team always came first.

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Pippen spent half of the 1997-98 season tending to his knee, which he had recently got surgery on. He played just 44 games during the ‘Last Dance’ of the iconic Bulls team. At the peak of their powers still, the Bulls managed to make it through another NBA Finals. This is where a true hell would unleash on Scottie Pippen who had to mercilessly fight through a back injury.

Speaking about the times of pain, Pippen admitted to being “amazed” by his valiant effort.

“I was pretty amazed by. I mean it was pretty painful for me to go back and look at it. But yeah, it was excruciating pain and I don’t think If I had a chance to do it over again, I would do it. Secondly, if we had to go to a Game 7, I wouldn’t have been able to contribute. So I really sort of stuck it out in that Game 6 hoping that we were going to be able to close the series out there.”?

Pippen had to gut out his back injury during that series. In the first four games, he was averaging 20 points – being the all-around player he was revered to be. In those final two games, however, his minutes and production both dipped. The 57-year-old’s back was hindering him on the court to a great extent.

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Thankfully, Michael Jordan and the Bulls were able to close the series in Utah. It came down to the iconic ‘final shot’ that Jordan sank which gave a perfect end to a royal NBA dynasty. Pippen would continue to nurse several injuries for the remainder of his career. However, when the moment came, he almost always showed up – in pain or not.