On-court camaraderie often does not travel outside the lines. Such was the case with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. In The Last Dance series, Jordan called Pippen his “best teammate.” But after the launch of the series, the 7x NBA All-Star described MJ as “condescending.” Pippen wasn’t impressed with how he was portrayed. Over the years, Pippen has given several labels to his former teammate. After calling the 6x NBA champion a “horrible” player to play with, Pippen now has a new title for the legend, but this one has an interesting twist.

It’s the honor of “favorite” teammate that Pippen has bestowed upon MJ after years of criticizing the legend. When asked by the host about his favorite and best teammate, he said, “Can I give them both to Michael? I mean I can’t knock him and say he was a bad teammate. I can’t knock him and say he wasn’t my favorite I mean we had a lot of success so I would say he probably fit both of those categories,” Pippen claimed.

Undeniably, their partnership was one of the best witnessed in the league. In fact, there were instances from their Chicago Bulls era when the two depended on each other. And although there were fights even at that time, they knew they had each other’s back. However, that did not last very long. The answer to the question came as a shock to even the host as he looked at Pippen surprised for calling Michael Jordan his favorite and best teammate. But there were more favorites on the team for Pippen.

He added how Horace Grant is his second and was his first favorite teammate at first.  “I would probably say Horace was probably my favorite at first because we got drafted together. We went to the Bulls together we won our first three Championships together but he ended up leaving so the bond with Michael became better and just on the court really not off the court,” he added.

Surprisingly, he didn’t hold the same opinion a year ago. During his appearance on Stacey King’s podcast Gimme the Hot Sauce, Pippen opened up about his experience playing with Jordan. “I’ve seen Michael Jordan play before I came to the Bulls. You guys have seen him play … He was horrible to play with. It was all 1-on-1, shooting bad shots. All of a sudden, we become a team and we start winning. Everybody forgot who he was. He was a player who was really not at the top of his category. It was scoring,” he said.

The two formed a team along with key players like Horace Grant, Toni Kukoc, John Paxson, Steve Kerr, Dennis Rodman, Bill Cartwright, Ron Harper, B.J. Armstrong, Luc Longley, and more, who led the Bulls to championships. He further touched upon the famous debate of Michael Jordan versus LeBron James.

His stance hasn’t changed much since his 2018 interview. He emphasized that the two players had very different roles on their teams and played different characters. It seems the only issue Pippen had with his former teammate was the series.

Why was Scottie Pippen upset about The Last Dance?

In an interview, the basketball legend shared that he was sent the first eight episodes of The Last Dance beforehand to watch. However, when he sat with his boys to watch the show, he claimed that he was disappointed. In his latest interview, Pippen explained that he didn’t finish watching the show because his kids didn’t like it.

Before that, Scottie Pippen had openly expressed his complaints regarding the series in his memoir, Unguarded. “They glorified Michael Jordan while not giving nearly enough praise to me and my proud teammates. Michael deserved a large portion of the blame. The producers had granted him editorial control of the final product. The doc couldn’t have been released otherwise. He was the leading man and the director,” he said. 

He felt that even the episode focusing on his beginnings in the league didn’t do him much justice, as the focus shifted toward Jordan and what he did for the team. Pippen had joined two of his former teammates, Horace Grant and Luc Longley, for a No Bulls Tour last year to shed light on the lesser-known stories of the Bulls’ legacy. He has also announced plans to share more in the latest docuseries that will focus on the 1991 Bulls Championship.