Despite Being Accused of Anti-Michael Jordan Tour, Scottie Pippen Delivers Emphatic Compliment

Scottie Pippen’s spiteful comments about his broken relationship with the five-time NBA most valuable player Michael Jordan have created headlines in recent years. “He was a horrible player. He was horrible to play with.” But, Scottie Pippen seems to have softened after the backlash on the ‘No Bulls’ tour. The ex-Chicago Bulls star, even after facing the allegations of organizing a tour against MJ, has recently praised his former teammate in a strangely friendly comment.

Appearing on an episode of ‘Today’ with Karl Stefanovic and Sarah Abo, Pippen faced the question if Jordan was the best or greatest ever. Pip candidly answered, “For sure, I mean, you look at the MVPs that he was able to achieve.” He also mentioned, “But I think it was all brought from us being successful as a team.” Although the 6x NBA champion mentioned that the MVPs were a result of them being successful as a team, he still admitted, “But yeah, he (Jordan) was the greatest player, definitely in basketball.”

Earlier in the episode, Scottie was also asked about ‘The Last Dance‘ docuseries, which he was not happy with. Pip was reminded of how the docuseries left him out after a certain point. Karl Stefanovic also led the discussion to the time when team management started messing around with Pip. Karl termed the occurrence of these events as awful. “Yeah, it was to some degree, but I think at that point they were sort of ready to move on from that group nucleus of players,” said Pippen.

However, the ex-Bulls star, termed the documentary to be something special and said, “I thought it was a special moment for us to really relive some of the greatest time in basketball history and more so have an opportunity to see what team basketball was like,” Pippen said.

The pair’s friendship traces back to the 1980s. When Pippen was drafted into the NBA in 1987, Jordan had already been playing professionally for a few years. The friendship began when Pippen joined the Chicago Bulls during his first year in the league.  They played side-by-side and were an integral part of the team’s success in the ’90s when the Bulls won a total of six league championships.

However, things turned sour over time due to several incidents. During an appearance on Stacey King’s Gimme the Hot Sauce podcast, Pippen shared his thoughts on Jordan’s basketball talent, admitting he didn’t believe Jordan was a team player. Pip said, “I’ve seen Michael Jordan play before I came to the Bulls. You guys have seen him play. He was a horrible player. 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.”

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After a long time, Pip seemed to have moved on from the past. The interview lacked the alleged saltiness on Pippen’s part, something which as per many, was the driving force behind the ‘No Bull’ tour.

‘No Bull’ tour telling some great stories

The tour, borne out of Pippen’s desire to reconnect with the fans, recently went through three cities in Australia. Apart from Scottie, his former Bulls teammates Horace Grant and Luc Longley were also a part of the tour. Some members of the NBA community and analysts perceived the tour as a resistance to what was portrayed in the docuseries.

Pip was not happy with his and his teammates’ portrayal in the series. In fact, he regularly ripped into Michael Jordan ever since the documentary came out. Pip believed that The Last Dance depicted them as insignificant compared to Jordan who wanted to “glorify” himself and that he and his teammates had received no compensation for their participation in the documentary.

Pippen revealed in his Unguarded memoir, “To make things worse, Michael received $10 million for his role in the doc while my teammates and I didn’t earn a dime, another reminder of the pecking order from the old days. For an entire season, we allowed cameras into the sanctity of our locker rooms, our practices, our hotels, our huddles … our lives.” 

Pippen did mention that he received one apology from Jordan about a scene he included from Game 3 of the Bulls’ playoff series against the New York Knicks. During the game, Pippen did not play in the last 1.8 seconds after the final shot in the tie game was given to his teammate Toni Kukoc.

While a majority of fans tagged the tour as an anti-Michael move, Scottie has taken it as an opportunity to tell “some great stories about some of the great times.” 

Read More: Scottie Pippen’s ‘No Bull Tour’: What Is It and Why Are Critics Calling It Anti-Michael Jordan?