Scottie Pippen Claimed That Bulls ‘Could’ve Died as a Team’ Under the Michael Jordan Effect

The Bulls Dynasty had more than one hero besides #23. Scottie Pippen was one of them. While Michael Jordan was leading Chicago out of oblivion, the additions of key players made their championship chances greater. MJ was ready to bat for that team, as he infamously clashed with management to keep Pippen on the roster. Before the infamous fallout, Pippen and Jordan considered each other indispensable.

Three decades before Pippen called Jordan a ‘horrible player’, he described how he and the others adapted to the Michael Jordan effect in The Windy City. While others would’ve cracked under that pressure, The Pip gave it a glowing review.

Scottie Pippen played it humble

In May 1993, the two-time reigning champions Chicago Bulls were playing against the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals Game 3. The Bulls won that game 103-83. Michael Jordan had 22 points in 38 minutes. However, the team’s top scorer of the night was Scottie Pippen with 29 points in 32 minutes. The pressure was on the Bulls to see if they’d three-peat.

From The Last Dance, we know that 1993 was a trying year for Jordan who was under tremendous pressure. Pippen was remarkably calm at this time, though. He caught up with Sports Illustrated after Game 3, where he gave all the credit to his teammates and MJ.

“I honestly don’t know whether I could function as a player away from Michael now,” Pippen said back then. This was a year before Jordan resisted the Bulls nearly trading Pippen for Shawn Kemp. Jordan, who went into his first retirement after 1993, would say on the record that he came back so he could play on the same team as Scottie. But back then, many analysts dismissed Pippen’s athleticism and said he’d be nothing without Jordan.

Pippen would say that the whole team rose to Jordan’s level. “What Michael has brought us, every night, every game, is the spotlight and the pressure that would’ve been directed elsewhere. All of us—Horace, Pax [John Paxson], B.J. [Armstrong]—had to respond to it, or else we would’ve died as a team. Eventually, we did respond, and it made us stronger.”

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Tracy McGrady would also allege that Jordan prevented the Bulls from trading Pippen for him in the 1997-98 season. That ended up winning the Bulls their sixth championship. This intertwined friendship would break down two decades later and Pippen would change his opinion about MJ as a teammate.

Scottie Pippen changed his tune

Where in 1993 Pippen said Jordan made them all better players under pressure, in 2023 he recalled a different memory. “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,” Pip said on the Gimme the Hot Sauce podcast.

He went on to say that his arrival turned the Bulls into a team. That caused quite a stir after the bubbling animosity between both since The Last Dance.

The sharp contrast in Pippen’s opinions reflects the depth of his bitterness since the 2020 feud. What do you think about his three-decade-old take?

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