Scottie Pippen and Charles Barkley have not seen eye to eye for over 20 years. Pippen doesn’t seem like he’ll start anytime soon either.
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Chuck and Pippen were teammates twice in their careers. The first occasion went very well for the two, who were the Dream Team’s best players back in 1992. They combined to pile the agony onto every single team they faced – both Chuck and Scottie were men on a mission.
The second occasion, however, backfired pretty spectacularly on them as well as the Houston Rockets. Hakeem Olajuwon attempted a last and final NBA championship run when he was with Houston in the 1998-99 season.
Their front office chased Scottie Pippen in free agency for that purpose. They already had Charles Barkley on the team, but they needed a truly dominant wing or playmaker to take them to a championship level.
Scottie, Chuck and the Dream never really sorted out their chemistry issues. The team didn’t muster all that great a record in the lockout-shortened season and couldn’t even make the Conference Finals. Scottie bolted for Portland the next year.
Scottie Pippen is in no mood to finish his beef with Charles Barkley
Years and years later, Chuck and Pippen are both still unforgiving of the other for how they messed up. Chuck believes that Scottie didn’t give their team his all while he was there, while the latter accuses Barkley of laziness.
Their relationship got so bad when Scottie left for Portland that Charles Barkley publicly stated he wanted to murder Pippen. Pippen looks back at that statement with a sense of hilarity now. This is what he told writer at GQ during a recent interview:
“I wish he woulda went through with it. I never apologized to him, but I’ll tell you what: He only got arrested for throwing some little white guys out of a window. I ain’t never seen him fight a Black man unless there were referees around.”
“He plays his role like he’s tough. I don’t know nobody he done whooped. Go back and check his record. Did I apologize to him? I told him to get me the hell out of there. That’s what I recall.”