Scottie Pippen was the 5th overall pick of the 1987 NBA draft. He was picked by the Chicago Bulls and went on to win 6 NBA titles alongside Michael Jordan. Kenny Smith, on the other hand, was the 6th pick of the same draft and was picked by the Sacramento Kings. He won 2 NBA titles with the Houston Rockets and never once made the All-Star team. This meant that Kenny never had the chance to play with Michael Jordan. A fact that he rues to, till this day.
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Speaking on Stephen Smith’s Know Mercy podcast, Kenny Smith revealed that he was jealous of Scottie Pippen throughout his NBA career. He was just one pick shy of playing for the Bulls and quite possibly winning multiple championships himself.
Kenny Smith Reveals He Was Jealous of Scottie Pippen
Despite the initial concern over his injuries, Kenny Smith was able to enjoy a successful NBA career. He spent 10 seasons in the NBA and had his best years playing for the Houston Rockets. He won 2 titles with them!
Why was @TheJetOnTNT jealous of Scottie Pippen?
He knows he JUST missed out on being pushed by Jordan pic.twitter.com/RZY23gE2To
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) May 11, 2023
Smith suggested that it was his injury concerns that led to Scottie Pippen being picked in the NBA draft higher than him. This apparently made him jealous throughout his NBA career:
“I was jealous of Scottie Pippen my whole basketball career, because I was the 6th pick, he was the 5th pick. Because the doctors were saying, ‘oh he would only have a two-year career based on his knee, his ankle, whatever it was. But then you go to another team and this was before when there was one single doctor to examine all the players. I am the reason why the rule is like that, because I was able to do multiple things and they were getting all these multiple reports. So I was jealous that Scottie Pippen got to play with Michael Jordan.”
Kenny Smith Still Enjoyed A Successful NBA Career
While Smith never got to play with Michael Jordan, he still won 2 straight NBA titles in 1994 and 1995. During this time, he was teammates with Hall of Famer, Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon.
This was in addition to the likes of Otis Thorpe and Vernon Maxwell. The two were the other major scorers on the Rockets. Despite that Smith claimed that he needed a Jordan-type personality to push him further:
“I knew that, I needed a guy like that to go, ‘Kenny you got to push yourself harder.’ Like some people have that innately in them. I know who I was. I am the guy that if you say, ‘we are going to do a 100 laps, I will go and do a 100.’ I am not complaining about one. I needed that push.”
Do you think Kenny and MJ would have worked out?
