Scottie Pippen takes us back to the time when Phil Jackson’s deputy advised him on taking Michael Jordan off from the Game 6 of 92′ Finals.
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Only a few people have had the guts and desire to speak up against Michael Jordan while he was writing history on the basketball court. One of those few brave men is the Bulls’ assistant coach Tex Winter.
Winter was Phil Jackson’s assistant since he first became the Head coach for Chicago in 1989. Together, they came up with the triangle offense that would lead to 6 Bulls championships. Not only did they build a dynasty in Chicago in just 10 years, but they also changed the game with this offense.
But when they first brought up the plan which involved the team more than an individual, in front of Michael Jordan, “His Airness” wasn’t very pleased with the proposal, as he believed himself much more than anybody else, and rightfully so.
“Everybody has an opportunity to touch the ball, but I didn’t want Bill Cartwright to have the ball with five seconds left,” Jordan once said, followed by what is now a famous saying in basketball.
“That’s not equal-opportunity offense. That’s f****** bulls***. There were so many times Tex used to yell at me, saying, ‘Move the ball. Move the ball. There’s no I in team.’ I said, ‘There’s an I in win.’”
“You have to get Michael Jordan out”: Tex Winter’ advice to Phil Jackson
There’s another man who has spoken against MJ and quite a length, his partner in crime, Scottie Pippen. The former Bulls forward is not fond of Jordan, and the world knows it for a fact as we speak. Since Mike’s docuseries “The Last Dance” came out, Scottie has gone on a series of rants against his Bulls’ teammate in what he believes is the truth.
On one such belief, Pippen wrote in his memoir about the time MJ was taken off from Game 6 of the 1992 NBA Finals by coach Jackson on the advice of his assistant. As the 5-time MVP was holding on to basketball a bit too much, disrupting the team’s triangle offense.
“Michael, meanwhile, was trying to do too much,” Pippen wrote in his book. “And it was backfiring. ‘You have to get him out of there,’ Tex Winter, one of our assistant coaches, pleaded to Phil. ‘He’s holding the ball too long, destroying the action.’”
The Bulls were down by 15 points to the Blazers heading into the fourth quarter of the game. Winter noticed that Jordan wanted to take on the whole Portland squad on his own, so he went up to Jackson and told him to take His Airness out. According to Scottie, this entire sequence is not at all shown in the Last Dance as it’ll be a dent on MJ’s image.
“The only footage of Game 6 was showing the final seconds ticking off. It wouldn’t have enhanced Michael’s legacy to show his ‘supporting cast’ being the difference in a game of such magnitude.” Pippen wrote.
“The Bulls would likely have lost that game if Phil had put Michael back in earlier in the fourth quarter. Tex was right. Michael wasn’t moving the ball.”
The Bulls went on a 14-2 run to start the fourth quarter as Jordan sat on the bench, setting the stage for a comeback win. And they did it with their Finals MVP not playing most of the final quarter of the series.
Chicago won the game by a final score of 97-93 and their second championship in two years, behind Jordan’s 33 points and Pippen’s 26 points and 5 rebounds.
