When Michael Jordan took the stage for his Hall of Fame Enshrinement Speech in 2009, Scottie Pippen was the first person he thanked. He said, “In all the videos, you never just saw me, you saw Scottie Pippen, every championship I won.” It’d have been hard for someone to believe at the time that the two Bulls legends were never really friends.
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Over the last few years, Pippen has said time and again that there was no friendship between him and MJ. During his recent appearance on the PBD Podcast, he reiterated the same thing about his relationship with Jordan.
He said, “Michael is a very difficult person to deal with.” After playing with him for nearly a decade, Pippen realized that there was not going to be a fairytale ending to their on-court bond. He claimed that he knew early on that the relationship was not going to extend beyond the court, so he didn’t try to force it.
“Great teammate but we just never were great friends,” Pippen said. When asked if there was no friendship even when they played together, the seven-time All-Star said, “No.” The Bulls were arguably the most dominant dynasty ever in the NBA. Although MJ was the face of the franchise, it was well-known that Pippen was his right-hand man.
So, naturally, the assumption was that they’d have spent time together, went to dinners, played golf, etc. However, Pippen denied ever doing any such things. He revealed that the only time he ever spent at MJ’s home was when he used to train with Tim Grover. It could be the result of years of tainted relationship or The Last Dance rubbing him the wrong way because Pippen has not said anything nice about MJ in the last four years.
Scottie Pippen once said that Michael Jordan was a “horrible player”
In his prime, MJ was the cheat code to win championships. He three-peated in the NBA twice. Most players would’ve wanted to be his teammate at the time because the championship was nearly a guarantee. However, in Pippen’s assessment, he was a “horrible player” and was “horrible to play with.”
During an appearance on Gimme the Hot Sauce podcast, he slammed those who only credit MJ for the three-peats by stating, “Our game is a team game, and one player can’t do it.”
“I’ve seen Michael Jordan play before I came to play with 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. And all of a sudden, we become a team and we start winning. Everybody forgot who he was,” he added.
In recent years, Pippen hasn’t missed any opportunity to put down Jordan’s name in the public. Even though he claims that there was never a friendly bond between them, the avalanche of criticism only started after the documentary came out.
