A first glance at the Chicago Bulls gave fans a glimpse of a high-flying Michael Jordan, taking over games in crunch time and leading his team to victory. Rarely did anyone pay much attention to the band alongside MJ. If there was any player who garnered attention after Jordan, it was Scottie Pippen. But even Pippen was once fed up with coach Phil Jackson over how much he relied on Michael or made him out to be the team’s saviour by the end of regulation.
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Scottie Pippen once revealed the bond between Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan. What Pippen emphasized was the amount of trust and belief he had in MJ, something Pippen grew envious of. Phil popularized the ‘Triangle Offense’ in the league back in the ’90s. But he also ran specific plays for certain players to beat the defense.
However, Scottie Pippen felt that Phil Jackson barely ran any specific plays for him. While Pip did understand why Jackson ran numerous plays for Jordan, he still felt that having a specific play called for him once during each game was something he deserved, like he did so for other players.
Pippen ended up interpreting this as a sign of respect, something that he never got from Phil Jackson. And this eventually led to animosity between him and his best teammate, Air Jordan.
“I never got the sense Phil believed in me not the way he believed in Michael. He ran plays for other guys. He hardly ran plays for me. Yet it would still have been nice for him to draw up a specific play for me more often than once every two or three games. As a sign of respect, if nothing else.”
“I never got the sense Phil believed in me not the way he believed in Michael. He ran plays for other guys. He hardly ran plays for me. His explanation: ‘You have the ball in your hands the whole time. You’re running the offense. You can run any route you want.’
Maybe.
Yet it… pic.twitter.com/ZvED4Su8HT
— The NBA Realist (@nbarealist23) January 25, 2024
The relationship between Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan really started to deteriorate after the documentary The Last Dance aired. Pippen came out with some untold stories and some outrageous claims regarding Jordan and their teammates.
One could argue that Pippen’s so-called hatred towards Michael may have stemmed from here while feeling certain animosity towards Phil Jackson as well. The world gave Michael Jordan undivided attention and after a point, anyone would want to bask in that glory. Something Pippen rarely got.
Scottie Pippen eventually compared himself to Michael Jordan
The relationship between Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson wasn’t always rocky. Jackson had faith in Pippen to be the best on-ball defender and usually guarded the opposing team’s leading scorer.
It wasn’t until the Bulls were on their way to winning their third NBA title that the unsaid chaos between them boiled over. It was in 1994 when Scottie Pippen refused to go in the game during the Eastern Conference SemiFinals.
According to Pippen, he could not deal with the fact that the final play was called for Toni Kukoc and not him in Michael Jordan’s absence. Pippen’s move shocked the team, the league, and fans worldwide. This incident was heavily covered in Jordan’s documentary which ended up giving fans a closer look at the aftermath of Pippen’s decision as well.
Pippen’s antics had a long-lasting impact on his teammates and even the Chicago Bulls fans. Nobody wanted to believe that their teammate abandoned them in their time of need. However, an untethered Phil Jackson did what he did best, coach his team to a championship eventually. But he never saw or trusted Scottie Pippen the way he did before.
