Scottie Pippen has been going off about his former colleagues of late. He accused Phil Jackson of racism based on how he treated Kobe Bryant.
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There are few former players who make media appearances as regularly as Scottie. This man is one of the few members of the threepeating Bulls considered accessible by the media.
A part of that attraction stems from Pippen’s willingness to speak out the uncomfortably controversial thoughts on his mind. Scottie Pippen is also a true talking head in the sense that he mostly says things on the fly without necessarily believing them.
He’s famously flip-flopped on his opinion about the greatest basketball player of all time. And it seems that he’s now trying to point out a more unpalatable side of his former head coach.
Scottie Pippen cites how Phil Jackson treated Kobe Bryant as an example of his racism
Phil Jackson famously drew up a game-winner for Toni Kukoc over Scottie Pippen in the 1994 playoffs. This left Scottie so incensed that he refused to come onto the floor for the final play of that game.
He’s now citing how Phil Jackson treated his star mentee on the Lakers as proof of a racist attitude:
“Oh, yeah. I mean, do you remember Phil Jackson left the Lakers, went wrote a book on Kobe Bryant, and then came back and coached him? I mean, who would do that?”
DP: “.. By saying it was a racial move then you’re calling Phil Jackson a racist…”
Pippen: “I don’t have a problem with that.”
DP: “Do you think Phil was?”
Pippen: “Oh yeah…”
Exchange with @ScottiePippen on Phil’s decision to have Kukoc take final shot against the Knicks pic.twitter.com/pH2aDLMDcQ
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) June 28, 2021
“Well I think he tried to expose Kobe in a way that he shouldn’t have. You’re the head coach, and you’re the guy that sits in the locker room and tells the players, ‘This is a circle, and everything stays within the circle because that’s what team is about.’”
“But you as the head coach open it up? And now you go out, and you try to belittle, at that time, probably one of the greatest players in the game?”