“Scottie Pippen was more skilled than Michael Jordan!”: John Salley shows his Bad Boys Pistons bias while evaluating the Bulls legends’ strengths in VladTV interview

John Salley shockingly claimed that during his time with the Chicago Bulls, he felt Scottie Pippen was more skilled than Michael Jordan.

There’s no doubt that the Chicago Bulls wouldn’t have won even a single championship without Scottie Pippen. The Arkansas swingman made it to the NBA a bit malnourished and low on confidence.

But once he grew into his role with the Bulls under Phil Jackson, there was no stopping his brilliance. As the point forward in the triangle offense, Scottie Pippen was virtually the LeBron James of his era. Except scoring in bunches, there was nothing Pippen couldn’t do.

It was on this 2-star fulcrum of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen that GM Jerry Krause built the double-threepeat Bulls’ destiny. They kept adding moving pieces around their two stars, who’re still regarded as the best duo in league history.

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However, there’s absolutely no doubt that Pippen isn’t in the same class as Michael Jordan. He was taller and more wiry, and perhaps had slightly better instincts than MJ. But there’s practically no basketball skill which Pippen was better at than MJ – it was just that he got the opportunity to play as the point forward.

John Salley claimed a while back that Scottie Pippen was more skilled than Michael Jordan

John Salley is the kind of player who’s a bit biased against his contemporaries, rather than for them as is the norm. The former Bad Boys Pistons team member says that because Dr. J was so unique to him, Michael Jordan felt less jarring:

“I go back and I watch – Michael Jordan is great, let me get that to any and everybody that’s watching. It’s true. But before him, I was in love with Dr. J. So Michael Jordan is Dr. J to people of that era.”

“In my era, (we had) Dr. J, David Thompson, Bernard King, those are my favorites. My contemporaries – Michael Jordan is 2 years before me.”

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Salley then goes on to explain exactly why he believes Scottie Pippen is the most skilled player he’s played with:

“I don’t see it like other people – I’ve hung with him, I’ve played with him, I’ve socialized with him, everything you can possibly can. This is my guy, this is my friend.”

“But when you’re a basketball player playing against MJ, we realized we had to shut Scottie down when we played the Chicago Bulls. He plays point guard, shooting guard, small forward, big forward and center.”

Irrespective of how much Salley dresses his opinion up in embroidered words, however, basketball fans know the truth. Pippen ain’t on MJ’s level.