The past several years have seen Scottie Pippen share brutally honest thoughts on Michael Jordan, his former Chicago Bulls teammate. Since revealing he “wasn’t too pleased” with ESPN’s The Last Dance, Pippen hasn’t minced words about Jordan. He most recently discussed MJ during a wide-ranging interview and, during the discussion, he claimed that even if he never played with His Airness, he’d still win six championships. That prompted Draymond Green to share his opinion, and the Golden State Warriors vet didn’t hold back.
Scottie Pippen recently spoke with Valuetainment Media’s Patrick Bet-David and shared this takes on a number of topics. At one point, Bet-David posed a hypothetical question: how successful would Pippen had been if he’d been drafted by the Dominique Wilkins-led Atlanta Hawks instead of the Chicago Bulls in 1987. Pippen then said, “I still get my six” and later opined that Air Jordan would win two or three without him. That interview (which is currently on YouTube) subsequently went viral.
In the aftermath, Draymond Green caught wind of the hall of famer’s sentiments and reacted on his own sports program – The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis. Green, who admitted to having grown up watching the Bulls squads of the ‘90s seemed less than enthused by the comments made by the highly regarded, former small forward:
What’s wrong with Scottie, man? Somebody got to check on Scottie, man. I grew up watching them [Bulls] teams. I’m a big Scottie fan. I don’t know what Scottie going through, but I send my love. … When you start making comments like Scottie has been lately, people start to remember you for those comments and not necessarily for being Scottie Pippen, and I don’t like that, you know what I’m saying? People try to downplay who you are and what you’ve done because of the comments you’ve made lately, and I just don’t want to see people doing that to Scottie, because Scottie is for damn sure Scottie.
After voicing his disapproval of The Last Dance in 2021, Scottie Pippen – via his memoir, Unguarded – said Michael Jordan “ruined” the game of basketball. He also later called him a “horrible” player. During this latest interview, Pippen also emphasized that he and Jordan “never were great friends” though he did compliment him for his impact on the game. Draymond Green addressed those comments during his show as well and attempted to make sense of them:
He said him and Michael Jordan ain’t never sit down for dinner. To me, it sounds like it’s coming from a place of pain, you know what I’m saying? He’s feeling like MJ kind of never maybe [showed] him the love that he ultimately [thought] MJ should show, and he’s like outwardly looking for that and saying things to downplay it as opposed to just saying… I feel like he’s crying out and saying what he’s really crying out for and about. Make that happen. Somebody get MJ and Scottie together.
Scottie Pippen’s comments about his former teammate have drawn the ire of a few NBA veterans. In 2021, Charles Barkley clapped back at Pippen’s initial MJ comments and accused his fellow Dream Team member of “big-game hunting” to sell his book. The late Jerry West also responded to the “horrible” sentiments. West – who called Pippen “a hell of a player” – couldn’t understand why the NBA champ would take shots at the Jordan Brand founder.
Basketball fans can continue to debate amongst themselves whether “Pip” would still be a six-time champion without his longtime, on-court partner. All the while, I’m curious as to whether the seven-time All-Star will say more about his professional relationship with Michael Jordan.
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