In an alternate universe, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen are sitting in a cabana near the Mediterranean Sea with a cigar in one hand and a championship trophy in the other.
Instead, in this universe, the best duo in NBA history is nothing more than that … history.
Scottie Pippen’s frustration with Jordan, Phil Jackson, and The Last Dance boiled over into his interview with former teammate Stacey King on the Gimme the Hot Sauce podcast. He held nothing back as he continued to bad-mouth the two prominent figures, going as far as to say that he never plans to rekindle a relationship with either. You can read a lot more of what he had to say here:
While we’re at it, I wanted to share one more Pippen quote that has started to make its rounds on social media. Fortunately, he didn’t go as far as saying LeBron James should rank over Jordan, but he did use the discussion as an opportunity to diminish the player that Jordan was prior to the time he arrived.
“LeBron will be the greatest statistical guy to play the game of basketball,” Pippen said. “There will be no comparison to him. None. So does that make him the greatest player to ever play the game? I’ll leave that out for debating because I don’t believe there is a great player. Our game is a team game and one player can’t do it. I’d seen Michael Jordan play before I came to play with the Bulls, you guys seen him play. He was a horrible player. He was horrible to play with. He was all one-on-one, he shooting bad shots, and all of a sudden we become a team and we start winning. Everybody forget who he was. Winning wasn’t at the top of his priority. He was going after scoring.”
The quote has led to some controversy, with King re-sharing a clip on Twitter and claiming that Pippen’s words were edited to fit a narrative. However, if you simply go back to the podcast uploaded to the official Gimme the Hot Sauce YouTube page by King, you can find that exact quote starting at the 1:11:30 mark. So … unless someone got their hands on the official file before King and his team uploaded it, Pippen did call Jordan a “horrible player.”
This clip was edited to fit a narrative for click bait! This isn’t what Scottie Pippen said and if you watch the video closely his mouth never moves! This video reminds me of a bad dubbed 70’s kung fu movie! If you want to hear his real answer go listen to his interview on GTHS!! https://t.co/4CmCH0if2k— Stacey King (@Stacey21King) May 26, 2023
Shortly after putting the quote into question, King seemed to walk back the statement and merely claim that what Pippen said wasn’t what some are making it out to be. You can find his explanation here or shared below:
What people are missing is that Scottie was basically saying that before Jerry, Phil & Scottie got there as great as MJ was in his first 7 years he hadn’t won anything except individual awards? He was trying to say MJ was not winning until he, Phil & Jerry arrived in Chicago. https://t.co/IrnRnKmlz7— Stacey King (@Stacey21King) May 27, 2023
Best ever! He even named MJ in his top 5 of All Time on Mt. Rushmore and went on to say MJ was the greatest scorer the NBA has ever seen! Again what he said might’ve been phrased wrong but to many people refuse to listen to what he was trying to articulate and read into it wrong!— Stacey King (@Stacey21King) May 27, 2023
Nobody is denying that Jordan improved when Pippen and Phil Jackson arrived. Every player improves with age and with upgraded talent around them. Still, King can try to defend his former teammate all he wants, but Pippen said what he said. Jordan wasn’t a “horrible” player before the 90s started. A different one? Sure. But he was still the guy who Larry Bird said was disguised as God. He was still the guy who made six-straight All-Star Games. Jordan was commanding respect from the biggest names in the league and proving that he was a rising force to be reckoned with.
Coby White was recently seen on Instagram working out alongside long-time friend Chris Paul. The Phoenix Suns point guard has mentored White since a young age, and it’s encouraging to know that relationship has continued, especially when we consider the role White could play next season.
There is a pretty decent chance that White become the Bulls’ starting point guard next year. Now, the primary reason for that may simply be because the team lacks any other option. We all know they aren’t drowning in money to spend on a free agent. We also know they are likely going to hand White – a restricted free agent – a fresh contract, so one way for them to internally justify that is by giving him an opportunity to man the starting role.
With that said, it’s not like he didn’t earn a bigger workload this season. Over the last 20 games of the season, White averaged a solid 11.9 points, 4.6 assists, and 3.9 rebounds off the bench. He also shot an impressive 49.2 percent from the field and 41.7 percent from downtown. I know it feels like we’ve fallen into this trap before and put too much stock into what feels like a small sample size. But the eye test is what has made this latest stretch feel so different from the others.
Whether it be finishing strong at the rim, knowing where to be for the perfect catch-and-shoot opportunity, staying locked into his man on defense, or diving on the ground for the loose ball, we saw a new level of effective two-way play from White this season. It always sounds cliche to say, but the game really did look like it slowed down for him. So rewarding him with a chance to start may not be the worst thing, particularly if the Bulls can’t acquire another young option.
What’s your prediction for Game 6? My gut tells me that Miami will find a way to close this one out and head to their second NBA Finals in four seasons. My heart tells me that Boston will force a Game 7 so we can have a high-stakes matchup to end Memorial Day Weekend. Can you imagine if the Celtics actually managed to come back from and 0-3 deficit? I mean, it was bound to happen eventually, but it would surely feel baffling when we consider just how dead they looked in Game 3.
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