Scotie Pippen has been all over the NBA news but not for the best reasons. Despite being one of the most beloved and respected veterans in sports history, it seems like he’s losing most of his fanbase over his comments towards Michael Jordan.
Pippen was livid at the way Jordan portrayed him and his teammates in his documentary. He wrote a book to try and discredit no. 23, his legacy, and everything he did for the game of basketball.
That’s why most people are taking Jordan’s side on this dispute, especially after the footage proves that Jordan always had a lot of praise for him and that most of his takes are just delusional and salty.
Shaq Says He’ll Punch Pippen If He Says He Was Better Than Jordan
When asked about that controversy, Shaquille O’Neal was trying to be politically correct, stating that those things can happen whenever you have two strong characters in the same locker room:
“You got two alpha males on the same team, you’re gonna have these problems,” Shaq said, per Essentially Sports.
Nonetheless, O’Neal quickly changed his stance when the interviewer told him that Pippen had just said that he was better than Michael Jordan. To this, he couldn’t help to cringe in disbelief and even say he’d punch him if he said that to his face:
“He didn’t say that. He never said that. If that man say that in front of me, Imma hit him right in the esophagus. Yeah Imma drop him, do not finish that sentence,” he added.
Pippen Says Jordan Ruined Basketball, Bulls Won In Spite Of Him
Pippen has madeseveral questionable remarks in his book, going as far as to say that Jordan ruined basketball and that the team won six NBA championships in spite of him being a bad teammate:
“I may go as far to say Mike ruined basketball,” Pippen wrote. “In the 80s on the playgrounds, you’d have everyone moving the ball around — passing to help the team. That stopped in the 90s. Kids wanted to be ‘Like Mike.’ Well, Mike didn’t want to pass — didn’t want to rebound, or defend the best player.”
“(…) In the doc, Michael attempted to justify the occasions in which he berated a teammate in front of the group. He felt these guys needed to develop the toughest to get pastthe NBA’s more physical teams.Seeing again how poorly Michael treated his teammates, I cringed, as I did back then,” Scottie added.
“Michael was wrong. We didn’t win six championships because he got on guys. We won in spite of his getting on guys. We won because we played team basketball, which hadn’t been the case my first two seasons, when Doug Collins was our coach. That’s what was special about playing for the Bulls: the camaraderie we established with one another, not that we felt blessed to be on the same team with the immortal Michael Jordan. I was a much better teammate than Michael ever was.Ask anyone who played with the two of us,” he concluded.
At the end of the day, Pippen is getting exactly what he wants, and that’s our attention. The sad part is that he’s losing everybody’s respect in the way. Also, I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of one of Shaq’s fists, so I’d be careful if I were him.