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It is sad to see former Chicago Bulls great Scottie Pippen taking multiple shots at Michael Jordan following the release of the Last Dance documentary.
If it bothers many fans, imagine how it feels to Jordan’s former teammate and mentee Richard Hamilton. I sat down with the former Bull and Detroit Pistons great to discuss the beef and other topics.
Hamilton told me he had a great experience as Jordan’s teammate, so I asked him how it feels to see and hear a legend like Pippen voice his displeasure with Jordan.
Hamilton said:
First of all, I mean when you look at Mike and Scottie’s career and the success they had, I mean winning all the world championships in Chicago, you never expect Scottie to come like that at MJ. Like that’s M…the reason why the city of Chicago is what it is, especially when it comes to the basketball world is because of Michael Jordan. Yes, you can’t win it by yourself, and I do believe that Scottie had a huge impact on on MJ too, I mean one of the top 50 greatest players in itself, but you know it’s just not cool and it’s just sad because these guys were my heroes growing up. I was a big Chicago Bulls fans so when you hear that especially now years and years later that’s not something that you want to hear.
Take a look at the entire interview below:
Scottie Pippen’s Latest Anti-Michael-Jordan Comments
Pippen’s beef seems to stem from the way Jordan treated his teammates and the way he portrayed his approach in The Last Dance documentary. Pippen’s comments, which come from his memoir Unguarded, were captured by CBS Sports’ Brad Botkin.
The excerpt reads:
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 toughness to get past the the NBA’s more physical teams. Seeing again how poorly Michael treated his teammates, I cringed, as I did back then. 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 that Michael ever was. Ask anyone who played with the two of us. I was always there with a pat on the back or an encouraging word, especially after he put someone down for one reason or another. I helped the others to believe in and stop doubting themselves.
Recently inducted Hall-of-Famer Toni Kukoc did name Pippen as his favorite teammate, so it seems there is some validity to his statement, no matter how difficult it is to absorb.
Is Scottie Pippen’s Greatness Being Overshadowed?
Pippen is massively underrated. Many don’t realize how good he was over the course of his career. Jordan never won a playoff series without Pippen, but that’s not to say he wouldn’t have ultimately found similar success with a different Robin to his Batman.
Jordan is the greatest player of all time, but Pippen is one of the best small forwards and wing players ever. That is something that is sometimes overshadowed.
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