In a recent interview, Scottie Pippen put aside his ongoing feud with Michael Jordan and admitted that his former Chicago Bulls teammate is the greatest basketball player of all time.
“Of course, I mean, look at the MVP he got,” Pippen said on Australia’s “Today” show.
“I think it all stems from our success as a team,” he continued. “Obviously, someone is going to take those accomplishments home. Yeah, he’s definitely the best basketball player.”
Of course, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a former teammate would call Jordan the “greatest” player in the NBA, but Pippen gave a different answer when asked a similar question on the “Gimme The Hot Sauce” podcast last year. Stacey Kingalso a former teammate and current Bulls broadcaster.
“LeBron (James) is going to be the greatest statistical player in the history of basketball,” Pippen said on his podcast in May 2023. “No one can compare to him. No. So does that make him the greatest player?” ,”do you have? Have you ever played this game? I’ll leave this question open for discussion because I don’t think there are great players and since our game is a team game one player can’t do everything. “
Pippen traveled to Australia this month to attend the country’s National Basketball League awards banquet and a subsequent speaking tour with his former teammates. Horace Grant and Luke Longley.
Pippen is a Hall of Famer and a member of the Bulls’ six championship teams. Grant won three championships in Chicago before moving to Orlando as a free agent in 1994, when Longley joined the Bulls and helped the club win its second three-peat in a decade.
The trio also offered some insight into their Bulls championship teams.
Grant spoke at the NBL Awards and called ESPN’s recent documentary about the ’90s Bulls, “The Last Dance,” “bullshit,” but Pippen pushed back in an interview with “Today” show co-hosts Criticism of the documentary Jordan supported.
“I think it’s special,” Pippen said. “I think this is a special moment for us to really relive some of the best times in basketball history. More importantly, a chance to see what team basketball is really like.
“I think during the pandemic, with everyone sitting at home, this is more of an educational tool to let people see how exciting this sport can be if it’s played the right way. If there’s basketball to share, there’s There are infinite things you can do.” Achievements. “
Pippen had previously been highly critical of the series. The problem, from his perspective, is that Jordan seems to be considered a contributor to the Bulls’ success in the 1990s, while his teammates are viewed as secondary players.
“They eulogized Michael Jordan but didn’t give enough credit to me and my proud teammates,” Pippen, 58, wrote in his 2021 memoir “Unguarded.” “Michael deserves a lot of the blame. .” He exercised editorial control over the final product. This documentary could not have been released any other way. He is the protagonist and director. “
As a result, Pippen said, the documentary didn’t feel real.
“I think that’s not that accurate in terms of really defining one of the greatest eras of basketball and what two of the greatest players accomplished, and one could even put that aside and say the greatest team of all time . era,” Pippen told The Guardian in December 2020.
“I don’t think those things stand out in the documentary. I think it was more of Michael trying to elevate himself and get glory. I also think in some ways it backfired because people got a chance to see what kind of character he had. Michael”.
His ex’s relationship with Michael Jordan’s son
Complicating matters further is Pippen’s romantic relationship with his ex-wife, Larsa49 years old, son of Jordan, Marcus,32.
“Marcus and Larsa are dating and have been spending more and more time together in recent weeks,” a source told Us Weekly after the couple appeared in public in 2022. “Because of the rift between Scotty and Michael, they tried to keep it a secret.”
Pippen and Larsa were married for nearly 20 years, had four children, and divorced in 2021.
Larsa opened up about their relationship on an episode of The Real Housewives of Miami, saying the couple had sex four times a night for 23 years.
“I’ve been married for 23 years and I’ve always had sex four times a night,” she said. “So three times a week is nothing… I have sex four times a night, every night. I’ve never had a day off in 23 years.”
There were recent rumors that Larsa and Marcus might get married, although conflicting reports caused the couple to call off their engagement.