Scottie Pippen Slams Michael Jordan For Making ‘The Last Dance’ All About Him: “Michael Jordan Would Never Have Been Michael Jordan Without Me”
In his Scottie Pippen’s upcoming memoir, the NBA star shares some of the big issues he has with Michael Jordan. Scottie mentions how he and his Chicago Bulls teammates are partially responsible for Jordan becoming one of the world’s greatest athletes.
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In an excerpt from Pippen’s book published in GQ, the NBA Hall of Famer believes members of the 1990s Bulls dynasty didn’t get enough credit for Jordan’s success: “Michael Jordan would never have been Michael Jordan without me, Horace Grant, Toni Kukoc, John Paxson, Steve Kerr, Dennis Rodman, Bill Cartwright, Ron Harper, B. J. Armstrong, Luc Longley, Will Perdue , and Bill Wennington,” Pippen says in “Unguarded.” “I apologize to anyone I’ve left out.” He adds, “I’m not suggesting Michael wouldn’t have been a superstar wherever he ended up. He was that spectacular. Just that he relied on the success we attained as a team — six titles in eight years — to propel him to a level of fame throughout the world no other athlete, except for Muhammad Ali, has reached in modern times.”
In the book, Pippen also shares how he was extremely bothered by “The Last Dance,” the ESPN documentary which details Jordan’s final run with Chicago in the 1997-98 NBA season: “I was nothing more than a prop,” Pippen said of his portrayal in the documentary. “His ‘best teammate of all time,’ he called me. He couldn’t have been more condescending if he tried.” Pippen said he even spoke to some of his teammates who also felt disrespected by “The Last Dance.” The 56-year-old was upset that Jordan made $10 million for his role in the documentary, while no other Bulls players received anything.
As the new site notes, Jordan had the final say on what could be included in the series, which aired in April and May 2020.
Pippen who was a seven-time All-Star and a three-time All-NBA First Team selection said,
“Michael was determined to prove to the current generation of fans that he was larger than life during his day — and still larger than LeBron James, the player many consider his equal, if not superior. So Michael presented his story,” Pippen said of Jordan, whom he dubbed the documentary’s “leading man and the director.”
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