Pippen unhappy with Jordan doco

Some of Michael Jordan’s former teammates are unhappy with how they were portrayed in ESPN’s The Last Dance docu-series on the championship Chicago Bulls teams of the 1990s.

First it was Horace Grant, who publicly voiced his displeasure with being painted as the source who fed private information to Sam Smith for his 1992 book, The Jordan Rules.

Now, it’s Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen who has an issue with the way he was portrayed in the Jordan documentary.

Pippen reportedly hasn’t spoken to his former team-mate since the first episode aired on April 19. He was later described as ‘‘beyond livid’’ on ESPN Radio for the way he was made to look.

‘‘[Pippen] felt like up until the last few minutes of Game 6 against the Jazz [in the 1998 NBA Finals], it was just ‘bash Scottie, bash Scottie, bash Scottie,’ ’’ David Kaplan of ESPN 1000 said.

The issue stems from Pippen’s decision to undergo ankle surgery at the start of the 1997-98 NBA season instead of during the offseason. He delayed his surgery to prove a point: Pippen felt he was far more valuable to the Bulls than the five-year, $US18-million deal he signed.

But in the documentary, Jordan slammed Pippen for waiting until the beginning of the season: ‘‘I thought Scottie was being selfish,’’ he said, ‘‘worrying about himself instead of what his word was to the organisation and to the team.’’

Bulls legend Dennis Rodman came to Pippen’s defence and said he should be remembered as one of the two or three best players to play the game.

‘‘Scottie was so under-rated — and so underpaid. He should be holding his head up higher than Michael Jordan in this documentary,’’ Rodman told ESPN.