Now Pippen hits out at Jordan doco ‘lies’
SOME of NBA legend Michael Jordan’s former teammates are unhappy with how they were portrayed in ESPN’s The Last Dance docuseries 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 series.
Pippen reportedly hasn’t spoken to his former teammate 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 in Chicago 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 off-season. He delayed his surgery to prove a point: Pippen rightfully felt he was far more valuable to the Bulls than the fiveyear, $18 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.
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 underrated — and underpaid. The kid was a hero, in a lot of ways, during those Bulls runs.”
Grant also had a gripe with Jordan for what he says is a huge lie: that Jordan took his food away on a flight after a bad game.
“Anybody [who] knows me, as a rookie, if anybody comes up and tries to snatch my food away, I’m going to do my best to beat their ass,” Grant said. “And believe me, back then, I could have took MJ in a heartbeat.”