Scottie Pippen has changed his tune since 2018, when he described former Chicago Bulls teammate Michael Jordan as the "greatest to ever put on shoes and play in our game." On Stacey King's "Gimme the Hot Sauce" podcast Friday, Pippen claimed Jordan was a "horrible player" in his early years with the Bulls, CNN reports. Jordan joined the team in 1984, and Pippen became a Bull in 1987. "I've seen Michael Jordan play before I came to the Bulls. You guys have seen him play," Pippen said. "He was horrible to play with. It was all 1-on-1, shooting bad shots. All of a sudden, we become a team and we start winning."
"Everybody forgot who he was," Pippen added. "He was a player who was really not at the top of his category. It was scoring." This isn't the first time Pippen has criticized Jordan in recent years. After the release of The Last Dance documentary series on the Bulls 1997-98 season, in which they won their sixth championship in eight years, Pippen complained that he was "nothing more than a prop" in the series and called Jordan "condescending" for referring to him as the best teammate of all time. In an Instagram post Saturday, Pippen listed the championships and his other achievements, saying, "Here's to the unsung heroes," SI reports.
Rick Telander at the Chicago Sun-Times says it's "just plain sad" to see Pippen insulting Jordan again. He notes that Jordan's statistics were "incredible" both before and after Pippen was drafted to Chicago. It seems Pippen "has not now, nor will he ever, get used to the fact that as great as he was—and he was a terrific ballplayer—he was destined to play behind a phenom such as Jordan," writes Telander, who notes the "odd fact" that Pippen's ex-wife Larsa Pippen is dating Marcus Jordan, his former teammate's younger son, and has said she'll change her last name to Jordan if they get married. In a tweet, Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young said Pippen was "hating so hard" in the podcast that he thought it was AI-generated. (More Michael Jordan stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
