NBA News – Scottie Pippen Advocates Michael Jordan: “He Was A Terrible Player”

Bulls legend Scottie Pippen has once again caused a stir with marked statements. The six-time champion called his former team-mate Michael Jordan a “terrible” player, among other things.

The Hall of Famer was referring to the time before Pippen himself was drafted by the Bulls in 1987 and joined the team. “I watched Michael Jordan play before I came to the Bulls. He was a terrible player,” said Pippen in the podcast of former teammate Stacey King, who came up with the name Gimme the Hot Sauce heard

“He was terrible to play with. It was always one-on-one and he was taking one bad shot after another. But suddenly we were a team and we became successful. People forgot who he really was. He was a player who wasn’t really among the best.”

Michael Jordan: Check out our archive of the best stories from His Airness’ career!

Still, it wasn’t until 1991 before the Bulls won a title for the first time. Five more were to follow by 1998. However, when Jordan suddenly ended his career and devoted himself to baseball for a while, Chicago was eliminated in the second round of the 1994 playoffs.

As late as 2018, Pippen declared that Jordan was the best player of all time. “There’s no doubt about that. There’s a game in which I would take LeBron James over Michael Jordan,” Pippen said at the time, but since then the relationship with MJ has deteriorated significantly, which can also explain Pippen’s latest interview.

In this, Pippen also renewed his opinion on LeBron James. “LeBron is a winner. He’s a lot older now and people like to criticize him. But he’s not a shotmaker, he never has been. I said that years ago and I took a lot for it. Still, if LeBron James resigns, he will statistically be the best player to ever stand on a basketball court.”