Scottie Pippen called Michael Jordan selfish for leaving Bulls to play baseball
Whether or not it’s to promote his new business ventures, no one is safe from Scottie Pippen’s criticism.
The Scottie Pippen scorched-earth media tour is rolling along and the latest victim is his former teammate, Michael Jordan.
Pippen was a guest on The Dan Patrick Show on Monday and explained Jordan’s decision to leave basketball at the end of the 1993 season to pursue a baseball career was “selfish”.
It’s not the first person Pippen has thrown under the bus, and who knows if it will be the last. Pippen has also gone on record to say former coach Phil Jackson was a “racist”, for choosing to draw up a game-winning shot for Toni Kuckoc instead of Pippen in the 1994 playoffs. He’s also taken shots at Kevin Durant and Hall of Famer Charles Barkley recently as well.
It’s possible Pippen is only firing all these comments in an effort to promote his new line of bourbon. If you take a closer look in the video with Dan Patrick, you can see the giant bottle sitting in front of him.
Michael Jordan is the latest to be criticized by Scottie Pippen
Regardless of whether or not this is all for the free publicity, a lot of the stuff being said is pretty asinine. To share the blood, sweat, and tears of multiple seasons with Jordan and then go on record to call him selfish is sad to hear.
For one, Pippen talking about being selfish is ironic, given some career decisions. Among them is staying on the bench rather than inbound the ball during that infamous Kukoc play, as well as his choice to sit out a majority of the 1998 season because the Bulls refused to draw up a new contract.
It’s well documented how mentally drained Jordan was after the first three-peat in 1993. Throw in the murder of his father, James Jordan, and you could understand why he might want to walk away from basketball for a bit and pursue a baseball career which he said was always a dream of his father. Maybe Jordan was selfish for other reasons, but to criticize that specific choice by MJ, which is clearly something beyond just basketball, is just disrespectful.
There’s no doubt Pippen is one of the greatest of all time, and he was a key piece in bringing six championships to Chicago. True fans of the game understand this, and would never deny his greatness. Yet, it seems like since his playing days ended there’s been some bad blood and resentment coming out. Maybe it was the way he was portrayed in The Last Dance, who knows?
Pippen has been unfairly criticized at times during his career, but now to come out years later and criticize the people who played a key role in his success is just as unfair.