31 March 2022
If you’re into basketball and follow the NBA seasons, you’re probably already familiar with Scottie Pippen. For the uninitiated, Pippen is a leading basketball professional who served for 17 seasons in the NBA consecutively.
When was Scottie Pippen last in news?
The last we heard of Pippen was in 2021 when he along with other Chicago Bulls players decided to be an integral part of `The Last Dance’- a docuseries launched and produced by Michael Jordan. However, it was later revealed that Pippen along with other participants wasn’t paid on time. Much to his disappointment, Pippen didn’t receive any major acclamation from the show either. Because of these series, he came up with a series of comments against Michael Jordan which eventually led up to their 2021 comment feud.
Some history of Scottie`s journey:
He joined NBA several decades back via the 1987 draft and this was immediately after he completed four years of university basketball at Central Arkansas college.
Despite his trailblazing performance, he was only drafted as the fifth member according to Seattle Supersonics. To get things fixed, Chicago Bulls decided to have him on the team.
Soon after that, Pippen joined the Chicago Bulls and played there for more than one decade. Following that stint, he joined other leading teams like Houston Rockets among others.
Several months later, he also played for the Portland Trail Blazers. However, despite these short stints at various places, Pippens returned to Bulls a year before his retirement.
Pippen was part of the NBA finals in 2006 which was held at NYC’s NBC store. During the finals, he announced the winning team along with Clyde Frazier.
Another major highlight of Pippen’s career was the fact that he has been ranked Champion in the NBA six consecutive times and he also has an all-star badge for an excellent seventh performance. Other accolades include two Olympic Gold medals that he won for America in 1992 and 1996.
In this article, we will learn more about Scottie Pippen and try to figure out what he is up to right now.
The stint with Chicago Bulls
As you probably know, the biggest stint in Pippen’s career was in collaboration with the Chicago bulls during the 90s.
During that time, he etched a stellar reputation for himself and with the support and skills of Michael Jordan, the duo became incredibly famous for their performances and games.
The majority of successes of Pippen’s career have been achieved through the Bulls. Owing to his extensive association with the club, they retired the jersey of the sportsman, as the 33rd Jersey, commemorating his stellar performances.
Watch this cool video of Pippen showing his skills when best needed:
Scotty Pippen and Michael Jordan
In 2021, the basketball community was buzzing with ambiguous comments after Pippen triggered some conversations in the community by sharing certain blunt insights on Michael Jordan.
The same has been attested in his recent memoir where Pippen reinstated that Michael completely destroyed basketball as a game. To add to that, he said that Michael had used the docuseries `Last Dance’ as an opportunity to market himself and bask in his glories.
After he shared these comments, certain players from Chicago Bulls stated their personal opinions regarding the scenario. Pippen did not mince any word while coming up with his iconic memoir which is also touted to be a page-turner according to many readers.
While certain former players of Bulls have supported Pippen, others like Bill Wennington didn’t quite resonate with his sentiments.
According to him, he often overlooked the aspects that Pippen has described in the book. The majority of the team thought that they were getting along well, and Bill had a similar idea.
He also added that he respects every opinion stated by Scottie and that he was a tremendous performer because Pippen didn’t let any of his resentment affect his performance.
When you look at the old footage of the iconic Last Dance, you will come across multiple discussions involving Michael Jordan, Pippen, and a bunch of other team members.
From the documentary itself, it was evident that Jordan was extremely stringent when it came to discipline and best practices. According to Pippen, many team members struggled to adjust to this new routine.
In some of these videos, you will also find some close moments with Jordan and Pippen. However, when Pippen was asked about the same, he suggested that he wasn’t as close to Jordan as it was always portrayed on screen.
Bull Scott Williams, another former player of the Chicago Bulls, had a rather defined side to take. He directly stated that when compared by performance, Jordan was certainly the better candidate.
Bull also added that, unlike many other teammates, Jordan always had the habit of connecting with colleagues and keeping usual contact which further strengthened the team spirit. According to Bull, the reason why Pippen is now speaking against Jordan dates back several years.
He believes the root cause to be a major dispute that happened between the two when they were still part of the Chicago Bulls.
Others to speak on the matter include Kenny Smith who despite taking a moderately neutral stance, reaffirmed that he found the docuseries descriptive and highly accurate.
He could not identify redundancies and wasn’t quite clear why Pippen would speak out like that.
Charles Barkley, an NBA analyst seemed to be even more direct on the matter. According to him, Pippen was trying to create unnecessary gossip to market his memoir. He further added that Pippen had said something that was absolutely “not cool”.
The same sentiment was shared by Grant Hill, who was also a part of the Hall of Fame in the Bulls. Hill was disappointed and he expressed concerns about how the events unfolded.
As we are writing this article, Pippen and Jordan are still not in touch even though the docuseries were relaunched in the spring months of 2020. While we don’t know whether the two will make amends, the gossip will continue to ensue unless either of them directly speaks on the topic. Given their Twitter feeds, none of them seem to have more to say on this.
Now that you read through all the above I think you deserve a little treat and entertain yourself. We have found a nice and relaxed video where Scottie Pippen gives us a tour of his beautiful home. Let`s enjoy it:
