There seems to be no love lost between Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
The former Bulls teammates, who won six rings together as part of the ’90s dynasty squad, won’t ever speak again, according to Knicks legend Charles Oakley.
“No, I think it’s over,” Oakley said about Jordan and Pippen’s relationship during a recent appearance on “The Bill Simmons Podcast.” “It wasn’t great from the get-go.”
Oakley is still close friends with Jordan after they played together for three seasons in Chicago. Oakley, who was traded to the Knicks in 1988, also played alongside Pippen for a season.
Before shedding light on the Jordan-Pippen saga, Oakley discussed Pippen’s displeasure with “The Last Dance,” the 2020-released docu-series that chronicled the ’90s Bulls.
“I think they [covered] Dennis Rodman more than Scottie — and Steve Kerr in ‘The Last Dance,’” Oakley said, naming two critical members of Chicago’s second three-peat team.
“But my thing to that is, Kerr did way more off the court than Scottie. Dennis probably has, too. But on that court, Scottie did a lot more than both of them, but Scottie felt like he was left out of there. And he felt like Jordan wouldn’t have six rings if it wasn’t for him.”
Pippen has previously expressed his frustration with how the Bulls’ story was told in the “The Last Dance” six-part series, which was co-produced by Jordan’s Jump 23 company.
In his new tell-all memoir “UNGUARDED,” which was released last November, Pippen criticized Jordan’s leadership skills, among other things. He said in the book’s description that there wouldn’t be a “Last Dance” documentary without him, let alone six championship banners hanging from the United Center rafters.
During Simmons’ podcast, Oakley continued: “[Jordan] always praised Scottie, always praised Scottie. He never talked down about him, but I don’t know what happened since ‘The Last Dance.’ It seems like things just — he probably said, ‘OK, Scottie said this stuff about me. OK, I’m not gonna say nothing.’ He’s not gonna say nothing back in the press, none of that, try to go back to Scottie. He’s just gonna keep doing what he’s doing — play golf, fish, relax and smoke cigars.”
Pippen wasn’t always taking public shots at Jordan.
The relationship never seemed sour during their playing days. In fact, Jordan presented Pippen when he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. A few years later, they reunited publicly for a 2017 event at Jordan’s Flight School camp in California.
However, the once iconic Jordan-Pippen relationship appears to be beyond repair.
Credit: Source link
