Michael Jordan is widely considered the greatest basketball player ever to lace up a pair of his own sneakers, or anyone else’s.
Jordan won six championships and provided some of the most compelling moments in NBA history. Who can forget games 4 and 5 in the 1997 finals against the Utah Jazz? Jordan got food poisoning, then the flu, and while spiking a fever of over 100, he willed the Bulls to a 3-2 lead with 38 points. Truly compelling stuff.
While armchair historians love to compare players from different generations and try to decide via their expertise who was the best, few can really dispute Jordan’s dominance and impact on the game both on the court and off.
Unless you are Scottie Pippen. It is well known that the two former pals have fallen on hard times where their relationship is concerned, but Pippen recently fired not one, but two shots across the bow at his former buddy Jordan.
So wait Scottie Pippen said Jordan was horrible till he got to Chicago….interesting because their first playoff series together Michael Jordan’s avg 45 PPG and Scottie avg….*checks notes* 10 PPG…. pic.twitter.com/wqYe6SvctQ
— Reverend good doctor JB Applesauce (@VictorySlap4700) May 29, 2023
On an episode of “Gimme The Hot Sauce” podcast, Pippen dished out some Texas Pete with a side of Ghost Peppers by suggesting that Jordan was a “horrible player” early in his career, and James has had a better statistical career not just over Jordan, but everyone ever to play the game.
Pippen told the podcast, via Fox News: “LeBron will be the greatest statistical guy to ever play the game of basketball. And there’s no comparison to him. None.”
When asked if James was the greatest ever, he responded: “leave that up for debate.”
Talk about your hot takes! It could be argued that the only reason James is going to compile more stats is once again because of the generational aspect. Jordan actually had to go to college. While Jordan did, in fact, leave early for the NBA, he still played three seasons under Roy Smith at North Carolina. Of course, James went straight to the NBA from high school.
It should be noted that Jordan also took almost two full years off from the game to pursue a career in baseball. While that didn’t exactly go as planned and he eventually returned to the court, those are essentially two seasons of stats that Jordan is missing after walking away in his prime at 30 years old.
Pippen, for his part isn’t going to let facts get in the way of his hot take. He continued: “I saw Jordan play before I came to play with the Bulls. You guys saw him play. He was a horrible player. He was horrible to play with. He was all one-on-one, he’s shooting bad shots,”
Pippen then revealed his ultimate motivation with his hot take; self promotion. He hilariously suggested that Jordan didn’t become great until he came along: “All of a sudden, we become a team, and we start winning, and everybody forgot who he was.”
It is a sad flex from one of the greatest complimentary pieces in NBA history. Pippen was a great player, but so was Dennis Rodman and Horace Grant, but likely without Jordan all three would just be names lost to time.
LeBron James will be the greatest statistical player ever, but he will never touch Jordan’s legacy or achieve the level of success Jordan has. While James is a flop-prone shell of what he was, Jordan walked away with his legacy intact.
Pippen should note that no one needed Robin without Batman, and players like himself owe Jordan their careers.
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