Source: Richard Mackson / Getty
Scottie Pippen has officially run out f**ks to give.
The NBA Hall of Famer and one of the league’s 50 Greatest Players has been speaking his mind quite freely as of late. He recently felt the wrath of Kevin Durant on Twitter after he had some criticism about the Brooklyn Nets superstar’s game compared to LeBron James speaking in a GQ interview. Durant’s Twitter fingers never show anyone mercy, not even NBA legends, and he fired back, saying, “Didn’t the great Scottie Pippen refuse to go in the game for the last-second shot because he was in his feelings his coach drew up the play for a better shooter??”
Well, it appears that particular moment still lingers in the back of Pippen’s mind. Speaking with Dan Patrick, he made a very eyebrow-raising accusation as to why his head coach, Phil Jackson, opted to draw up a game-winning play for his then-teammate Toni Kukoc instead of him in a 1994 playoff matchup vs. the Knicks. Pippen alleges the legendary head coach based his decision to draw up the play for Kukoc off race.
“By saying a racial move, you’re calling Phil a racist,” Patrick points out. Pippen then responds, “I don’t have a problem with that.” Patrick then asks “Do you think Phil was, or is?” Pippen doubles down with a simple “Oh, yeah.”
Pip also blasted Jackson for writing a tell-all book about his time with the late Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. Patrick tried to use the scenario of when Jordan told Kerr he would pass him the ball for the game-winning shot against the Utah Jazz in Game 6 of the 1997 NBA Finals as a counter but was shut down. Pippen alleged the “cameras” were solely focused on Jordan and not the team as a whole because they were filming for Jordan’s documentaries, so he was in control of the narrative.
Jackson wasn’t the only one to catch a stray. Pippen’s teammate, the GOAT himself, Michael Jordan, also felt the forward’s wrath during the interview, clearly indicating the fallout from Jordan’s excellent documentary The Last Dance is still festering. Pippen called His Airness “selfish” for retiring and playing baseball, adding “it was kind of who Michael Jordan was.”
While they were “excellent teammates” on the basketball court, Pippen pointed out that off the court was a different story entirely, and they didn’t have a real friendship.
We hate to see this, but at the same time are very intrigued.
You can peep more reactions to Pippen having time for Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan in the gallery below.
Photo: Richard Mackson / Getty
Scottie Pippen Calls Phil Jackson “Racist” & Michael Jordan “Selfish” In Interview With Dan Patrick was originally published on cassiuslife.com
