Scottie Pippen joins Horace Grant in being angered about how he was portrayed in ‘The Last Dance’
- Scottie Pippen reportedly hasn’t spoken to his former teammate Michael Jordan since the first episode aired on April 19
- The issue stems from Pippen’s decision to undergo ankle surgery at the start of the 1997-98 NBA season instead of during the off-season
Some of Michael Jordan’s former teammates have an issue with how they were portrayed in ESPN’s The Last Dance docuseries on the championship Chicago Bulls teams of the 1990s.
Pippen reportedly hasn’t spoken to his former teammate since the first episode aired on April 19. He was later described on ESPN Radio as “beyond livid” for the way he was made to look.
“(Pippen) felt like up until the last few minutes of game six against the Jazz (in the 1998 NBA Finals), it was just ‘bash Scottie, bash Scottie, bash Scottie,’” David Kaplan of ESPN 1000 in Chicago said.
The issue stems from Pippen’s decision to undergo ankle surgery at the start of the 1997-98 NBA season instead of during the off-season. He delayed his surgery to prove a point: Pippen rightfully felt he was far more valuable to the Bulls than the five-year, US$18 million deal he signed.
But in the documentary, Jordan slammed Pippen for waiting until the beginning of the season: “I thought Scottie was being selfish,” he said, “worrying about himself instead of what his word was to the organisation and to the team.”