The surprising dislike Scottie Pippen continues to show for former Chicago Bulls teammate Michael Jordan was continued this week via an excerpt from the Hall-of-Famers new memoir.
The 1990s Chicago Bulls teams are viewed as one of the greatest dynasties in sports history. The combo of league legends Jordan and Pippen, the help of various role players, and the coaching of Phil Jackson created one of the most dominant runs in NBA history.
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Considering their immense success and how Jordan and Pippen interacted on the court during the era that saw them bring six titles to Chicago, the assumption always was that the two Bulls icons were friends. However, that notion has been obliterated in recent years as Scottie Pippen has spoken publicly about various issues he had with his legendary teammate. Plus, Jordan’s son Marcus dating Pippen’s ex-wife Larsa only seemed to intensify the bitter feelings.
While it has been mostly quiet on that front recently, the story of Pippen’s hate for Jordan got a new chapter added this week when an excerpt from his memoir “Unguarded” made the rounds on Reddit. In it, the 58-year-old claims long-time Chicago Bulls scorekeeper Bob Rosenberg would pad Jordan’s stats instead of giving credit to him or other players who deserved it.
“Michael was better at getting people to do whatever he wanted,” Pippen wrote. “I saw it over and over, from the first training camp in 1987 to the last victory rally in 1998. Here’s how it worked: Say I deflected the ball and tapped it over to him. I should get credit with the steal, right? Nope. More often than not, the steal went into his column on the stat sheet, and I could do nothing about it.
“One night, a scorekeeper came into the locker room after the game to hand the stat sheets to Phil Jackson and the coaching staff. The sheet breaks down the points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocked shots, turnovers, and so on for everyone who played the game. I couldn’t believe the look the guy gave Michael: ‘See MJ, we take care of you.’ No wonder in the nine full seasons we played together, he averaged more steals than me in every year except two.”
– Scottie Pippen (“Unguarded”)
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While it seems petty, there were reports of an unusually close relationship between Michael Jordan and the scorekeeper that seems to give some credence to the idea that he helped to boost his “Airness'” stats because of the bond they had.
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