Scottie Pippen Accomplishing Nothing With Wild Accusations
One day in October 1996, my dad picked me up from school. He told me that Scottie Pippen and Bill Wennington were appearing that afternoon at the now-demolished Montgomery Ward at our local mall. Sure enough, I found myself standing in a crowded room with two Chicago Bulls up front only a few months removed from winning the franchise’s fourth NBA championship. The highlight for me was seeing Pippen walk to his car and drive off when it was time for him to leave.
Being new to Bulls fandom, 7-year-old me had no idea of the events of Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals two years earlier, let alone that Pippen still would be hung up on said events in 2021. While I eventually learned of Pippen’s refusal to re-enter the game after Phil Jackson drew up the final shot for Toni Kukoc instead of him, I didn’t let it affect my opinion of him too much. Now, Pippen is trying my and everyone else’s patience by suddenly claiming there was a “racial” motive for Jackson’s decision. When asked by Dan Patrick in an interview to clarify his comments, Pippen not only doubled down, but he made yet another bizarre claim, this one having to do with Michael Jordan:
Pippen, of course, is referring to Jordan’s conversation with Steve Kerr right before Kerr hit the shot to win the 1997 championship. In case you haven’t seen it, don’t remember it or just want to see it again, here it is:
Unless Kerr or Jordan come out and say something, we’ll never know if the conversation actually was scripted. It’s probably not the case, and that surely was an NBA Entertainment camera filming the bench. Plus, while NBA Entertainment made several Jordan videos over the years, it’s doubtful that it would be in cahoots with His Airness during the finals, especially when the cameras have to focus on both teams in case either one wins the title.
Still, Pippen has veered the conversation into a place it shouldn’t have gone. There is no known evidence to support anything he has said, and it is forcing people to reconsider what they think about him. How are they going to buy his upcoming book if they aren’t sure what words he utters are true? Pippen set out to publicize the book and his liquor, but the way he’s gone about it is turning potential buyers off instead of on.
Is that the endgame with all of this? He figures if people start talking, it will drum up interest and encourage them to put more money in his pocket? All too often, we hear about public figures pulling stunts like this when they have something new to sell. The result is talk that the person has become unhinged, and we have seen this happen with too many long-established people over the past few years.
It would be unfair if we didn’t consider that all of this is a coping mechanism for Pippen. He recently lost his oldest son, Antron, at the age of 33. That blow came a year after being fired as a Bulls ambassador. When your longtime employer decides to part with you and your child dies in that short amount of time, perhaps you decide that you have nothing left to lose and decide to let out the thoughts that have been building inside your head for years.
Whatever the reason, it’s completely unfair to throw people you’ve known for years under the bus when you have nothing to support your claims. This is how legacies get ruined, and that can happen very easily in a world dominated by social media. It becomes almost impossible to separate the art from the artist. How many over the past week alone have decided they can’t watch Pippen highlights anymore?
The worst part is Pippen is trying to bring arguably both the greatest player and coach in NBA history down with him. Jackson and Jordan didn’t ask to get involved this, and neither did Kukoc or Kerr. While all of them likely are to take the higher ground and say nothing in response, the idea that at least some of them knew something that would lessen great moments in Bulls history might not go away easily for some impressionable people. As we saw in “The Last Dance”, there’s plenty of controversy to talk about with this group already.
With luck, this all will blow over soon. It depends on how much Pippen is willing to keep his mouth shut, which appears to be a taller order than necessary right now. We don’t know what his intention is here, but a self-inflicted blow to his reputation surely wasn’t it. Then again, what constitutes reality appears to have become subjective.
