Scottie Pippen: Michael Jordan was a terrible player before joining the Chicago Bulls

In a podcast called “Gimme the Hot Sauce”, when asked by the host where LeBron James was among the league’s greatest legends, Pippen had a rather surprising answer. He shared:

“There is no greatest player. Basketball is a team sport. I saw Michael Jordan play before coming to the Bulls. He was a terrible player and also a terrible teammate. He just practiced focused on 1v1s, and threw very poorly. Then suddenly, we became a winning team and everyone forgot all about his past.

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The legendary 6-time NBA champion also shared that he would put himself in the group of the best legends in the league and that “LeBron James is the greatest player in basketball history in terms of statistics.”

Pippen has publicly expressed his discomfort many times about the great glory that Jordan has achieved in his career.

When did Scottie Pippen join the Chicago Bulls?
Pippen joined the Bulls in 1987 as the 5th pick in the NBA Draft. He then played 12 seasons for the city’s football team nicknamed “Windy City”, including the 1993/1994 season when Jordan temporarily retired to play rugby.

Pippen averaged 22 points, 8.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game to lead the Bulls to a respectable 55-27 record that season. In the playoff round, the Bulls lost 3-4 to the Knicks in the regional semi-finals.

The basketball and NBA fan community on Twitter had a very controversial day after Pippen’s statement about Jordan as well as LeBron.