Pippen says he was "the real leader" of the Bulls dynasty
doubledragon
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Scottie Pippen is putting out a new book in which he is throwing shade at Michael Jordan. In the book, he claims he was the real leader of the Bulls. The book is titled "Unguarded" and is due out in November.
SCOTTIE PIPPEN
'CRINGED' AT BEING CALLED JORDAN'S SIDEKICK
... I Was 'Real Leader'
Scottie Pippen just announced he's dropping a new book -- and it seems like there's some shade being thrown at Michael Jordan.
Remember, Pippen said he was "not too pleased" at the way he was portrayed in MJ's acclaimed docuseries "The Last Dance" ... and was so upset, he addressed the issue with Jordan directly.
"I don’t think it was that accurate in terms of really defining what was accomplished in one of the greatest eras of basketball, but also by two of the greatest players – and one could even put that aside and say the greatest team of all time," Pippen told The Guardian.
Fast forward to Wednesday ... Pippen revealed he's dropping an "unflinching memoir" called "Unguarded" reflecting on his life, including his time with the Bulls -- and the official summary on the Simon & Schuster website is teasing some serious tea.
First ... Pippen claims "there's no 'Michael Jordan' as we know him" without him -- adding, "The 1990s Chicago Bulls teams would not exist as we know them."
Next ...
"Pippen details how he cringed at being labeled Jordan’s sidekick, and discusses how he could have (and should have) received more respect from the Bulls’ management and the media."
Interesting ...
But, then a more direct shot -- criticizing MJ's leadership.
"[Pippen] discusses what it was like dealing with Jordan on a day-to-day basis, while serving as the real leader within the Bulls locker room."
So ... shots fired??
Book drops in November -- guess we'll find out soon enough!
Comments
He would say that.
There's only one way to settle this.
I was thinking Mad Max and Thunderdome. Two men enter, One man leave.
That will work!
Of course, in the later years of the Bulls dynasty, we all know who was the real leader in that locker room. Shut up Pippen!
Hey Pippen, talk to me when you have your own wedding day doll, they're $40.00 and they're selling like hotcakes!
actually the real leader of the bulls was phil jackson.
period. end of story.
Pippen was always one of my favorite players to watch over the years but his image took a huge hit the day he decided to go pout on the bench because the coach drew up a play for Toni Kukoc to take a potential game winning shot instead of him. How many “Real Leaders” would do something like that with the game on the line in the playoffs?
Everyone knows that his role in their overall success was just as important as Jordan’s was,in fact the Bulls & Jordan were 1-9 in the playoffs before Pippen came to town,two years later they were in the ECF. This whole situation sounds like Scottie’s ego didn’t get stroked enough during the Last Dance.
Eric
Erikthredd’s MJ Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/publishedset/395035
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He's not completely wrong about being the leader. In terms of keeping the team together and not killing MJ, I'm sure he was on top of it. When it came to handling things in the locker room, I'm sure he did a lot of it. MJ was a terrible teammate - that left Scottie to hold things together. And, remember, he led them to almost 60 wins while Michael was suspended playing baseball.
Fascinating article on the 90s video game NBA Jam.
NBA Jam was rigged against Pippen & Bulls and also haunted by Drazen Petrovic?!
I miss arcades. Real small dark arcades in malls and shopping centers. Dave & Busters, Main Event and places like that are cool, it’s just not as cool as the “NO FOOD OR DRINKS (or women in the case of Saudi Arabia — I lived there for much of my childhood)” arcades of the 80s and 90s.
You just can’t make that dramatic entrance at Dave and Busters, pull a quarter out of a jingling deep pocket of coins and slam it on the machine to let the guy playing Street Fighter know you got next and is about to kick his ass off the machine. It’s just not the same with a Dave and Busters card that you have to swipe.
NBA JAM – GREATEST ARCADE GAME EVER (NOT NAMED STREET FIGHTER)
When NBA Jam came out in 93, I was a fixture at the arcade, slamming quarters and battling any and everybody. My go-to team was the Charlotte Hornets and I can’t tell you how many times a newbie would get on the machine and then complain when they realized Michael Jordan wasn’t on the Bulls.
Why wasn’t he?
The GOAT was MIA on NBA Jam (and the NBA Live games) because Jordan owned his own likeness and NBA Jam creator Midway couldn’t pay his licensing fee. Apparently, it wasn’t too much for that silly Chaos in the Windy City game.
The other problem these Bulls fans had against me, along with the help of Larry Johnson and Zo, was finding out Pippen and the Bulls weren’t as good as they should have been.
Why was that?
In an interview with ESPN the Magazine, NBA Jam lead designer Mark Turmell revealed those complainers were kind of right.
Did Scottie Pippen’s ratings in the game really drop when he played certain teams?
It’s true, but only when the Bulls played the Pistons. If there was a close game and anyone on the Bulls took a last-second shot, we wrote special code in the game so that they would average out to be brick. There was the big competition back in the day between the Pistons and the Bulls, and since I was always a big Pistons fan, that was my opportunity to level the playing field.
If that rumor clear up wasn’t mind-blowing enough, here’s Mark’s story on the rumor that the game was haunted by the great Drazen Petrovic.
We had already finished making NBA Jam when Drazen Petrovic died. The game had already shipped and he was on the Nets. So we had all of these coin-op machines around, and one night we were playing Mortal Kombat and there was a Jam machine next to it, and all of a sudden the game started calling out “Petrovic!” “Petrovic!” And this only happened after Petrovic had died. Everyone started freaking out. Something weird was going on with the software, and to this day, if you have an original NBA Jam machine every once in a while it will just yell out “Petrovic!” It’s wild.
The last great story from the interview is the revealing that there’s a handful of arcade versions out there with Michael Jordan and Gary Payton on them; I just added owning one of them to my bucket list.
The most interesting one was the team of Gary Payton and Michael Jordan. Payton didn’t make the cut to be in the game, and of course, Jordan pulled himself out of the licensing of the NBA, so we had to pull him out of the game. But one day, I got a phone call from a distributor out on the west coast who told me that Gary Payton was willing to pay whatever it cost to get into the game. So we told him what to do in terms of taking photographs, so he sent in photographs of himself and Jordan, saying, “We want to be in the game, hook us up.” So we actually did a special version of the game and gave both players all-star, superstar stats. There are only a handful of these machines, but Jordan and Payton did end up being in one version of the game
Another great NBA Jam story belongs to Shaq. He loved the game so much, he would actually rent or have the arcade game shipped to hotels he and the Orlando Magic were staying at during road games.
It sounds shocking but I also remember a rookie Shaq renting out an Orlando water amusement park (Wet n’ Wild) for a couple of hours just so he and one of his friends could stay longer and not have to deal with lines.
What I find shocking is Shaq said his favorite player to use in the game was Chris Mullin. I can honestly say I’ve played the game a few thousand times at the arcade and never once played with Mully.
So will Pippin cards skyrocket? Nope. Maybe Scotty is short on cash? Book deals bring money and of course more talk about the 90’s Bulls. No matter who thinks what it was a great dynasty and none would have had the success without each other including Jackson in Chicago.
"I spent 50% of my money on alcohol, women, and gambling. The other half I wasted.
Pippen is thoroughly unlikable.
I always disliked him. It's so easy to do
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
All the success and sports glory these guys had and the money they made, and they can't keep their mouths shut against each other.
It's baffling to me.
Pippen was a great, if underappreciated player. However, true leaders don't need to announce themselves as leaders. everyone just knows.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.