Stephen A. Smith reveals the exact words Michael Jordan said about Scottie Pippen’s betrayal

Despite leading the Chicago Bulls to six championships, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen’s off-court relationship was tumultuous. The Last Dance shed light on this, with teammates sharing that Jordan was a strict leader while Pippen was a more supportive and amiable teammate. Despite their contrasting leadership approaches, they were able to excel as a team on the court.

During Jordan’s break from basketball to focus on his baseball career, a video of Pippen pointing at the Jordan logo while sitting on the sidelines gained widespread attention. This occurred before the era of social media, but it still became popular among fans.

Even though Jordan eventually came back and he and the team won three more consecutive championships with Phil Jackson as coach, it is impossible to ignore the tension that arose after his retirement. With the absence of Phil Jackson as a guiding father figure, the situation started to deteriorate rapidly.

Despite being teammates for many years, the relationship between Jordan and Pippen was not strengthened by the release of the Last Dance documentary. In his memoir, Unguarded, Pippen revealed his dissatisfaction with the lack of recognition given to him and his teammates, refuting Jordan’s portrayal in the documentary and referring to himself as a mere “prop”in Jordan’s narrative.

In a recent episode of the PBD Podcast, Stephen A. Smith revealed that the relationship between Jordan and Pippen had been strained long before The Last Dance. He discussed this topic during the week:

“When it comes to Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan feels betrayed. When Scottie revealed in his book his feelings for Michael Jordan and how he didn’t even give his condolences in person to Michael Jordan. I was on the phone with Michael Jordan that day”. ..

“Michael Jordan’s words were, ‘I hope it’s worth it. I hope it’s worth it for him.’ And he literally said, I have nothing else to say.”

Examining the Complex Dynamics between Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan in The Last Dance

Despite expectations that the focus of The Last Dance would solely be on the Chicago Bulls’ final season, the promotional videos revealed that the main focus was on Jordan himself, despite the docu-series still centering around the team’s final season.

As a result, numerous fans began speculating that the already rocky relationship between Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen would worsen. However, following the documentary’s release, Pippen disclosed in his memoir that Jordan had reached out to him via text to reconcile any lingering tension between them.

In his book, Jordan wrote about his condescending behavior in the docu-series and acknowledged that he deserved blame due to his role as director of the film. In the aforementioned memoir, he stated:

“I was nothing more than a prop. His ‘best teammate of all time,’ he called me. He couldn’t have been more condescending if he tried. Michael deserved a large portion of the blame for the omissions. He was the leading man and the director.”

In an interview with The Guardian in 2020, prior to the release of his memoir, Pippen stated that the series did not bother him. He mentioned that while it may not have been completely accurate, he was not upset or bothered by the way things were depicted.

“I wasn’t upset about it. [The Last Dance] didn’t bother me at all. It was an opportunity for our younger generation that hadn’t seen or knew anything about basketball in the 90s.”

Despite the contradictory reports, Pippen’s memoir revealed that Jordan had expressed remorse, suggesting that there could have been underlying factors at play. Moreover, Stephen A. Smith’s claims about Jordan’s dissatisfaction with Pippen’s handling of his father’s passing suggest that there may still be lingering resentment between the two.