Written by Olivia Day for Daily Mail Australia
02:04 February 29, 2024, updated 02:04 February 29, 2024
A heartwarming moment from an interview with NBA hero Scottie Pippen has gone viral online after Karl Stefanovic made a big confession about Michael Jordan.
Pippen seemed to forget his long-standing feud with the 61-year-old Pippen when he admitted that his former Chicago Bulls teammate is the greatest player in basketball history.
“It’s hard to compare, but from where you were standing, was Michael the greatest, the greatest of all time?” Stefanovic asked.
“Certainly, I mean, look at the MVP that he was able to accomplish,” Pippen told Channel Nine’s Today on Tuesday.
“I think it all came from our success as a team,” he continued. “Obviously someone is going to take home that honor. Yeah, he was definitely the greatest player in basketball.”
This came after the six-time NBA championship winner gave a completely different answer when asked the same question by former teammate Stacey King last year.
lebron [James] He’s going to be the greatest statistician to ever play the game of basketball,” Pippen said on the Kings Gimme the Hot Sauce podcast in May.
And there’s no comparison to him. none. So, will he be the best player in the history of the game? That’s up for debate, but our game is a team game and one player can’t do it, so great players Because I don’t think it exists. ”
He said on the podcast that Jordan was a “terrible player” before joining the Bulls.
“I watched Jordan play before he played for the Bulls. You guys watched him play. He was a terrible player. He was terrible to play with,” he said.
“He was all one-on-one, hitting bad shots, and all of a sudden we became a team and started winning. And everyone forgot who he was.”
The Today host asked Pippen what he thought of ESPN’s documentary series “The Last Dance,” which chronicled the rise of Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
Pippen was reportedly furious with the way he was portrayed in the series, and his relationship with Jordan soured as a result.
He surprised basketball fans on Tuesday by praising the docuseries.
“I thought it was special,” Pippen said. “We thought it would be a special moment for us to really relive the greatest era in basketball history. Plus, we’d have a chance to see what team basketball was really like.
“During the pandemic, with everyone sitting at home, I think it was like an educational tool to help people understand how great the game can be if you play it the right way. Basketball If we can share this, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.”
Pippen previously criticized the series for portraying Jordan as a minor player while Jordan was credited with contributing to the Bulls’ success in the 1990s.
“They praised Michael Jordan, but they didn’t give me or my proud teammates nearly enough praise,” Pippen, 58, wrote in his 2021 memoir, Unguarded.
“Michael should have taken most of that responsibility. The producers had given him editorial control of the final product, otherwise this document would not have been released. He was the lead actor and the director. was.”
As a result, Pippen claims the documentary felt inauthentic.
“I don’t think it was that accurate in terms of really defining what was accomplished in one of the great eras of basketball and by two great players – and putting that aside, all You could even say it’s the greatest team of all time.” Pippen told the Guardian in December 2020.
“I didn’t think that was prominent in the documentary. I thought it was about Michael trying to improve himself and gain glory. I think it backfired to some degree in that we had the opportunity to see if we had the.”
Further complicating matters is the relationship between Pippen’s ex-wife, Larsa, 49, and Jordan’s son, Marcus, 32.
The two started dating in 2022 and are believed to have broken up earlier this year.
Pippen and Larsa were married for nearly 20 years and had four children together before divorcing in 2021.
Pippen will travel to Australia this month to attend the National Basketball League’s awards banquet, then join former teammates Horace Grant and Luc Longley on a speaking tour.
The Hall of Famer was a member of all six of the Bulls’ title-winning teams.