Scottie Pippen is still taking issue with how The Last Dance played out, and the biggest flashpoint is money.
In his memoir, Unguarded, Pippen says Michael Jordan was paid $10 million for his involvement in the 2020 ESPN documentary while he and the rest of the Bulls got nothing. For Pippen, that wasn’t just a bad look - it was another example of how things were handled during Chicago’s dynasty years.
“To make things worse, Michael received $10 million for his role in the doc while my teammates and I didn’t earn a dime, another reminder of the pecking order from the old days,” Pippen wrote in his memoir, Unguarded.
He also took aim at the documentary itself, saying the final product leaned too heavily into Jordan’s legend while shortchanging the rest of the team.
“Similar to the previous eight, they glorified Michael Jordan while not giving nearly enough praise to me and my proud teammates,” Pippen wrote of the documentary’s final two episodes.
Pippen said Jordan had control over the project’s final form.
“Michael deserved a large portion of the blame. The producers had granted him editorial control of the final product.
The doc couldn’t have been released otherwise. He was the leading man and the director.”
And Pippen didn’t stop there. He said even his own storyline ended up serving Jordan’s image.
“I was nothing more than a prop,” Pippen wrote. “His ‘best teammates of all time,’ he called me. He couldn’t have been more condescending if he tried.”
That criticism lands hard considering what Jordan and Pippen accomplished together. They won six NBA titles, reached the Finals six times without a loss, and powered one of the most dominant runs in league history. The Bulls won three straight championships from 1991-93, then repeated the feat from 1996-98.
Jordan averaged 31.5 points, 6.4 rebounds and 5.6 assists during his years alongside Pippen. Pippen put up 17.1 points, 6.4 rebounds and 5.3 assists playing with Jordan.
They were, by any measure, one of the greatest duos the game has seen.
Still, the relationship clearly had its rough patches away from the court. Pippen wrote that Jordan reached out after hearing he was upset about The Last Dance.
“What’s up dude? I’m getting word that you’re upset with me. Love to talk about it if you have time,” Jordan wrote in a text message, according to Pippen’s book.
Pippen’s reply made his stance plain.
“I was disappointed in the documentary,” he wrote back. “It didn’t shine a good light on me.
You were promoting The Last Dance but switched it to the Michael Jordan documentary. I don’t know what you are selling.
Was I great or was I villain?”
The documentary became a major success and brought renewed attention to the Bulls’ dynasty more than two decades after the team’s last championship. But for Pippen, it also brought back old frustrations that clearly never went away.
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