Scottie Pippen isn’t putting Michael Jordan alone on the NBA’s GOAT throne.
That was the message Pippen delivered Sunday at the Got Sole sneaker convention in Chicago, when he was pressed on whether his former Bulls teammate should be viewed as the greatest basketball player of all time. Pippen didn’t bite on the idea of a single, undisputed best.
Interviewer: “Is Michael Jordan the greatest basketball player of all time?”
Pippen: “He’s one of them.”
Interviewer: “One of them? Who’s THE best?”
Pippen: “It’s not a ‘The’ best. It’s a team game.”
Interviewer: “It’s a team game! Good answer.
Are you on that team? There’s five players.
Are you on that team?”
Pippen: “I was on a lot of them.”
The answer landed with some surprise, but Pippen backed it with a point that’s hard to argue with: basketball is played by five men at a time, and no superstar wins in a vacuum. Even Jordan’s towering case - built in part on that 6-0 record in the NBA Finals - doesn’t erase the fact that the Bulls’ run in the ’90s came with plenty of help around him.
Jordan was the face of those teams, but he wasn’t carrying the whole thing by himself. Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr and Toni Kukoc all played their part, and Pippen was the biggest co-star of them all. The Bulls’ rise in the playoffs also lines up with Pippen’s arrival ahead of the 1987-88 season, especially when you compare it to Jordan’s 1-9 playoff record before that.
Pippen’s stance on the GOAT debate has been consistent. He has repeatedly declined to crown Jordan, recently even naming himself above him. He has also put Magic Johnson ahead of both Michael Jordan and LeBron James in the past.
Some of that comes back to the well-known tension between Pippen and Jordan. Still, his latest answer was less about tearing Jordan down than reminding people that greatness in basketball is shared.
Jordan may be one of the best ever. In Pippen’s view, he’s not the only one.
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