Scottie Pippen ‘Was In Shock’ When Michael Jordan Told Him At White Sox Game In 1993 He Was Retiring From NBA: ‘My Mind Was A Million Miles Away’

Scottie Pippen “was in shock” when Michael Jordan told him at a Chicago White Sox game in 1993 that he was retiring from the NBA. 

Jordan retired from the NBA in October 1993 after winning his third consecutive championship in June with the Chicago Bulls against the Phoenix Suns. 

Jordan’s father, James, was murdered in the summer of 1993. Jordan quit basketball in October to play baseball for the Birmingham Barons, the White Sox’s Double-A franchise. 

“It was Tuesday evening, October 5, 1993. I was on my way to a private box at Comiskey Park to watch the Chicago White Sox take on the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series. The South Side was buzzing. The White Sox hadn’t been in the playoffs in ten years,” Pippen wrote in his book. “The reporters asked if I had heard a rumor that Michael was going to retire. Yeah right, I told them. And I’ll be starting at third base for the Sox tonight. No really, they said, that’s the word going around the ballpark. I still didn’t believe it, but I decided to reach out to Michael regardless. He was in another private box, having thrown out the game’s ceremonial first pitch. It would be worth a good laugh, if nothing else. He and I were always getting a kick out of the wild rumors people put out there. 

“This was no wild rumor. It’s true, Michael told me. I’m making the announcement tomorrow. I was in shock. I didn’t stick around for the whole game. My mind was a million miles away. Like others on the team, I saw the toll the past season had taken on him — the games themselves, as well as the gambling stories that popped up. And that was before his dad was killed. Some reporters had the nerve to suggest Michael’s gambling debts may have had something to do with the murder. Just when I thought the media couldn’t do any lower, I was proven wrong. Yet during the regular season, and in the playoffs, I never got the slightest indication he was thinking about hanging it out. the competition meant too much to him, and both of us believed there were more championships to come.”

Pippen noted in his book that he wore sunglasses at Jordan’s retirement press conference so people couldn’t see him get emotional. 

While Pippen and Jordan weren’t close friends, Pippen was still going to miss his best teammate. 

“Michael sat at the front table with his wife, Juanita, along with Phil Jackson, Jerry Krause, Jerry Reinsdorf, and Commissioner David Stern,” Pippen wrote. “I stood in the back with several of my teammates, wearing shades. I had a feeling I might shed a few tears before the day was over. So what if Michael and I weren’t as close off the court as people assumed? The two of us would forever be linked together on a franchise that won three straight championships. I was overcome with a deep sense of loss as I listened to him explain why he was leaving. That a part of me was leaving, too.”

Jordan returned to the NBA near the end of the 1994-95 season. He and Pippen won six titles with the Bulls in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 1998.