Scottie Pippen: Bulls success 'didn't come from Michael Jordan'

Scottie Pippen has offered some more criticism of Michael Jordan.

Pippen was a guest on his former teammate Stacey King’s “Stacey King’s Gimme The Hot Sauce Podcast” for an episode that was released on Friday. During the episode, Pippen was asked for his thoughts on “The Last Dance,” the 10-part ESPN documentary series on the 1998 Chicago Bulls told largely from Jordan’s perspective.

Pippen said he viewed the series as a tool to make Jordan more relevant to today’s players and the young generation of fans. He also offered criticism of Jordan — specifically about the way MJ treated his teammates.

“The success of the Bulls came from the team,” Pippen said. “It didn’t come from Michael Jordan. It didn’t come from him being critical of other players. If anything, that discouraged players, because no player wants to be talked down to, belittled or even made fun of to some way.”

Pippen said he couldn’t remember any free agents coming to Chicago wanting to play with Jordan. But he said he remembered players wanted to come when MJ was not there (during the break for baseball or after Jordan retired).

Pippen was asked for his Mount Rushmore of greatest players, not including himself. He gave his starting five for a great team and said it would include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Karl Malone.

As a follow-up, he was asked where LeBron ranks among the greatest players. Pippen explained that it’s difficult to rank players across eras, especially if he never got to see a given player take the court (like Bill Russell). But he praised James as a great winner based on not just championships but also how many NBA Finals he has reached.

Though he praised Jordan as “one of the greatest individual scorers we have seen,” he also noted that MJ’s focus to start his career was not on winning.