Scottie Pippen Hated Charles Barkley’s Laziness, Says Cuttino Mobley

One of the most forgotten about feuds in NBA history occurred between two of the game’s best players: Scottie Pippen and Charles Barkley. The two icons played together in 1998-1999 alongside Hakeem Olajuwon while on the Rockets. Pippen was coming from his epic run as a member of the Bulls dynasty, while Chuck was coming from his best career years in Phoenix. The team was built with the idea of making one last title run.

Suffice it to say, it didn’t work out. Scottie was incredibly disciplined. He learned that from years of balling next to Michael Jordan and being coached by Phil Jackson. Barkley was the opposite of that dynamic. Chuck was an all-time great, but he wanted to get things done his own way, and tried to enforce that attitude while in Houston. The team finished with a 31-19 in the shortened lockout season. They would get bounced in the first round by the Lakers.

The chemistry was just not there, particularly because Pippen had a disdain for Chuck. One person who saw this happen in real time was the now-retired Rockets star Cuttino Mobley. He spoke about the rivalry during a recent interview on All The Smoke. 

“Charles may not even come to practice,” revealed Mobley. “It bumped heads with Scottie, because he don’t come from that. So he was looking at Charles like, ‘Yo dog what are you doing? Like we are total opposites.'”

All The Smoke host Matt Barnes wondered if their head-butting was later seen on the court. “Yeah. Especially when it came to games that we could win with just them,” he answered. “Forget all us young guys. All of the young guys, ‘Just be out there. We’ll win the game, but I need you and your energy to help me do this.'”

To give that Rockets team some credit…the Lakers team that eliminated them was led by Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. Even though Hakeem was still playing pretty well, he was no longer in his prime. Even if the Rockets made it passed the first round, the clear hatred between Pippen and Barkley wasn’t going to take them far.

“He’s just professional,” added Mobley about Pippen, who spoke about how influential he was to the younger guys on the team.

It’s kind of cool to hear about this side of Pippen. His days on the Rockets and Blazers are similar to MJ’s days on the Wizards. There were flashes of brilliance, but they largely get forgotten about.

Working out was the wedge that drove Pippen and Barkley apart as teammates

Mobley’s story wasn’t just one out-of-the-pocket incident regarding Barkley and Pippen. It was actually the core of their issues. Pippen revealed this in an old interview with GQ, where he explained how Chuck selling out on him exercise-wise was the beginning of the end.

When he was at the gym saying he wasn’t coming. ‘Can we train a little bit later in the afternoon?’ And that went on, and then the next time, it’s like, ‘I ain’t training today.’ So, he started selling out on me. I never told this. He started selling out on me in terms of working out,” he said.

Pippen added that Barkley ended up getting his own personal trainer, further driving him away from the team culture Houston was trying to build.

In the end, that Rockets team will forever be a capsule in time. A “What-If” that will forever be explained by the circumstances of the situation. It’s one that NBA fans still don’t learn from. Just because you have several superstars on your team doesn’t mean you’ll instantly find success. You need chemistry. You need to be teammates, and Pippen and Barkley just weren’t.