Scottie Pippen calls Phil Jackson a ‘racist’ who tried to ‘expose’ Kobe

Michael Jordan said that Scottie Pippen wouldn’t live this moment down…now he’s right!

In “The Last Dance” last year, Michael Jordan pointed out that Pippen’s decision to sit out the last 1.8 seconds of Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semi-finals in 1994 would be a moment he would never live down. After Scottie’s words this week, he won’t live down the incident or the explanation.

Look we get it, Scottie Pippen had led the Bulls to 55 wins after Michael Jordan left that season to play baseball (More on that in a second!). He finished third in the MVP race, won the All-Star game MVP and Chicago was a very good team while Jordan was chasing curveballs in the minor leagues.

With the score tied at 102 in the final seconds, Phil Jackson drew up a play for for rookie forward Toni Kukoc with Pippen passing the ball in. Pippen refused to return to the game.

Well… Kukoc hit the shot. 

Pippen went from apologizing to his teammates in 1994 to this statement in 2021…

"“I don’t think it’s a mystery, you need to read between the fine lines. It was my first year playing without Michael Jordan, why wouldn’t I be taking that last shot? I been through all the ups and downs, the battles with the Pistons and now you gonna insult me and tell me to take it out? I thought it was a pretty low blow. I felt like it was an opportunity to give [Kukoc] a rise. It was a racial move to give him a rise. After all I’ve been through with this organization, now you’re gonna tell me to take the ball out and throw it to Toni Kukoc? You’re insulting me. That’s how I felt.”"

Let’s put aside the fact that the play actually worked to perfection and Kukoc’s shot was so pure that the ball didn’t touch the rim for a second. There’s no racism here. Even if there was office politics going on, Jackson was not a part of that, Jerry Krause was. Kukoc was the late Bulls’ GM golden ticket and not the coach. Throw in the fact Jackson and Krause couldn’t stand each other makes the narrative even more ridiculous.

It gets better. When Dan Patrick brought up the 1997 title year when Jordan passed to Steve Kerr for the winner, Pippen called that staged for the cameras.

"“You know all those cameras who was sitting in that huddle, who they was working for? You know who Michael was speaking to, right? That was planned. That was speaking to the camera. That wasn’t speaking out of, what we’re gonna have to do, what the play is gonna be. That was speaking to the camera. Had John Stockton not came down — trust me. That was building his own documentary, because he knew he was controlling the cameras. All those cameras were working basically for Michael Jordan, not the Chicago Bulls … That was not naturally spoken. That was rehearsed.”"

Well…press play!

It’s really difficult to stage this the way Pippen says. Too many things have to go right including John Stockton playing along and doubling MJ in the post. Bottom line, Scottie has not gotten over Jordan calling him selfish… period.

But why this play over all others? Well, here’s where LeBron James comes in (It’s getting to the point, that even the Lake Show Life staff screams give the guy a break!). Scottie made some comparisons to Kevin Durant and LeBron based on the Brooklyn Nets loss in Game 7 to the Milwaukee Bucks.

Let’s just say Kevin Durant didn’t fire off tweets about Scottie Pippen for tweets.

It’s no secret that Kevin Durant is sensitive to criticism. It’s also no secret that KD can and will hand out social media business cards blasting people that get under his skin. Scottie Pippen was the object of Durant’s ire last week after being critical of his Game 7 performance.

But it was the LeBron comparison that set things off.

"“KD can score better than LeBron, probably always have been able to. But has he surpassed LeBron? Naw. He tried to beat the Milwaukee Bucks instead of utilizing his team. You see what I’m saying? LeBron James would’ve figured out how to beat them and he wouldn’t have been exhausted and he may not have taken the last shot. But LeBron ain’t KD, and KD ain’t LeBron. KD is a shooter, a scorer. But he doesn’t have what LeBron has.”"

KD took to social media to call Pippen out not only for the 1994 incident, but the infamous “migraine game” came up during the conference finals against the Detroit Pistons and his surgery in 1998 forcing Jordan to carry the team that was well documented in “The Last Dance”.

Fast forward to the 2000s when Phil was coaching the late great Kobe Bryant. Read on and judge for yourself.