Since “The Last Dance” first aired on ESPN last spring, Scottie Pippen — along with other former Chicago Bulls — has not been shy about voicing his displeasure about the docu-series.
Despite the fact that Jordan credits Pippen for his integral role in the Bulls' success in the 1990s — even saying, “whenever they speak Michael Jordan, they should speak Scottie Pippen — the Hall of Fame wing-man has clearly felt slighted by his portrayal in the Jason Hehir's acclaimed documentary.
Pippen continued to air his grievances about the hit series in a new interview with The Guardian. Evidently, Pippen feels like the documentary leaned too heavily towards a celebration of Jordan's individual accomplishments and personality, rather than specifically highlighting their success together.
“I don’t think it was that accurate in terms of really defining what was accomplished in one of the greatest eras of basketball, but also by two of the greatest players – and one could even put that aside and say the greatest team of all time,” Pippen said. “I didn’t think those things stood out in the documentary. I thought it was more about Michael trying to uplift himself and to be glorified [the series was co-produced by Jordan’s Jump 23 company]. I think it also backfired to some degree in that people got a chance to see what kind of personality Michael had.”
Pippen added that he voiced his criticisms to his former Bulls teammate, who accepted his opinion.
“I told him I wasn’t too pleased with it. He accepted it. He said, ‘hey, you’re right'. That was pretty much it.”
In general, Pippen acknowledged that he doesn't tend to reflect on the past, which is one reason he didn't help promote the doc.
I didn’t get behind the documentary and try to promote it, talk about any incident that might have happened in the documentary. I didn’t feel I needed to bring back things that happened 20 years ago.
Pippen and Jordan won six titles together and formed a profound on-court bond as teammates from 1987-98.
You can watch “The Last Dance” on Netflix.