In the second episode of Sunday night's premiere of ESPN's “The Last Dance” docuseries chronicling Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls, Jordan candidly expresses his disappointment with Scottie Pippen for choosing to put off foot surgery until right before the season—causing him to miss the first 35 games of the group's final campaign together.
“Scottie was wrong in that scenario,” Jordan reflected. “He could've got his surgery done as soon as the season was over and be ready for the season. What Scottie was trying to do was trying to force management to change his contract. And [owner Jerry Reinsdorf] was never going to do that.”
During an appearance on ESPN's The Jump on Tuesday, former Bulls guard Steve Kerr disagreed with Jordan's assessment of Pippen's actions.
First, when the current Golden State Warriors head coach was asked whether he thought there was any leftover resentment from the other Bulls players over Pippen's decision at the time, Kerr stated “No, not at all.”
“Everyone respected Scottie so much,” Kerr elaborated. “We felt his frustration. He probably should have been the second-highest-paid guy in the NBA or definitely top-five. So we all felt for him, nobody resented him for having that surgery. Later, we all understood, let's give him his space, and he's going to be there for the second stretch of the season for us.”
Pippen, for his part, fully admitted that he “decided to have surgery late because I was like, ‘You know what, I'm not going to f— my summer up.” As the documentary illuminates, the Hall of Famer was criminally underpaid during his Bulls tenure and frequently clashed with the front office, particularly general manager Jerry Krause.
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