Michael Jordan was famously demanding of his Chicago Bulls teammates, and one of his best colleagues has lifted the lid on why the superstar shooting guard was so hard to get along with.
Jordan is widely considered to be the greatest basketball player of all time after a glittering career that saw him win six championship and claim five Most Valuable Player awards.
In addition to those accolades, he was also a Defensive Player of the Year, a 14-time All-Star and a 10-time NBA scoring champion.
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But Jordan was also notoriously driven. He held himself to the highest competitive standards and expected the same of his teammates. This attitude likely drove the Bulls to the dominance they enjoyed in the 1990s, but it also cost Jordan in terms of his relationships with colleagues.
Scottie Pippen played alongside Jordan for all six of the title campaigns he spearheaded in Chicago. The small forward was an all-time great in his own right, named an All-Star seven times and regarded as one of the best defensive players in NBA history.
During an appearance on the BPD podcast recently, Pippen explained that he and Jordan last spoke sometime during the pandemic. Asked how that interaction went, he said it was "good and final".
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"Michael is a very difficult person to deal with," Pippen explained. "Great teammate but we just were never great friends
"He didn't really bond with players.
"Michael, he was built different, competitive 24/7. Not too many people are built like that."
Pippen is not the only former teammates with whom Jordan is no longer on speaking terms.
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Charles Barkley once counted "His Airness" as one of his closest friends. They two both entered the NBA in the 1984 draft and starred alongside each other as the USA's 'Dream Team' won a gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
But the pair haven't spoken since Barkley – in his role as an NBA analyst for TNT – criticised Jordan's time as owner of the Charlotte Hornets.
Topics: NBA, Basketball, Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls
Ryan Baldi