Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen made history together as teammates on the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, but the pair have a strained relationship.
Jordan is widely regarded as the greatest NBA player of all time, with five Most Valuable Player awards, six Finals MVPs and an unprecedented 10 scoring titles to his name.
But Pippen is an NBA icon in his own right, considered one of the best defensive players the league has ever seen and Jordan's co-star for six title triumphs, comprised of a 'three-peat' between 1991 and 1993 and a second back-to-back-to-back championship run from 1996 to 1998.
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Yet for all they have achieved together on the court, they are not always complimentary of one another in retirement. And some of the resentment between the two superstars seems to stem from Pippen's conduct after Jordan's father was murdered in 1993.
In his autobiography, Pippen detailed his regret and not having reached out to offer his support after his teammate's father's death.
"I feel horrible every time I think about it," Pippen wrote. "Michael’s father, James Jordan, had been murdered.
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"The two were inseparable. When I heard the news, I should have reached out to Michael right away. Having lost my own dad three years before, I might have been able to offer Michael some comfort. To this day, he and I haven’t spoken about his father’s death."
And outspoken ESPN journalist Stephen A Smith claims Jordan felt 'betrayed' by Pippen after his dad's tragic murder.
"When it comes to Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan feels betrayed," Smith said on the Valuetainment podcast with Patrick Bet-David
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"When Scottie revealed in his book his feelings for Michael Jordan and how he didn't even give his condolences in person to Michael Jordan (when his father died), I was on the phone to him that day talking about something else.
"We had heard about what Scottie Pippen had said. Michael Jordan was under the impression it was busy, it was chaotic and that's why he never thought anything of it.
"But all of these years later, when Scottie had alluded to his father being murdered and he didn't give his condolences on purpose, Michael Jordan's words were 'I hope it's worth it. I hope it's worth it for him.'
"He literally said, 'I have nothing else to say." And I know Michael Jordan well enough to know what that means.'
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For years, the exact details of the murder of James Jordan remained a mystery. But in 2022, one of the perpetrators made a harrowing confession.
"On the night we crossed paths with Michael Jordan’s dad, we had already robbed a convenience store and a couple outside a motel. There are motels right by Highway 95, the interstate that runs through North Carolina," Larry Demery, who was 17 at the time, told the What it Was Like podcast.
"So we were hanging around outside, creeping around, waiting for people to pop out. But not much was happening and we noticed a car sitting not far from the motel, right beside the highway.
"Daniel actually mentioned it first. He said, 'man, you know what? That’s a Lexus.' At the time I didn’t know what a Lexus was because they’d only been out for like a year or two. But we decided to go check it out.
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"There in the front seat, we found a guy asleep, laying there with gold rings on his fingers and a gold watch. We actually thought the guy was a dope dealer to be in a ride like that, sitting beside the road asleep.
"So we just walked by a couple of times and checked it out. Then we decided to rob the guy.
"The plan was to drive him down the road and just put him out, then drive off with his stuff. But it didn’t work out that way.
"There was only one pistol. Daniel had it. He tried to hand it to me but I was like 'no man, no'. I’m not trying to make myself sound like an innocent person or anything. I was right there and down with the program, but nobody was supposed to have gotten hurt. The man was laying there asleep.
"So I remember he took it, and then there was a shot. That was it. Just one shot, while the man lay there asleep. When he was hit, he just moved around a little bit, made a noise - like a moaning noise - then sat up real quick. There was a moment and he laid back again, and that was it. Just a few seconds and he stopped moving."
Topics: NBA, Chicago Bulls, Basketball, Michael Jordan
Ryan Baldi