"He was trying to lure me": Scottie Pippen once claimed Michael Jordan almost baited him into losing a fortune by giving him gifts
Michael Jordan's love for gambling and golf is well documented. In one of the stories on ESPN and Netflix's 'The Last Dance', his teammate and Chicago Bulls superstar Scottie Pippen revealed how 'His Airness' tried to trick him into losing all of his money by gifting him a set of golf clubs.
And for those who thought Jordan made a sweet gesture by welcoming Pippen to the Bulls ranks, there sure were ulterior motives behind the move.
Pippen had a wide grin on his face when narrating the story. While explaining how Jordan was different, his story also showed how the six-time NBA champion found ways to gamble and make extra moolah.
“Michael was such a superstar in the game of basketball, and he was bigger than any superstar that any sport had ever had, it wasn’t like he was any average guy and like let’s go have lunch. It’s different."
When the producer reminded him of the golf clubs that Jordan presented Pippen in his rookie year, the latter had a chuckle:
“He was trying to lure me in so he could take all my money.”
While there's no way to verify if that was indeed Michael Jordan's intention, given his penchant for gambling, it could be true that he indeed looked to make some money off Pippen. All said, it still makes for a good story.
Scottie Pippen was not pleased with Michael Jordan after 'The Last Dance'
Scottie Pippen has missed no opportunity to take shots at Michael Jordan ever since 'The Last Dance' went on to become one of the most iconic sports docuseries.
It's one thing to say that it filled the void of live sporting events left after the outbreak of the coronavirus, but Pippen was not pleased with how the show glorified the Bulls legend.
If his book 'Unguarded' saw him slam Jordan for the docuseries, he did it again on Stacey King's 'Gimme the Hot Sauce' podcast.
“I’ve seen Michael Jordan play before I came to play with the Bulls. He was a horrible player. He was horrible to play with. He was all one-on-one. He was shooting bad shots. And, all of a sudden, we become a team and we start winning. Everybody forgot who he was.”
For a team that ruled the NBA between 1991 and 1998, Pippen surely pulled no punches when talking about the Chicago Bulls before he joined in 1987.
More so, it's plain unfortunate to see how things have panned out between the two. Once looked at as the greatest duo in NBA history, they don't even see eye-to-eye now, with Pippen dishing out most of the smoke.