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Scottie Pippen: “This was a recurring theme in Last Dance. Michael Jordan coming up with a villain, real or imaginary, to motivate himself. I always wondered: Wasn’t the goal of winning a championship motivation enough”
With each passing day more and more excerpts from Pippen’s memoir “Unguarded” come to light. And each time, there is another statement bashing Michael Jordan and ‘The Last Dance’. At first, everyone assumed that Scottie Pippen was just mad about the way that his role was portrayed in the documentary, but it turns out there is a lot about it that he kept in.
New developments from the memory have revealed Scottie’s opinion of the rivalry that was budding between Michael Jordan and Clyde Drexler back in 1992. Here’s what he had to say about it.
Scottie Pippen pinpoints the obvious in The Last Dance
10 April 2019, US, Dallas: Basketball: NBA; Main Round; 81st Matchday; Dallas Mavericks – Phoenix Suns at Amercian Airlines Center. Legendary meeting on the occasion of Dirk Nowitzkis last home game of his career. This is Scottie Pippen speaking to Dirk Nowitzki. Photo: Philipp Hülsmann/dpa (Photo by Philipp Hülsmann/picture alliance via Getty Images)
The Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan faced the Portland Trail Blazers and Clyde Drexler in the 1992 NBA Finals. Everyone’s interest in the series peaked as two of the league’s best shooting guards were locking horns. Despite MJ being the MVP that season, Drexler was deemed just as dominant as him.
This really bothered Jordan. Even in ‘The Last Dance’ he admitted to being offended when he was compared to Drexler. This did not sit well with Pippen, who spoke against this thought process in his memoir.
On Page XVIII from the prologue, Scottie Pippen said, “The footage from the 1992 Finals instead focused on Game 1 and how determined Michael was to prove that Clyde, who finished second in the MVP race that season, wasn’t his equal. his was a recurring theme in the doc: Michael coming up with a villain, real or imaginary, to motivate himself. I always wondered: Wasn’t the goal of winning a championship motivation enough?”
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Michael Jordan went after Clyde Drexler in 1992
It is true that MJ wasn’t pleased with being put on the same pedestal as Drexler. So, he did unleash beast mode and ended the series in six games, leading the Bulls to their second straight title.
However, Drexler might not have six NBA championships, but he also became a Hall of Famer, just like Michael Jordan. In fact, the two were even teammates for Team USA’s Olympic basketball team and ended up getting along. So, whatever animosity existed between the two, was up in smoke.
Coming back to Pippen, it’s only natural for NBA players to find their own reasons to keep them motivated. So, this just seems like another one of his attempts to take his anger out on Jordan, something everyone has been assuming since this ordeal began.
The post Scottie Pippen: “This was a recurring theme in Last Dance. Michael Jordan coming up with a villain, real or imaginary, to motivate himself. I always wondered: Wasn’t the goal of winning a championship motivation enough” appeared first on EssentiallySports.
