Scottie in his book "Unguarded": MJ & I were never close friends & I was always the better teammate.

[ATRAIN53]

you know after a few weeks of Scottie trying to promote his book and get attention -

I'm kinda glad my 90's Bulls were not full of more controversy and ugly stuff. Scottie is trying hard to rake up some muck, but it's really just him coming across as a guy jealous he was never as good as MJ. It's all pretty vanilla compared to some of the stores were read about teams and what really happened behind the scenes. This stuff is all not even PG-13, it's a G movie.

He missed the boat on becoming a bigger legend had he won a title when MJ retired - or even one post MJ.
I mean he was on team with an aging Barkley and Hakeem, but they got pasted by a Shaq and Kobe.

I don't predict the book doing well.
I should be in the target audience for it, this is one of my favorite NBA players - but I'm not making any plans to read it anytime soon.
Maybe if it turns up in a garage sale in a few years I might grab it.

[SfBull]

To be honest....I am a kind of scared to read his book. He was my favorite player back than but I still have to learn and understand that their are to different Scottie Pippen's.

1. The player Scottie
2. The private Scottie

One of this two will be for ever one of the greatest ever.
For the other one I feel more than sorry.

From what I read the book seems to be great.

[HomoSapien]

Regarding Pippen saying he wants fans to remember him as "the greatest of all-time" I saw that comment on GMA. I felt like it was said more sarcastically/tongue in cheek than seriously. He laughed as he said it.

[Jo Jo English]

So far I've read the prologue and the first four chapters. From what I have read most of the comments that got folks talking, many already mentioned in this thread, were from the prologue. Basically Scottie explaining why he feels offended, sometimes using inexplicable logic, and how this book will be him telling his story, something he claims that The Last Dance failed to do.

The first four chapters go through his childhood from his very early years through his time at Central Arkansas. It details the challenges he and his family faced (his brother's devastating injury, his father's stroke, financial troubles) and how that impacted them. Talks about the people early in his life that either were obstacles to overcome or catalysts that pushed him along the right path with basketball and life. I knew generally of much of this, but it was still an interesting read and added a lot of context and detail.

Probably gives you some insight into the psychology of Scottie Pippen. Strengths and flaws.

Outside of the prologue there really hasn't been anything that would draw much controversy. I have reached the point where he has just been drafted and is on his way to Chicago. We shall see where it goes from here.

[dougthonus]

So far I've read the prologue and the first four chapters. From what I have read most of the comments that got folks talking, many already mentioned in this thread, were from the prologue. Basically Scottie explaining why he feels offended, sometimes using inexplicable logic, and how this book will be him telling his story, something he claims that The Last Dance failed to do.

The first four chapters go through his childhood from his very early years through his time at Central Arkansas. It details the challenges he and his family faced (his brother's devastating injury, his father's stroke, financial troubles) and how that impacted them. Talks about the people early in his life that either were obstacles to overcome or catalysts that pushed him along the right path with basketball and life. I knew generally of much of this, but it was still an interesting read and added a lot of context and detail.

Probably gives you some insight into the psychology of Scottie Pippen. Strengths and flaws.

Outside of the prologue there really hasn't been anything that would draw much controversy. I have reached the point where he has just been drafted and is on his way to Chicago. We shall see where it goes from here.

I'll read it after Christmas, but I doubt there is any super controversial stuff in there that we don't know already. Typically all the controversial stuff is leaked to get sales. It doesn't mean the book won't be interesting though, especially if you are a Bulls fan and just want to read the players backstory. I've read tons of sports biographies and found that generally to be true with all of them.

[wickywack]

We all know that the media has carefully crafted Jordan's image to be what it is today.

If the media wasn't in his back pocket, he'd be labeled a complete psychopath with a serious gambling addiction. Let's not forget that this is the same guy who punched out a teammate and literally bullied people on film yet all the media does is turn a blind eye. Remember when the NFL had a bullying scandal? That's peanuts compared to what Jordan did on a regular basis.

That's essentially what Pip is getting to with all of this, even though he was never the most articulate guy.

Meh. The Last Dance - Jordan's own doc - spent plenty of time on the gambling and the bullying. So have plenty of other books, articles, etc. Plenty others in the media tried tying the gambling to Jordan's father's murder without evidence. None of that is really swept under the rug here.

It's not the media, it's us as a society. Jordan won, repeatedly. He was who he was, and "we" have largely decided the ends justified the means.

Heck, a large swath of fandom still seems to revere Bobby Knight. Jordan is a teddy bear in comparison.

[dougthonus]

We all know that the media has carefully crafted Jordan's image to be what it is today.

If the media wasn't in his back pocket, he'd be labeled a complete psychopath with a serious gambling addiction. Let's not forget that this is the same guy who punched out a teammate and literally bullied people on film yet all the media does is turn a blind eye. Remember when the NFL had a bullying scandal? That's peanuts compared to what Jordan did on a regular basis.

That's essentially what Pip is getting to with all of this, even though he was never the most articulate guy.

Meh. The Last Dance - Jordan's own doc - spent plenty of time on the gambling and the bullying. So have plenty of other books, articles, etc. Plenty others in the media tried tying the gambling to Jordan's father's murder without evidence. None of that is really swept under the rug here.

It's not the media, it's us as a society. Jordan won, repeatedly. He was who he was, and "we" have largely decided the ends justified the means.

Heck, a large swath of fandom still seems to revere Bobby Knight. Jordan is a teddy bear in comparison.

The stuff Jordan did seems pretty minimal.

Kobe Bryant demanded Shaq get kicked off the Lakers and raped someone and was revered. These things are orders of magnitude worse than what Jordan did.

[Jo Jo English]

Halfway through the book now, up into the beginning of the '92 NBA Finals. So far it has been pretty enjoyable. There is the occasional comment Pippen makes about how things were geared too much towards Jordan and that he himself, and his teammates, did not get the credit they deserved, but nothing that is going to make you really take note. So far the only truly controversial part has been the prologue, but again, I am only halfway through.

It is a pretty fun, quick read. To this point of the book I would definitely recommend it.

[The Explorer]

Read on Twitter

Really, MJ ruined basketball? This man is doing everything he can to let the world know how much hatred he has for MJ.

I can't believe no interviewer has asked him, 'why did you say you cheished your relationship at your HOF soeech?'

Nobody is even asking him why he never expressed such hatred from 1987 to 2020. This is just ridiculous.

[The Explorer]

Read on Twitter

This is also a poorly thought out take by Pippen. A surprisingly rudimentary way of analyzing a fantasy matchup.

[xinxin]

And really this isn't all that surprising. Look at Kobe and Shaq. If anything, today's game is too buddy-buddy, where you're not only friends with your teammates, you're friends with your opponents and do photo sessions on the court after losing.

The irony - Shaq and Kobe were always being compared to MJ & Scottie - how their selfishness ruined all the potential , how they couldn’t be like the Bulls pair- & to just suck it up and win some more..

& in the end. Kobe and Shaq had a more meaningful relationship as they got older & eventually patched things up for the better. Recognizing who they are as individuals and that they actually did their best under the circumstances.

unlike with Mj & Scottie - looks like that ship has sailed or perhaps , it never really was there..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[fleet]

We all know that the media has carefully crafted Jordan's image to be what it is today.

If the media wasn't in his back pocket, he'd be labeled a complete psychopath with a serious gambling addiction. Let's not forget that this is the same guy who punched out a teammate and literally bullied people on film yet all the media does is turn a blind eye. Remember when the NFL had a bullying scandal? That's peanuts compared to what Jordan did on a regular basis.

That's essentially what Pip is getting to with all of this, even though he was never the most articulate guy.

I don't know who is so obsessed with puncturing Jordan's image other than Scottie and some other people with no love for Jordan. Most people care about what happened on the court, and are pretty disinterested in all that other stuff. In fact, most people who noted MJ's personality off the court enjoyed that MJ is nuts. Most film and sports icons have false images. Eh, great.

I haven't read the book, and don't really plan to unles someones gives me a copy. But if I did, I suppose I'll read of more possible examples that MJ was just as bananas in real life as he was on the basketball court. Shocked. In a weird way, Dennis Rodman always did seem to have the healthiest reaction to all this.....

[fleet]

Ended up getting an e-mail from our library that I had this book on hold and it was there waiting for me to pick it up. Apparently I put my name on a list for it at some point in the past few months and had totally forgotten about it.

Ran and picked it up today. Should be interesting to occasionally page through over the next couple of weeks.

Let me know how badly it'll crush my childhood. Still haven't decided if I want to read it.

As a side note:

“Scottie called in one day and skipped practice because his cat died,” Pfeil said. “Horace called about fifteen minutes later and said he was with Scottie because of the grieving. Johnny Bach, our assistant coach, was absolutely furious. He got Horace on the phone and said, ‘You get here. You oughta throw the cat in the garbage can.’ Horace, when the team got together, wanted to have a moment of silence for Scottie’s cat.”

https://www.sportscasting.com/scottie-pippen-horace-grant-skipped-bulls-practice-cat-died-assistant-coach-johnny-bach-absolutely-furious/

TBH, that's an excuse I would like to be able to use to get out of work. I have literally taken a day off to take my dog to the vet. In Scottie's case, it wasn't an excuse. I didn't call in sick the day either of my dogs were euthanized though, because that wouldn't be related to taking care of business like a vet visit is. .

2 things will result from this book smoke. One, Scottie will raise more questions about Scottie than he will about MJ. Two, Scottie will make some needed money.

[dougthonus]

And really this isn't all that surprising. Look at Kobe and Shaq. If anything, today's game is too buddy-buddy, where you're not only friends with your teammates, you're friends with your opponents and do photo sessions on the court after losing.

The irony - Shaq and Kobe were always being compared to MJ & Scottie - how their selfishness ruined all the potential , how they couldn’t be like the Bulls pair- & to just suck it up and win some more..

& in the end. Kobe and Shaq had a more meaningful relationship as they got older & eventually patched things up for the better. Recognizing who they are as individuals and that they actually did their best under the circumstances.

unlike with Mj & Scottie - looks like that ship has sailed or perhaps , it never really was there..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What is perhaps more impressive about this is that they weren't good friends, they weren't real close, and despite that they recognized they needed and wanted each other in the moment and won six titles and didn't try to kick each other off the team or have any other bad blood while playing together.

Jordan threatened to walk away if the Bulls traded Pippen for Kemp, which Jerry Krause wanted to do, and Jordan stopped it from happening.

These aren't a set of guys whom with some time apart reflected on what they had and appreciated it later. These are guys who appreciated it in the moment and did everything they could to preserve it. It was only after the moment when Pippen's own demons caused his world to slowly unravel over the following 20 years in many ways.

[SfBull]

Read on Twitter

This is also a poorly thought out take by Pippen. A surprisingly rudimentary way of analyzing a fantasy matchup.

Pippen in his prime was a lot better than Durant on defense,no question about it,he was one of better defensive players of all times.And Pippen could do all things Durant makes today so there´s nothing wrong in taking him or KD in a fantasy series against the Warriors.I really believe the 96-98 Bulls would win such series 4-2 with the 96 team(even with the same players but younger) possibly winning by 4-0 or 4-1.People who watched how dominant was the Bulls from 1996 season can only confirm that truth,you have Jordan eager to prove he was still the best and Rodman hungry to prove he could still play in high level.Nobody could have won a playoff series over the Bulls that season.

[dice]

Read on Twitter

This is also a poorly thought out take by Pippen. A surprisingly rudimentary way of analyzing a fantasy matchup.

Pippen in his prime was a lot better than Durant on defense,no question about it,he was one of better defensive players of all times.And Pippen could do all things Durant makes today so there´s nothing wrong in taking him or KD in a fantasy series against the Warriors.I really believe the 96-98 Bulls would win such series 4-2 with the 96 team(even with the same players but younger) possibly winning by 4-0 or 4-1.People who watched how dominant was the Bulls from 1996 season can only confirm that truth,you have Jordan eager to prove he was still the best and Rodman hungry to prove he could still play in high level.Nobody could have won a playoff series over the Bulls that season.

pippen wasn't in the same galaxy as durant as a scorer but was more well rounded. luc longley frankly sucked. and if we're being honest, prime draymond was way better than an aging rodman. on both ends! the only clear advantage for the bulls is MJ (and probably coaching). which might not be enough if they're playing today's game

scottie is also mixing and matching rosters there. bogut and durant never played on the same team. it's tough to make a straight comparison between a team that won 3 titles in 3 years with largely the same roster and a team that won 3 in 5 years with a major star added in year 3. and curry's best 2 year stretch was in the 2 years BEFORE durant got there. so just using the 3 durant seasons as a comparison point isn't fair to the warriors. so how about a VORP comparison of the best single season teams (playoffs included)?

2016-2017 warriors (83-16 overall)

7.7 curry
7.3 durant
5.6 draymond

2.5 iggy hop
1.7 klay
1.4 west
0.8 zaza
0.8 mcgee

0.2 clark
0.1 mccaw
(0.2) livingston

1995-1996 bulls (87-13 overall)

12.2 MJ
7.7 scottie
4.5 kukoc

3.1 kerr
3.0 harper
1.5 rodman
0.8 buechler

0.4 brown
0.2 longley
(0.3) wennington

the significant difference is MJ. the previous season (curry's best), curry had a combined VORP of 10.9. but no durant

[Red8911]

I heard an interview he had about the book on the NBA radio. He pretty much disses more teammates not only MJ, he even had a few things to say when in Houston about Barkley, and Olojuwon.

Was asked about the current Bulls, he replies yeah they are better but other teams are also good like Nets, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Toronto…. Wtf is wrong with this guy did he really need to say Cleveland and Toronto are better or equal to the bulls ? Pretty soon hes going to end up getting booed by his own Chicago fans. To me sounds like he’s salty with the bulls for firing him from whatever he was doing. With the things he’s been saying for publicity and money he’s losing respect from a lot of people.

[SfBull]

Read on Twitter

This is also a poorly thought out take by Pippen. A surprisingly rudimentary way of analyzing a fantasy matchup.

Pippen in his prime was a lot better than Durant on defense,no question about it,he was one of better defensive players of all times.And Pippen could do all things Durant makes today so there´s nothing wrong in taking him or KD in a fantasy series against the Warriors.I really believe the 96-98 Bulls would win such series 4-2 with the 96 team(even with the same players but younger) possibly winning by 4-0 or 4-1.People who watched how dominant was the Bulls from 1996 season can only confirm that truth,you have Jordan eager to prove he was still the best and Rodman hungry to prove he could still play in high level.Nobody could have won a playoff series over the Bulls that season.

pippen wasn't in the same galaxy as durant as a scorer but was more well rounded. luc longley frankly sucked. and if we're being honest, prime draymond was way better than an aging rodman. on both ends! the only clear advantage for the bulls is MJ (and probably coaching). which might not be enough if they're playing today's game

scottie is also mixing and matching rosters there. bogut and durant never played on the same team. it's tough to make a straight comparison between a team that won 3 titles in 3 years with largely the same roster and a team that won 3 in 5 years with a major star added in year 3. and curry's best 2 year stretch was in the 2 years BEFORE durant got there. so just using the 3 durant seasons as a comparison point isn't fair to the warriors. so how about a VORP comparison of the best single season teams (playoffs included)?

2016-2017 warriors (83-16 overall)

7.7 curry
7.3 durant
5.6 draymond

2.5 iggy hop
1.7 klay
1.4 west
0.8 zaza
0.8 mcgee

0.2 clark
0.1 mccaw
(0.2) livingston

1995-1996 bulls (87-13 overall)

12.2 MJ
7.7 scottie
4.5 kukoc

3.1 kerr
3.0 harper
1.5 rodman
0.8 buechler

0.4 brown
0.2 longley
(0.3) wennington

the significant difference is MJ. the previous season (curry's best), curry had a combined VORP of 10.9. but no durant

We'll never know and it's really tough comparing such different eras of the same game but I'd choose 96 Bulls even against that phenomenal Warriors with Durant.
And I not so sure Pippen couldn't be a scoring machine like KD playing in this current 3 point shooting oriented game like it the NBA is today ( which ,by the way , seems to be rescuing some of that physical game from the past this season ) ,Jordan said he would score 50 ppg under the new rules.Pippen putting himself in the KD's level only shows how a fantastic player Durant is.

[SfBull]

I heard an interview he had about the book on the NBA radio. He pretty much disses more teammates not only MJ, he even had a few things to say when in Houston about Barkley, and Olojuwon.

Was asked about the current Bulls, he replies yeah they are better but other teams are also good like Nets, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Toronto…. Wtf is wrong with this guy did he really need to say Cleveland and Toronto are better or equal to the bulls ? Pretty soon hes going to end up getting booed by his own Chicago fans. To me sounds like he’s salty with the bulls for firing him from whatever he was doing. With the things he’s been saying for publicity and money he’s losing respect from a lot of people.

He wouldn't be lying if including the Hornets in that list.
They'll be tough to be beaten at home .

[umfan83]

I heard an interview he had about the book on the NBA radio. He pretty much disses more teammates not only MJ, he even had a few things to say when in Houston about Barkley, and Olojuwon.

Was asked about the current Bulls, he replies yeah they are better but other teams are also good like Nets, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Toronto…. Wtf is wrong with this guy did he really need to say Cleveland and Toronto are better or equal to the bulls ? Pretty soon hes going to end up getting booed by his own Chicago fans. To me sounds like he’s salty with the bulls for firing him from whatever he was doing. With the things he’s been saying for publicity and money he’s losing respect from a lot of people.

There seems to be a difference between the words in the book and the words that Scottie is saying on his press tour. Don’t get me wrong his book has plenty of salacious things to say in the book, but in public it seems over the top and aimed to twist the knife.

I still think that Pippen’s son death broke something in him and took his filter away. Yes he felt slighted from the Last Dance and this inspired him to write his story. But ever since his son died basically everything he’s said in public has been controversial and bitter to an extreme. I want to give Pippen a break because I can’t imagine how much it hurts to lose a kid suddenly even if he was an adult. But he keeps escalating his words and it’s harder to sympathize with him.