{"id":216517,"date":"2025-10-11T10:18:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T10:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/216517\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T10:18:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T10:18:13","slug":"scottie-pippen-on-a-scale-of-one-to-10-talking-about-michael-jordan-tires-me-out-a-12%e2%80%b2-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/216517\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottie Pippen: \u2018On a scale of one to 10, talking about Michael Jordan tires me out a 12\u2032 | Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excited murmurs gather volume in the bowels of the Antonio Magari\u00f1os sports center in Madrid when Scottie Pippen doesn\u2019t walk in, but floats, slow and unfazed by the expectation his presence has generated. He hasn\u2019t been back to Spain since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics<\/a>, 33 years ago, the same number, he displays with his fingers, pleased with the coincidence, that he wore on his Chicago Bulls jersey, the team with which he won six NBA championships. \u201cSpain has always treated me well,\u201d he says while wiping his palms on mile-long thighs that once bounced like springs on the parquet floor. Now, less explosive, he speaks to EL PA\u00cdS before conducting the honorary tipoff at the Inclusion All-Star organized by the Sanitas Foundation.<\/p>\n

Question. Do you feel that you are still undervalued today?<\/p>\n

Answer. No, not really. I never cared about praise. What happened to me just happened. I didn\u2019t chase it. So no, I don\u2019t feel undervalued. Not at all.<\/p>\n

Q. Before your arrival, the Chicago Bulls had endured several losing seasons. <\/p>\n

A. Yeah, and I don\u2019t think a lot of people know that, so I\u2019m glad you said that because it shows that you understand the game, and you have a little bit of knowledge about the history of the NBA and the Chicago Bulls.<\/p>\n

Q. What did you contribute to that team?<\/p>\n

A. Pure versatility. I had the ability to play in lots of positions and to defend a lot of different players. I also had a great understanding of the game, of course. In short, everything you need to win. It was like a blessing, really. I had exactly the skills the team needed to reach the next level. I fell into the right place at the right time.<\/p>\n

Q. And you all got along on the court, but not off it.<\/p>\n

A. Well, the important thing was to make that click inside, not outside. I understood the game, I knew how it worked and what it took to win, so I didn\u2019t have to do anything outside of that. In the end, you don\u2019t have to be friends, just teammates. Basketball is a team game, and it\u2019s all about putting the right pieces together and making them work.<\/p>\n

Q. On a scale from one to 10, how tired are you of talking about Michael Jordan<\/a>?<\/p>\n

A. Oh, [smiles]. Is 10 the highest or lowest score?<\/p>\n

Q. The highest.<\/p>\n

A. Well, I\u2019d probably say a 12.<\/p>\n

Q. More than 10?<\/p>\n

A. Yeah, definitely, more than 10. At the end of the day, I\u2019ve been used to it since the day I arrived in the NBA. It\u2019s not something that surprises me: everything has always been about Michael Jordan. But, you know, I\u2019m happy to have been able to leave my own legacy and not have to talk about him all the time.<\/p>\n

Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen during a Chicago Bulls game.Getty<\/p>\n

Q. How would you do in today\u2019s NBA?<\/p>\n

A. I\u2019d be fine. The game has changed, it\u2019s true; it\u2019s more back-and-forth now, but I feel like my style was suited to those types of games in the 1980s and 1990s, too. I don\u2019t think it would be a big challenge for me.<\/p>\n

Q. Would you be the best player in the league?<\/p>\n

A. Yeah, I think so. There\u2019s no reason to think otherwise. If I put in the same effort I did back in my day, I feel like I\u2019d easily be among the best.<\/p>\n

Q. LeBron James<\/a>, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry are perhaps the three greatest players of the last decade. Are they better than you were?<\/p>\n

A. It\u2019s hard to know that, because eras are different. I didn\u2019t play in their era, and they didn\u2019t play in mine. The truth is that they are, still today, extraordinary for the era in which they played; just as I was extraordinary in mine. I can\u2019t take away one iota of credit for everything they\u2019ve achieved. Nor can I criticize them. They are three of the best players of all time.<\/p>\n

Q. The 1996 Chicago Bulls were often compared to the Golden State Warriors, who surpassed their record for wins in the 2016 regular season.<\/p>\n

A. I don\u2019t know who would win, honestly. First of all, what rules would the game be played by? Today\u2019s rules or those from the 1980s? If we were playing in our time, I think we\u2019d have an advantage, because we played a very physical game, different from what we see today. If the game were played in this era, it would be played more from the three-point line, with everything more open, more space, and a lot of pick and roll. It would be nice to see it, but we\u2019ll never know what would have happened.<\/p>\n

Q. You were named among the 75 greatest players in NBA history. If you were to rank them, where would you place?<\/p>\n

A. Among the top five [smiles].<\/p>\n

Q. Really?<\/p>\n

A. No, but… You know, I\u2019m glad to be on that team, but I don\u2019t think you can say who\u2019s number one or number two. I\u2019m proud to be part of that list. Then, let the people decide.<\/p>\n

Scottie Pippen poses for EL PA\u00cdS before the interview at the Antonio Magari\u00f1os sports center in Madrid.Santi Burgos<\/p>\n

Q. The last American-born NBA MVP was James Harden, seven seasons ago. What happened?<\/p>\n

A. Well, I think the European players have improved a lot. I feel like they\u2019ve learned a lot from the American players. In fact, from the outside, it seems like they\u2019ve put in a lot more hours in the gym than they have. They\u2019re showing their dominance in the league, and that\u2019s reflected in the MVP voting.<\/p>\n

Q. It was harder to see in your time.<\/p>\n

A. Yes, but in the end, I always wanted to be the best. I didn\u2019t care who stood in my way, whether they were American, Black, white, European, or from wherever. I wanted to be the best. And to do that, I had to fight everyone.<\/p>\n

Q. Who impresses you in today\u2019s NBA?<\/p>\n

A. There are a lot of players, but I\u2019d probably go with Steph Curry, the best shooter in history. It\u2019s true that he\u2019s reaching the twilight of his career \u2014 I won\u2019t say the end yet \u2014 but he\u2019s still a spectacular player. Shooting is an art that, once you have it, you never lose it, and he has it in his genes. He could remain the best shooter in the world for another 10 years.<\/p>\n

Q. Were you surprised by Luka Doncic\u2019s trade to the Lakers?<\/p>\n

A. Yeah, sure. Me and everyone else, but that\u2019s how the business works. Franchises trade cards every so often, and Luka is no exception. It was a huge shock for everyone, especially because he\u2019s such a great player, someone who came into the league very young and had an immediate impact from day one.<\/p>\n

Q. Your son Scotty is now in his third season with the Memphis Grizzlies.<\/p>\n

A. Yeah, and he\u2019s doing great. He\u2019s a born fighter. One of those guys who gives it his all on the court. He knows the NBA is a very tough challenge, but I think he\u2019s finding his groove.<\/p>\n

Q. Do you see anything of yourself in him?<\/p>\n

A. Determination. He learned from a very young age to never give up. And that\u2019s something I showed on the court, too.<\/p>\n

Scotty Pippen Jr., son of the former Bulls player, tries to block a shot by Stephen Curry.Jeff Chiu (AP)<\/p>\n

Q. Here in Spain, your name will always be associated with the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games<\/a> and that American \u201cDream Team.\u201d<\/p>\n

A. Yeah, I\u2019m aware [smiles]. I remember it as a fantastic experience. It was the first time I played against players from outside the United States, and we had the opportunity to compete against a lot of other countries. We realized that American basketball was more advanced than that of any European country. The same can\u2019t be said today.<\/p>\n

Q. Beyond the gold medal, what is your best memory of Barcelona?<\/p>\n

A. We stayed in a hotel that was just a block from La Rambla, which was already a very popular street. We weren\u2019t allowed to leave the hotel, but, you know, we started to get a little claustrophobic from being stuck there for so long [smiles].<\/p>\n

Q. You had a good time then.<\/p>\n

A. Yeah, you could say we had a great time in Barcelona.<\/p>\n

Q. Even today, there\u2019s a lot of talk about those training games between the members of the Dream Team. What were they like?<\/p>\n

A. They were very tough, but they helped us win gold in Barcelona. We were in several cities before the Games: Monte Carlo, San Diego, Portland… It was like an NBA All-Star tour. We\u2019d never spent so much time together, and it helped us get to know each other as a group. The preparation was a lot of fun. We played games for hours, with no cameras. They were very physical duels and with a lot of trash talking, but we had a great time.<\/p>\n

Q. Was that the best team you\u2019ve ever played for?<\/p>\n

A. Without a doubt. It was as if a magic hand had chosen the best players in the world and brought them together on one team. It\u2019s impossible to gather more talent. We left an unforgettable legacy, setting a bar that\u2019s hard to surpass.<\/p>\n

Q. In the matches against Croatia at those Games, including the final, you tended to defend Toni Kukoc. Why?<\/p>\n

A. Well, let\u2019s just say I had to do it [smiles]. We weren\u2019t teammates in Chicago yet, so I just wanted to make sure we won the gold medal. We had to show our dominance to the world.<\/p>\n

Q. Later, he was a teammate of yours at the Chicago Bulls.<\/p>\n

A. Yeah, and I think it was hard for him to get all the credit he maybe deserved. It was a similar thing with Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors. He was a champion there, always playing at an MVP level, but that was Steph, Klay, and Draymond\u2019s team. It was a similar thing for Toni in Chicago. By the time he arrived, we were already established as a team. You can\u2019t say he didn\u2019t help us win, but he probably gave up some personal greatness in exchange for sacrificing for us and taking a few steps back.<\/p>\n

Q. Now that you mention it, Durant is a big fan of Kukoc.<\/p>\n

A. And I understand why. We\u2019re talking about two NBA Hall of Famers.<\/p>\n

Q. Before we finish, let\u2019s get back to you. What was your weak point as a player?<\/p>\n

A. Probably the outside shot. It was something I worked on a lot and eventually developed over time. I never reached Steph Curry\u2019s level, but you could say the work paid off [smiles].<\/p>\n

Q. What legacy do you think you have left?<\/p>\n

A. I\u2019d say I was a great teammate. In fact, I think I\u2019ll be remembered as a great team player. A guy who understood the game and tried to make everyone around him better.<\/p>\n

Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Excited murmurs gather volume in the bowels of the Antonio Magari\u00f1os sports center in Madrid when Scottie Pippen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[418,7329,2243,6418,5556,3013,3014,7328,355,7331,99,2244,94812],"class_list":["post-216517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-barcelona","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-james-harden","tag-kevin-durant","tag-lebron-james","tag-luka-doncic","tag-michael-jordan","tag-nba","tag-scottie-pippen","tag-sports","tag-stephen-curry","tag-toni-kukoc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}