Yahoo Finance Scottie Pippen told Michael Jordan he 'wasn't too pleased' with 'The Last Dance'
NBA legend Scottie Pippen wasn’t too happy with how he was portrayed in the ESPN documentary series “The Last Dance,” and he’s finally talked to Michael Jordan about it.
In an interview with The Guardian, Pippen discussed his true feelings about “The Last Dance,” and how Jordan reacted when he told him.
‘I don’t think it was that accurate’
“The Last Dance,” which aired eight months ago, was generally well received, but it also didn’t show Pippen in the most flattering light. He was portrayed as selfish for delaying his ankle surgery until after the 1997-98 season started, and Jordan said that he didn’t understand that decision.
When The Guardian asked Pippen if he thought “The Last Dance” was accurate, he obviously had some thoughts.
“I don’t think it was that accurate in terms of really defining what was accomplished in one of the greatest eras of basketball, but also by two of the greatest players — and one could even put that aside and say the greatest team of all time. I didn’t think those things stood out in the documentary. I thought it was more about Michael trying to uplift himself and to be glorified. I think it also backfired to some degree in that people got a chance to see what kind of personality Michael had.”
You can’t really quibble with Pippen on those points, but you may also be resisting the urge to loudly yell “well, duh” in his general direction, because Jordan uplifting and glorifying himself was the entire point. The series was co-produced by Jordan’s company, Jump 23, and Jordan had final cut. “The Last Dance” may have heavily featured those amazing Chicago Bulls teams, but that was obviously secondary to Jordan telling his own story exactly the way he wanted it to be told.
Pippen told The Guardian that he has spoken with Jordan about his feelings regarding the series. Jordan’s response was classic Jordan.
“I told him I wasn’t too pleased with it. He accepted it. He said, ‘hey, you’re right.’ That was pretty much it.”
Pippen originally said he wasn’t upset
Rumors about Pippen’s “The Last Dance” feelings have been floating around since the doc first aired in the spring. In May, Chicago-based ESPN Radio host David Kaplan said that Pippen was “beyond livid” at how he was portrayed.
“He is so angry at Michael and how he was portrayed, called selfish, called this, called that, that he’s furious that he participated and did not realize what he was getting himself into,” Kaplan said on his show, via The Guardian.
Pippen responded to those rumors in July, denying that he was even a tiny bit mad about anything related to “The Last Dance.”
“It didn’t bother me at all,” Pippen told the Associated Press. “It was an opportunity for our younger generation that hadn’t seen or knew anything about basketball in the ’90s.”
But Pippen wasn’t done. In the same interview he also said “I wasn’t upset about it,” and “why would I be offended by anything that happened 30 years ago?”
Knowing now that Pippen was indeed upset and offended by “The Last Dance,” it seems obvious that he was protesting too much to cover up his true feelings. Now he no longer has to hide anything because he’s gotten it all out in the open. And there’s an added bonus: no one has to ask him how he feels about “The Last Dance” ever again.
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