Source: Noam Galai / Getty
As Scottie Pippen continues to promote his memoir, the hot takes continue to fly.
At any given chance, he’s shaded his former teammate Michael Jordan, but now it seems he’s walking back some praise of the game’s other perceived GOAT, LeBron James. In an excerpt from his book, it all started when he alleged that Jordan may have “ruined” basketball and King James is the true greatest player because he fully plays the game– rebounds, defends and plays a full-court game.
Now, Pippen is walking back that James praise by neutralizing the GOAT conversation altogether because there just can’t be one amidst any team games.
“There’s no greatest in a team sport. Let me get that clear… There’s no greatest in baseball. There’s no greatest in football. There’s no greatest in basketball. There may be a greatest in golf,” Pippen told WGN Morning News. “There may be a greatest in tennis and maybe some other individual sports that I can’t think of right now. But in team sports, there are great teams, and there are outstanding individuals, but that don’t make them the greatest.”
The quote begins are around the 6:20 mark.
Scottie’s comments have only fueled the longtime debate of who’s contributed more to the hardwood; Michael Jordan or LeBron James. While Pippen won 6 Championships with the former, he doesn’t seem to be choosing favorites and acknowledges James’ prowess despite having two less championships and not being afraid to switch teams.
James hasn’t made much of the competition but hasn’t been scared to mention what pushes him to higher levels of greatness.
“My motivation,” James says, “is this ghost I’m chasing. The ghost played in Chicago,” he told Sports Illustrated in 2016. “What I’ve gone through is totally different than what he went through. What he did was unbelievable, and I watched it unfold.”
