Source: Getty Images / Craig Hodges / Michael Jordan / Scottie Pippen
On a recent episode of Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson’s podcast,
All The Smoke, Hodges, arguably one of the best 3-point shooters in NBA history, not named Steph Curry, touched on a range of topics while reflecting on his career.
Following the release of
ESPN’s Jordan-produced fantastic sports docuseries
The Last Dance, sports fans were shocked to learn that Jordan and Pippen are not besties. The latter did not feel how he and his fellow teammates were portrayed in the docuseries, which he touched on in his 2021 memoir,
Unguarded.
“Each episode was the same: Michael on a pedestal, his teammates secondary, smaller, the message no different from when he referred to us back then as his ‘supporting cast,'” Pippen wrote. “From one season to the next, we received little or no credit whenever we won, but the bulk of the criticism when we lost. Michael could shoot 6 for 24 from the field, commit 5 turnovers, and he was still, in the minds of the adoring press and public, the Errorless Jordan.”
Pip was also BIG MAD about how much Jordan was paid to do
The Last Dance.
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“To make things worse, Michael received $10 million for his role in the doc while my teammates and I didn’t earn a dime, another reminder of the pecking order from the old days. For an entire season, we allowed cameras into the sanctity of our locker rooms, our practices, our hotels, our huddles… our
lives.”
Craig Hodges On The Jordan/Pippen Beef
Hodges touched on the beef between two of the league’s 50 greatest players, telling the podcast hosts that he wants them to end their beef.
Per
Newsweek:
“He was under the influence of 23 [Jordan],” Hodges said, explaining that Jordan took Pippen under his wing and helped him grow into the All-NBA superstar he would eventually become. “So he [was] the little brother. I think to some degree, that’s still there, in that little rift they’re having, but, lord willing, it’ll come together, because everybody’s got children and grand babies now, man. We too old for that s—.”
During the episode, Hodges also touched on how he was effectively blackballed from the league following a visit to the George H.W. Bush White House in 1991 that Michael Jordan skipped for what he said at the time were scheduling conflicts with a family vacation.
The Last Dance documentary would reveal that to be false and that Jordan was playing golf with James “Slim” Bouler. Bouler would be charged with money laundering and drug charges, and Jordan revealed, while testifying 12 months later, that the $57,000 check he wrote Bouler, which was a loan for a golf-driving range, was actually to cover his gambling debts.
Hodges speaks of being singled out following the jumpshot moment, and after his letter, he wrote to Bush.
Damn.
It was a very insightful interview. We hope MJ and Pip bury the hatchet; we can’t have these two beefing forever.
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