Scottie Pippen let Michael Jordan know he ‘wasn’t too pleased’ with ‘The Last Dance’

ESPN’s docuseries “The Last Dance” was the talk of the sports world when it aired in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing fans with a fascinating look behind the curtain of the Chicago Bulls’ dynasty in the 1990s. It also appeared to reveal some conflict between the players.

Michael Jordan had a heavy influence over the documentary, and the show faced criticism for how the Bulls’ other stars were portrayed at points. In the second episode, Jordan called Scottie Pippen “selfish” for waiting until the start of the 1997-98 season to have surgery, with speculation he did it to stick it to the Bulls’ front office for underpaying him. Other moments appeared to portray Pippen as soft.

Reports came out that Pippen was not happy with how the documentary portrayed him, and in a recent interview with The Guardian, he confirmed his displeasure.

“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,” Pippen said.

“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.”

The series didn’t exactly portray Jordan as the nicest guy, which he admitted himself before the series aired. But Pippen was still not pleased with his own portrayal, and he let Jordan know.

“I told him I wasn’t too pleased with it,” Pippen told The Guardian. “He accepted it. He said, “Hey, you’re right.” That was pretty much it.”

Pippen wasn’t the only one of Jordan’s ex-teammates who was unhappy with the series. Horace Grant was accused of being an anonymous source in Sam Smith’s book “The Jordan Rules,” which he has denied. He even went as far as to call Jordan a “snitch.”