DP: ".. By saying it was a racial move then you're calling Phil Jackson a racist…"
Pippen: "I don't have a problem with that."
DP: "Do you think Phil was?"
Pippen: "Oh yeah…"
Exchange with @ScottiePippen on Phil's decision to have Kukoc take final shot against the Knicks pic.twitter.com/pH2aDLMDcQ
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) June 28, 2021
Bulls legend Scottie Pippen is on a media rampage. The man whose career was defined by being Michael Jordan’s sidekick is out to get the credit he feels he deserves, and he may or may not be doing so while selling his new whiskey and an upcoming tell-all book.
He joined the Dan Patrick Show on Monday, during which he called Phil Jackson a racist. In the book, Pippen says the infamous time that Jackson drew up a play for Toni Kukoc and not Pippen was a “racial move.” When pressed about it by Patrick, he doubles down and calls Jackson a racist.
“Why would Toni, who was a rookie, gets the last-second shot, and you put me out of bounds? That’s what I mean racial,” Pippen said. “Like that was Scottie Pippen’s team. Scottie Pippen was on pace to be an MVP that year, right? Well, why would you put him in a position, not to be successful? Why wouldn’t you put him in a position to succeed – Michael Jordan is not there. So who’s next in line for you?”
You know, this moment… when Kukoc hit the game-winner.
Patrick followed up to confirm that Pippen was calling Jackson a racist.
“But have you talked to Phil about this? Because by saying a racial move, then you’re calling Phil a racist,” Patrick said.
“I don’t got a problem with that.”
“Do you think Phil was or is?”
“Oh yeah,” Pippen said. “I mean, do you remember Phil Jackson left the Lakers, went, wrote a book on Kobe Bryant, and then came back and coached him? I mean, who would do that? You name someone in professional sports that would do that. I think he tried to expose Kobe, in a way that he shouldn’t have.”
Pippen also went on to talk about that famous Steve Kerr championship winning shot, and the moment when Michael Jordan tells Kerr to be ready in case he gets double teamed by John Stockton.
According to Pippen, that moment was a farce, saying Jordan did it for his own documentary and because the cameras were rolling.
“You know who Michael was speaking to when he said that, right? That was planned, that was speaking to the camera,” Pippen said. “That wasn’t speaking out of what we’re going to have to do, what the play is going to be. That was speaking to the camera.”
