The same man who played alongside Michael Jordan and won six NBA brilliant championships opened up to Cleveland.com about his feelings on Lebron James and Michael Jordan comparisons. Based off of the comments It looks like we have to start discussing Scottie Pippen vs. James, and brush the Michael Jordan and LeBron James debate to the side. Scottie Pippen was great player, and he is a legend that will remain in the history books permanently, there’s no arguing with that, but it’s tough to argue anyone was LeBron James before LeBron James. He said;
“I was LeBron James before LeBron James, It’s not even close. They want to compare (James) to the greatest, whether it be Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson, but he’s more closer to myself. It’s natural for folks to say that, but if you look at how he plays the game and how I played the game, you’ll see more similarities with us. I’m no slouch, but when comparing LeBron’s game, I’m usually left out.”
At 6-7, Pippen played some point-forward and would take the opposing team’s best perimeter player out of the game, but playing alongside arguably the greatest player to ever play the game, in Jordan, may have taken away from Pippen’s greatness.
James has also mentioned over the years how much he admired Pippen’s game when growing up and how he incorporated facets into his own repertoire. Yet still, Pippen is a forgotten man when the conversations ramps up and that clearly doesn’t sit well with the NBA Legend. Let’s also not forget that In May 2011, Pippen yet again drew comparisons between James and Jordan.
“Michael Jordan is probably the greatest scorer to play the game. But I may go so far as to say Lebron James may be the greatest player to ever play the game because he is so potent offensively that not only can he score at will, but he keeps everybody involved,” Pippen said.
“Not only will LeBron dominate from the offensive end as well, but he’s also doing it on the defensive end, which really makes him the complete package.”
However later on that week Pippen pushed back against the inference that he was saying LeBron was better than Jordan. Pippen asked;
“Did I ever say I’d take LeBron over Mike? No I did not say I’d take LeBron over Mike. The reality is you need to go back and figure out what I said.”
It’s tough to gauge where Scottie Pippen stands based off of his past and present comments, but like a friend of mine likes to say; “We all just want a chance to stay relevant”. Maybe this is Scottie’s attempt at just that.
