According to Hall of Fame writer Sam Smith, NBA legend Michael Jordan “would have been fine” if the Chicago Bulls traded Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant for Buck Williams and Walter Davis.
The Bulls drafted Jordan in 1984 and acquired Pippen and Grant in 1987.
Chicago didn’t reach the NBA Finals until 1991, which frustrated Jordan.
“He actually wanted different teammates; he wanted more veterans,” Smith told Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype. “He would have been fine with [Scottie] Pippen and [Horace] Grant getting traded for Buck Williams and Walter Davis – two ACC guys he liked since they were veterans who were more accomplished. That’s who we wanted to play with. He wanted guys to match [James] Worthy and Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] with the Lakers and [Robert] Parish and [Kevin] McHale with the Celtics. He didn’t want to play with babies and so that was a source of frustration. As we’ve seen witnessed in this documentary and which we knew, he has this incredible manic competitiveness to the level that he wants to embarrass his opponent. A lot of players feel sorry for their opponent when they’re dominating; Jordan never did. He wanted to run it up. He was like one of those southern college football coaches who want to win 92-0. That’s his mentality.”
It’s a good thing the Bulls didn’t trade Pippen and Grant, as they won three straight titles in 1991, 1992 and 1993 with Jordan, Pippen and Grant leading the way.
Chicago then won three more championships with Jordan and Pippen in 1996, 1997 and 1998.
Grant left the Bulls for the Orlando Magic in 1994.
Jordan and Pippen are universally recognized as the greatest duo in NBA history. The Bulls went an outstanding 514-177 in the regular season when Jordan and Pippen played.
Pippen averaged 17.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.0 steals and 0.9 blocks next to Jordan, while Jordan averaged 31.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 2.5 steals and 0.8 blocks alongside Pippen.
“I would never be able to find a tandem, another support system, another partner in the game of basketball like Scottie Pippen,” Jordan said in Episode 2 of The Last Dance docuseries. “He was a pleasure to play with. He helped me so much in the way that I approached the game, the way I played the game. Whenever they speak Michael Jordan, they should speak Scottie Pippen. Everybody says well I won all these championships, but I didn’t win without Scottie Pippen. And that’s why I consider him my best teammate of all time.”
The Bulls went 6-0 in the NBA Finals in the Jordan-Pippen era. They defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1991 Finals, the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1992 Finals, the Phoenix Suns in the 1993 Finals, the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1996 Finals and the Utah Jazz in the 1997 and 1998 Finals.
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