Scottie Pippen hated playing for Bulls coach Scott Skiles in his final NBA season: ‘He acted as if he were a tremendous winner with a tremendous work ethic, give me a break’

NBA icon Scottie Pippen hated playing for Chicago Bulls head coach Scott Skiles in his final NBA season in 2003-04. 

Pippen signed with the Bulls in 2003 to play for Bill Cartwright, his friend and former teammate.

However, Chicago fired Cartwright after 14 games and Pippen didn’t appreciate being coached by Skiles. 

“Anyway, once he was let go, I checked out,” Pippen wrote in his book. “I started looking for the exit signs. If the Bulls had brought in a good coach to replace him, I might have gotten fired up again. They didn’t. They brought in Scott Skiles. I didn’t like Skiles, who had coached several seasons for the Suns, from day one. He acted as if he were a tremendous winner with a tremendous work ethic because he’d played with Shaq in Orlando. Give me a break. All he did was pass the ball to Shaq. Anyone could have done that.”

Pippen appeared in 23 games for the Bulls in 2003-04. He averaged 5.9 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 0.9 steals and 0.4 blocks in 17.9 minutes per game. 

One of the top players in NBA history, Pippen played for the Bulls (twice), Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers. He averaged 16.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 2.0 steals and 0.9 blocks and made seven All-Star teams, 10 All-Defensive Teams and seven All-NBA Teams. 

Pippen, who won the 1994 All-Star Game MVP Award, was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. He asked Michael Jordan to present him.

Pippen and Jordan won six championships together and three-peated twice in the NBA Finals. 

“For the Hall of Fame ceremony, I needed to choose an official presenter, a person to stand on the stage with me as I delivered my remarks,” Pippen wrote in his book. “That individual is required to be a member of the Hall. I thought about asking Dr. J since he was the player I idolized growing up. Except I barely knew him. Instead I picked someone I knew quite well, whose greatness I observed up close, day after day, year after year.

“There really was no other choice. So what if Michael and I weren’t best friends? The two of us will forever be linked together, the best duo in NBA history. He helped make my dreams come true, as I helped make his. He said yes right away and I was extremely grateful.”

The Bulls have reached one Eastern Conference Finals since the Pippen-Jordan era ended. That was in 2011 when Derrick Rose became the youngest MVP in NBA history. 

Pippen was named to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team in 2022. He’s the only person to win an NBA championship and Olympic gold medal in the same year twice.