Scottie Pippen Revealed He And Michael Jordan Have Never Been Close Friends: ‘Michael And I Aren’t Close And Never Have Been’

NBA icon Scottie Pippen revealed in his book that he and Michael Jordan have never been close friends. 

Pippen and Jordan won six NBA championships together on the Chicago Bulls. However, according to Pippen, he and Jordan “have led two very different lives.”

“Michael and I aren’t close and never have been,” Pippen wrote. “Whenever I call or text him, he usually gets back to me in a timely fashion, but I don’t check in just to see how he’s doing. Nor does he do the same. Many people might find that hard to believe given how smoothly we connected on the court. 

“Away from the court, we are two very different people who have led two very different lives. I was from the country: Hamburg, Arkansas, population about 3,000; he was from the city: Wilmington, North Carolina.”

In the summer of 1993, Jordan’s father was murdered. Pippen, whose father died three years before Jordan’s dad passed away, never offered Jordan condolences. 

“Another opportunity, if you can call it that, came during the summer of 1993, and I feel horrible every time I think about it,” Pippen wrote. “Michael’s father, James Jordan, had been murdered. The two were inseparable. When I heard the news, I should have reached out to Michael right away. Instead, I went through the Bulls’ PR department, and once they told me no one from the organization had been in contact with him, I gave up. Having lost my own dad three years before, I might have been able to offer Michael some comfort. To this day, he and I haven’t spoken about his father’s death.”

Pippen wrote in his book that he has many friends and doesn’t get too bitter that he and Jordan aren’t close.

However, Pippen did admit he “missed some openings” that could have brought him closer to Jordan.

“I don’t usually allow our lack of closeness to bother me,” Pippen wrote. “I have plenty of friends. Yet there are occasions, and watching the doc was definitely one, when I think about the relationship I wish the two of us had, and it hurts. It hurts a lot. By no means am I an innocent party here. I missed some openings that might have made a difference, and I have to live with that.”

Pippen and Jordan are no longer on speaking terms. 

“God, I hated that term and being referred to as Robin to his Batman,” Pippen wrote. “Someone he felt he needed to pull along to approach every game and practice as intensely as he did; me, a team-oriented purist, offended when he tried to win games by himself.”

The Bulls went 514-177 when Jordan and Pippen were in the lineup. They went undefeated in the NBA Finals and three-peated twice. 

Both Pippen and Jordan skipped the Bulls’ Ring of Honor ceremony this year.

Pippen also didn’t show up to Cleveland in 2022 for the NBA 75th Anniversary Team ceremony. Jordan was there and interacted with pretty much everyone except for Isiah Thomas and Charles Barkley, two guys he’s not friends with anymore.