Pippen says The Last Dance was created to protect Mike’s legacy as the GOAT.
Everyone knows how Scottie Pippen responded to the ESPN documentary “The Last Dance” and how it failed to portray the real story of the Chicago Bulls’ final championship season in 1997-98.
Scottie talked about how he and his teammates were relegated to being mere props to the story while Michael Jordan was glorified during the 10-episode documentary. But that wasn’t just what Pippen said. In his Unguarded memoir, via GQ, Scottie talked about MJ trying to keep himself on top of the GOAT debate with LeBron James beginning to close in on him.
“Michael was determined to prove to the current generation of fans that he was larger-than-life during his day—and still larger than LeBron James, the player many consider his equal, if not superior,” said Pippen.
The gap is getting smaller
Jordan has always been ahead of LeBron in the greatest of all-time discussion. He is still considered the GOAT right now. But as time passes, the gap between him and James is getting smaller.
In 2013, Jordan already distanced himself from Bron when he said he’d pick Kobe over LeBron because ‘five beats one.’ When he said that, Kobe Bryant was considered the closest thing to Michael. Everyone else continues to say that the Black Mamba is the closest thing to MJ, but when it comes to the GOAT debate, it’s now him versus King James.
Last year, a poll conducted by The Athletic revealed that Jordan still leads the GOAT debate by a significant margin at 58.3% versus 33%. However, the gap was closer than in 2019 when the same poll was conducted. During that vote, Jordan dominated LeBron by 73% versus 11.9%. This year, The Athletic says it’s 45.9% against 42.1%, with the publication saying that if the trend continues, LeBron will overtake Mike next year.
Michael Jordan's lead over LeBron James in the GOAT debate among current NBA players continues to shrink.
If the trend continues, James will overtake His Airness in next year's poll.
More from our anonymous NBA player poll ⤵️https://t.co/WvDgZabcIX
pic.twitter.com/NuYIMz4UAI— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) April 22, 2024
MJ had all eyes on him
Knowing Mike, he probably was thinking several steps ahead when he released The Last Dance. He knew that LeBron would probably win at least one more ring with AD in L.A. He knew Bron would eventually break Kareem’s scoring record. And so on. So what better way to keep the distance than by a documentary built and controlled by MJ himself?
“I did feel like that the documentary was not really about The Last Dance because I feel like that it was a lot of footage that was taken that was going to be really praising one of the greatest teams that really ever been put together in the NBA and really praise a lot of the people that was a part of that great team,” Pippen added. “I feel like that the documentary was solely built and controlled through Michael Jordan.”
‘The Last Dance’ aired from April 19 to May 17, 2020, when the entire world of sports was shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic. So when it launched, Mike locked everybody’s eyes and ears on what he wanted to portray. If Scottie is right, MJ orchestrated it perfectly. But then again, that’s according to Pippen, who is still not over his grudges and frustrations while he is still with the Bulls.
