NBA news: Scottie Pippen calls out LeBron James for 'chasing titles'

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If I had a nickel for every time a former player or someone in basketball media offered an ill-informed take on the career of NBA icon LeBron James, I might have nearly as much money in my bank account as the NBA’s first active billionaire. Unfortunately, my bank account is as empty as most of these critiques are, including the one recently lobbed in LeBron’s direction by Basketball Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen.

“My success as a team is more successful than LeBron. I got six rings,” Pippen said on the PBD Podcast with Patrick Bet-David. Pippen then posed a question for hypothetical team owners who for some reason would be tasked with choosing between him and LeBron James. “Do you want individual accolades, or do you want championships? Because I didn’t chase mine.”

This whole thing is funny for a multitude of reasons, one of which is the fact that Pippen’s anti-LeBron position isn’t rooted in Michael Jordan admiration, which nine times out of ten is generally the case. If anything, Pippen has been even more critical of his former teammate, going as far as calling the near-consensus GOAT, “a horrible player” who was “horrible to play with” before he arrived in Chicago. But hey, that’s a conversation for another time.

In the case of LeBron James, here’s the very straightforward pushback I would provide to Pippen if I had the opportunity. Below are the three franchises that LeBron James chose to join at various points in his career. Included is their record the season before he arrived:

2009-10 Miami Heat – 47-35, eliminated 1st Round

2013-14 Cleveland Cavaliers – 33-49, missed Playoffs

2017-18 Los Angeles Lakers – 35-47, missed Playoffs

Within two years of joining each of these absolute juggernauts, LeBron James delivered the franchise an NBA Title, each one which was capped with King James being named the NBA Finals MVP.

Scottie Pippen did win his six NBA Championship rings with the team he began his career with. That cannot be disputed, though we should acknowledge that Pippen joined a Playoff team that already had the league’s biggest star on their roster. But that’s not the issue here. The issue is that Pippen phrases this as if he was a lifelong Bull who, A) Didn’t request to be traded out of Chicago multiple times, and B) Didn’t end up playing for a pair of Western Conference title contenders after he was traded.

Pippen’s trade to Houston in 1999 was mostly financially motivated, but he was joining a Rockets team that already featured Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley, and went into the lockout shortened season as one of the NBA Title favorites. The following year, Pippen requested a trade out of Houston in part because of a public feud with Barkley, but also because he expressed a desire to play for Phil Jackson and the Los Angeles Lakers, who would go on to win the next three championships.

Pippen didn’t get his wish, but he was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers, who had made the Western Conference Finals the year prior… the perfect spot to chase a 7th championship ring if you’re not playing second-fiddle to Michael Jordan.

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