Scottie Pippen picks his NBA GOAT, and it's not MJ or LeBron

Yesterday at 04:16 PM

Former NBA legends Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen seem to have grown apart since their days dominating the league together with the Chicago Bulls. Pippen has taken frequent jabs at Jordan in the media, some of which was allegedly due to his dislike of the way he was portrayed in 2020’s Last Dance documentary.

Now, Pippen is back with another flaming hot NBA take, and it likely won’t please fans of either Jordan or his long-time GOAT comparison rival LeBron James, per the PBD Podcast, via HoopsHype.

“You can't ask me who's the GOAT between LeBron and Michael. Neither one of them are GOATs,” said Pippen. “They both won differently. You can't put them at the top of the pinnacle. Magic Johnson, to me, is a bigger GOAT than anybody. Because of how he led, how he brought a whole team together, how when the greatest scorer in the game, Kareem, wasn't there, he stepped in as a rookie center and played a position no one even knew he could play.”

A worthy candidate

Magic Johnson is certainly on the short list of NBA players who have a legitimate claim to at least be mentioned with the likes of LeBron James and Michael Jordan in the GOAT discussion.

Johnson won five championships during his legendary tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers, including one in his rookie year. His pairing with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar made for one of the most lethal duos in NBA history, one that consistently clashed with Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.

Of course, by this point in time, the majority of NBA fans have boiled the goat discussion down to current Lakers star LeBron James and Pippen’s former teammate Michael Jordan, with whom he won six NBA championships.

However, Pippen has made no secret of some of his more controversial opinions over the years, and this one would certainly seem to fall into that category.

It’s unclear at this point whether this was simply another veiled shot at Jordan or truly Pippen’s honest opinion, but it certainly won’t do much to help bury whatever hatchet exists between the two former teammates.

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