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According To Former Teammate, Scottie Pippen Joined The Houston Rockets Thinking He Was Michael Jordan

Ever since the release of Netflix and ESPN’s 10-part documentary ‘The Last Dance’, much appreciation has been given to Scottie Pippen.

It shed light on a lot of details around the retired Chicago Bulls legend that many NBA fans only had little knowledge of. This includes the fact that Pippen was drastically underpaid, as well as the importance of the second fiddle role he played that helped spark a dynasty.

But little did everyone know that this Bulls version of Pippen was actually the antithesis of that with the Houston Rockets. Parting ways with the Bulls after their second three-peat, Pippen got his well-deserved contract by signing a five year, $67.2 million deal with the Rockets before the 1998-99 NBA season. 

However, his play and attitude were nowhere near the value of his contract — to such a degree that one of his former teammates despised the behavior Pippen had showed within the team. Pippen’s former teammate, Matt Bullard, who currently is a Houston Rockets broadcaster, wasn’t too kind when talking about him during an appearance on SportsTalk 970 in Houston.

Per Rocketswire:

“When Scottie Pippen left the Bulls, I didn’t realize that he was coming off of being very underpaid for seven years,” Bullard said on SportsTalk 970 in Houston, via Rockets Wire. “I didn’t know that he had that saltiness about being underpaid when he came to us. But I do remember, the rest of us — when Scottie came, and it was already after training camp had started a little bit — he came into Houston, and he never really did integrate himself into the Rockets’ organization.”

“He never really tried to make an effort to be a Houston Rocket. … He was coming in thinking, ‘Hey, I’m Michael Jordan.’ I mean, not really Michael Jordan, but ‘I’m Scottie Pippen.’ And the rest of us could feel that. Those types of things still stick with me. … Looking back on all the teammates I’ve had, I would say that Scottie Pippen was not one of my favorite teammates. Because when I did play with him, he wasn’t trying to be a Rocket. He was just trying to be the man, and it didn’t really work.”

Pippen’s Rockets tenure didn’t last long. With his attitude, performance and a feud with Charles Barkley, it always was only a matter of time for the front office to have had enough of Pippen, leading to them eventually trading him to the Portland Trailblazers where he lasted for four seasons from 1999-00 to 2002-03.