Scottie Pippen Says Michael Jordan Was 'Horrible' Before SF Joined Bulls

Scottie Pippen is stirring the pot once again.

The NBA Hall of Famer and six-time champion with the Chicago Bulls suggested on Stacey King's Gimme The Hot Sauce podcast that Michael Jordan was a "horrible" player before Pippen joined the Bulls and that LeBron James has had a better statistical career than Jordan.

Here are his remarks (h/t Die-Hard Chicago Bulls Fans):

"LeBron will be the greatest statistical guy to ever play the game of basketball. And there's no comparison to him. None. So does that make him the greatest player to ever play the game?"

"I'll leave that up for debate, because I don't believe there's a great player because our game's a team game, and one player can't do it. I saw Jordan play before I came to play with the Bulls. You guys saw him play. He was a horrible player. He was horrible to play with. He was all one-on-one, he's shooting bad shots, and all of a sudden we become a team and we start winning and everybody forgot who he was."

OK, let's unpack this.

First, James has the most points (38,652) and fourth-most assists (10,420) in NBA history. He's the only player in NBA history with over 25,000 points, 10,000 assists and 10,000 rebounds. So yes, from a statistical perspective, James' resume stands alone.

But calling Jordan "horrible" in the three seasons he spent with the Bulls before Pippen was drafted in 1987 feels like a monumental stretch.

Jordan was an All-Star in each of those three seasons, was the 1984-85 Rookie of the Year, led the NBA in scoring (37.1 PPG) in the 1986-87 season, never dipped below 45 percent shooting from the field in any of those seasons and led the Bulls to the playoffs in all three campaigns.

The Bulls put a far better team around him in the years to follow and a legendary head coach in Phil Jackson. But by the time Pippen was drafted, Jordan was already arguably the most dominant player in the NBA.