Grant: Scottie Pippen Learned from Michael Jordan That He Needed Bulls Teammates

As The Last Dance documentary has chronicled, Michael Jordan gradually learned he needed his teammates if he was going to rack up championships during his NBA career.

Turns out, that learning process helped Scottie Pippen as well.

"He didn't go out there like, 'This is my team,'" Horace Grant said of Pippen, per Zach Lowe of ESPN. "He wanted us in the fold. He learned from MJ that he needed us."

Grant was specifically discussing the 1993-94 campaign when Jordan was playing baseball and Pippen was the clear-cut best player on the Chicago Bulls. Instead of completely collapsing without Air Jordan, the Bulls won 55 games and advanced to the second round of the playoffs, where they lost to the New York Knicks in a Game 7 that may not have even happened was it not for questionable officiating that hurt Chicago earlier in the series.

Pippen was a driving force behind that success.

He finished third in MVP voting and posted 22.0 points, 8.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 2.9 steals per game all while attempting just 17.8 shots a night. Lowe highlighted how No. 33 didn't veer from Phil Jackson's triangle system or force the offense himself and was instead an impressive teammate.

The piece pointed to Pippen's efforts and patience when it came to helping teach teammates the triangle, which Grant said "was like learning Mandarin."

That Grant said Pippen learned he needed his teammates from Jordan is notable because part of The Last Dance broke down His Airness' reaction to the Bulls switching from Doug Collins to Jackson following the 1989 Eastern Conference Finals.

Jordan was not a fan at first, saying, "Everybody has an opportunity to touch the ball, but I didn't want Bill Cartwright to have the ball with five seconds left. That's not equal-opportunity offense, that's f--king bulls--t."

However, his opinion changed as the more team-based approach helped the Bulls finally vanquish the "Bad Boys" Detroit Pistons and win six championships during Jackson's nine years at the helm.

It changed so much, in fact, that Jordan consistently said during the 1997-98 campaign he wouldn't play for another coach if the Bulls moved on from Jackson, which they ultimately did.