Scottie Pippen Has A Brain Lock, Sells Out Michael Jordan

Apparently, now that he's retired, ex-Chicago Bull Scottie Pippen needs something to do with all his free time. I mean, what else can explain Pippen, a recent inductee to the Hall of Fame and member of the NBA's "50 Greatest Ever" club, blaspheming his former teammate (and consensus NBA G.O.A.T.) in a way, by telling ESPN today that LeBron James is better than Michael Jordan.

Scottie, WTF!?!

No surprise I'm not the only one upset here (mind you, I'm a longtime Knicks fan, so thinking back to the countless times MJ ruined my hopes and dreams for a championship during his playing days, you know it's not easy for me to admit that he's the G.O.A.T., but facts are facts) as Pippen's remarks set off a chain of outrage both on ESPN and Twitter.

So what does Scottie do? He makes it worse with this lame response on Twitter: "For all of you that don't know, I played the game you keep watching and cheering." Yeah, because unless you played the game, your opinion doesn't count. How many times have pro athletes uttered those words?

Real original, Scottie.

But getting back to reality, why would Pippen even go there in the first place?

It's not like Pippen and MJ have had any beef of late (or at least none that I know of). In fact, it was Pippen who selected His Airness to introduce him at his Hall of Fame ceremony last August.

Then there's the idea of rings. Last time I checked, MJ has six of them (surely Scottie remembers this, tapes show that he was there each time) while, as of today, LeBron's hand remains bare.

Lastly, there's a little thing called loyalty. While Scottie eventually softened his stance later on Twitter, writing, "Don't get me wrong, MJ was and is the greatest. But LeBron could, by all means, get to his level someday."

It's still bewildering that as much as fans link Scottie and Michael together (real NBA heads will always remind you that it wasn't till Pippen got to the Bulls that they started winning championships), Scottie would sell out his buddy MJ this way.

But then when you recall that Scottie Pippen is the same guy who once refused to go into an NBA playoff game because the coach didn't design the play for him, you understand that Scottie can be a bit of an enigma.

Bottom line, while LeBron James may be more gifted athletically (and arguably a better passer too) than MJ, he still has a way to go before anyone mentions him and Jordan in the same sentence.

After all, Jordan not only has six more rings than LeBron, but he was a better shooter, way better defensively (nine All-Defensive First Team honors), had a greater will to win (no matter what happens against Dallas in the upcoming NBA Finals, James can never erase quitting on his Cavalier teammates against Boston in last year's playoffs) and frankly speaking, unlike LeBron (if he does go on to win it all), MJ didn't have to leave his team and team up with two perennial All-Stars to help him reach the top.

In short, like reality-TV star Bethenny Frankel would say, Scottie Pippen needs to "go find a hobby" because he was wrong here. Way wrong. And folks should never let him forget it.