Michael Jordan’s ‘partner in crime’ Scottie Pippen names Lakers legend as ‘real GOAT’
Scottie Pippen named the Lakers Magic Johnson as the greatest player of all time over former teammate Michael Jordan.
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Scottie Pippen believes Magic Johnson is the GOAT
Scottie Pippen has had one of the most iconic careers in the NBA, winning six championships. Despite winning all those alongside Michael Jordan, Pippen’s GOAT pick is a surprising one. All the members of the NBA world are always divided between Jordan and LeBron James. However, Pippen believes that neither of the players is as pivotal as Magic Johnson.
Scottie Pippen made a huge contribution to Michael Jordan‘s success, which earned them the reputation of the best duo. However, the Lakers legend Magic Johnson has accomplished by himself. This speaks to Pippen while looking at the criteria for the greatest player of all time. On the PBD podcast, Pippen sang high praise for Johnson.
Magic Johnson, to me, is a bigger GOAT than anybody because of how he led, how he brought a whole team. The greatest scorer in the game in Kareem, was not there and him, as a rookie, steps in and plays a position that no one even knows he can play. That’s transcending what you can do as a player.
Scottie Pippen said.
Johnson is on many people’s lists as the greatest point guard. The five-time champion is known for changing the definition of the position considering his career average of 19.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, 11.2 assists, and 1.9 steals per game. Pippen was impressed by Johnson’s capabilities while also taking over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the 1980 finals.
MVP Abdul-Jabbar suffered a sprained ankle during game 5 against the Philadelphia 76ers. This led to the league’s MVP to miss the next game. Johnson, a rookie at the time, despite starting as a center played all five positions in the game. Johnson ended up with two game-highs of 42 points and 15 rebounds. The Lakers went ahead and won the championship that year.
Scottie Pippen revealed the story of Magic Johnson talking trash to Michael Jordan
Pippen, MJ, and Magic Johnson all were teammates in the ‘Dream Team’ for the 1992 Olympics and have won gold medals together. Many stories of the arguably best team in basketball history have surfaced over the years. During the episode of the PBD podcast, host Patrick Bet-David asked about Pippen’s perspective of the famous practice incident between Jordan and Johnson.
The incident is known as the ‘greatest game ever played that nobody saw’. Despite being out of his prime, a retired Johnson, took charge of the team during practice. Pippen revealed that the Lakers legend wanted the team to collaborate and bring the seriousness to practice. To put this into action, the veteran started talking trash to MJ.
Magic made it a little bit competitive, start kind of poking a little bit with Michael, letting them know. ‘I’ve been away, you got a championship but I’m still Magic’.
Scottie Pippen said.
‘Pip’ admitted that the incident was not serious and the team would gather later in the hotel for fun. It seemed that along with the witnessing fans, the team was also delighted to play together. MJ previously described the experience as be most fun he had on a basketball court.
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Satvika Deshpande
(394 Articles Published)