NBA Hall of Fame inductee Scottie Pippen accused his former coach, Phil Jackson, of being racist as Pippen doubles down on earlier comments regarding an incident that occurred in the 1994 playoffs.
Pippen was on the Dan Patrick Show when he addressed comments he previously made in an interview with GQ about a playoff game in 1994 between the Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks.
Pippen famously refused to return to the game with the score tied at 102 and 1.8 seconds left in the game. Pippen was frustrated with Jackson’s decision to draw up a play to give the final shot of the game to a rookie, Toni Kukoč, who ended up scoring the game-winner.
“I felt like it was an opportunity to give (Kukoč) a rise,” Pippen told GQ. “It was a racial move to give him a rise. After all I’ve been through with this organization, now you’re gonna tell me to take the ball out and throw it to Toni Kukoč? You’re insulting me.”
In his interview on the Dan Patrick Show, Pippen made it clear that his opinion has not changed. “Why would Toni, who’s a rookie, get the last-second shot and you put me out of bounds? That’s what I mean racial,” Pippen said.
Dan Patrick proceeded to ask Pippen if he thinks Jackson was a racist, to clarify his thoughts on the perceived racist intent.
“Oh, yeah,” Pippen said. “Do you remember Phil Jackson left the Lakers, went and wrote a book on Kobe Bryant, and then came back and coached him? I mean, who would do that? You name someone in professional sports that would do that.”
“And you’re Jackson, who sits in the locker room and tells the players ‘this is a circle, and everything stays within the circle because that’s what team is about.’ But you as a head coach open it up and now you go out and try to belittle—at that time probably one of the greatest players in the game.”
Pippen was referring to The Last Season, a book published in 2004 after Jackson left the Lakers after winning three championships alongside Kobe Bryant. The book focused on the locker room tension and was critical of Bryant.
Jackson would return to the Lakers and end up winning two more championships with Bryant.
