After the Miami Heat defeated the Chicago Bulls in five games behind some incredible offensive, defensive, and crunch-time performances by LeBron James, former Chicago Bull Scottie Pippen went on the radio and said that he believes LeBron “may be the greatest player to ever play the game.”
A few weeks after LeBron folded in the Finals and the Heat lost in six games to the Dallas Mavericks, Pippen went on ESPN’s Mike and Mike in the Morning show and clarified some of the comments he made after the Conference Finals (hat tip to ESPN Chicago’s Nick Friedell):“The comments that I made were basically giving LeBron some props as a player, not to dismantle any player like Michael,” Pippen said after a youth camp session at the Bulls/Sox academy. “We all know that he’s the greatest player that ever played the game.
“I think it was taken a little bit out of context. I felt like I was drawing more of a conclusion from the statistics more than the accolades...
...Pippen said he’s spoken to Jordan multiple times since he made the comments and there is no rift between the former teammates.
“I talk to Michael all the time,” Pippen said. “There was no problem between me and Michael. I think [the media] chewed into it a little too much.”Well, this shouldn’t shock anybody. As everybody knows, Jordan retired with six championships. LeBron just blew a golden opportunity to earn his first ring. Until LeBron bounces back from his 2011 Finals performance and gets a few rings of his own, any comparisons to Jordan should probably be put on hold.
