{"id":1205062,"date":"2020-07-11T16:48:17","date_gmt":"2020-07-11T20:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1205062"},"modified":"2020-07-11T16:48:19","modified_gmt":"2020-07-11T20:48:19","slug":"scottie-pippen-explains-why-kobe-bryant-was-better-than-michael-jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/scottie-pippen-explains-why-kobe-bryant-was-better-than-michael-jordan\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottie Pippen Explains Why Kobe Bryant Was Better Than Michael Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Michael Jordan's right-hand man thinks there was a better NBA player than Jordan himself. <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/scottie-pippen-the-little-personal-detail-everybody-gets-wrong-about-him\/\">Scottie Pippen revealed<\/a> that he doesn't believe that Jordan, former Chicago Bulls teammate, <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/michael-jordan-or-lebron-james-who-do-nba-players-think-is-the-goat\/\">is the NBA's GOAT<\/a>. Pippen said the late Kobe Bryant was the better player and he said he wishes he was able to tell him before he died tragically in a helicopter crash in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Michael Jordan's NBA career<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Michael Jordan Top 50 All Time Plays\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LAr6oAKieHk?start=95&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/isiah-thomas-has-no-doubt-kareem-abdul-jabbar-is-the-goat-over-michael-jordan\/\">Isiah Thomas Has No Doubt Kareem Abdul Jabbar Is the GOAT Over Michael Jordan<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When it comes down to the <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/michael-jordan-or-lebron-james-former-guard-jason-williams-weighs-in-on-goat\/\">NBA's GOAT debate<\/a>, it's usually between Michael Jordan and LeBron James. <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/scottie-pippen-unhappy-with-portrayal-in-the-last-dance\/\">Jordan's former teammate, Scottie Pippen<\/a>, said he believed Kobe Bryant was a better player than Jordan which raised a few eyebrows. Bryant's name frequently comes into the conversation but is usually at least a distant third place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jordan played 15 seasons in the NBA, 13 of them with the Chicago Bulls. His career spanned 19 seasons as he took a year off to play professional baseball and then retired for three seasons before coming back with the Washington Wizards. For 10 of his 13 seasons with the Bulls, Jordan led the NBA in scoring average. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jordan finished his career with six NBA titles and was named the league's Most Valuable Player five times. Not only was Jordan dominant offensively but he was also named to the NBA All-Defensive Team for nine seasons. He was a three-time steals champ and he was a 14-time NBA All-Star. Jordan finished his career by averaging 30.1 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Kobe Bryant's NBA career<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kobe Bryant&#039;s BEST 100 Plays &amp; Moments Of His NBA Career\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OTTWedyp37o?start=50&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/kobe-bryant-just-got-the-ultimate-sign-of-respect-from-nba-2k21\/\">Kobe Bryant<\/a> spent 20 seasons in the NBA, all with the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant was drafted right out of high school by the Charlotte Hornets. The Hornets <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/vlade-divac-threatening-to-retire-wasnt-the-only-thing-that-nearly-kept-the-hornets-from-trading-kobe-bryant-to-the-lakers\/\">traded Bryant to the Lakers<\/a> for Vlade Divac before he ever played a game in Charlotte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bryant was a five-time NBA champion and was named the league's Most Valuable Player during the 2007-08 season. He led the league in scoring in back-to-back seasons beginning with the 2005-06 season when he averaged 35.4 points per game in 80 games. He followed that season by averaging 31.4 points per game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like Michael Jordan, Bryant was a very strong defender. He was named to the NBA All-Defensive Team for 12 of his 20 seasons. He was also an 18-time NBA All-Star. Bryant third on the league's all-time scoring list until LeBron James passed him in January. Bryant finished his career by averaging 25 points and 5.2 rebounds per game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Scottie Pippen said Bryant was better than Jordan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=drwEkKY0PhQ\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the numbers clearly show that <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/michael-jordan-and-nike-face-30-million-lawsuit-for-alleged-copycat-logo\/\">Michael Jordan<\/a> was statistically a better player than Kobe Bryant, Scottie Pippen thinks otherwise. Maybe it's because Pippen is <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/scottie-pippen-has-a-good-reason-to-be-furious-at-michael-jordan\/\">unhappy with the way he was portrayed<\/a> in ESPN's docuseries <em>The Last Dance<\/em>, which was about the Chicago Bulls' final run as a dynasty. Maybe Pippen really believes Bryant is the better player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an interview with <em>Thuzio<\/em>, Pippen said after sitting down and watching more videos of Bryant, he believes he is better than Jordan. &#8220;Kobe was a very intelligent guy and he believed in striving to be the best,&#8221; Pippen said. &#8220;I hate that we didn't tell him how great he really was because he strived so hard to be Michael Jordan. When I go back and look at his videos and I say to myself, &#8216;damn, he was better than Michael Jordan.'<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This kid came out of high school. He didn't go play for a North Carolina, under a Dean Smith. He worked at his craft. God rest his soul.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>All statistics courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bryanko01.html\">Basketball Reference<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Chicago Bulls standout Scottie Pippen says he believes Kobe Bryant was a better basketball than Michael Jordan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":1205081,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4815,4829,4835],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Scottie Pippen Explains Why Kobe Bryant Was Better Than Michael Jordan - Sports7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Chicago Bulls standout Scottie Pippen says he believes Kobe Bryant was a better basketball than Michael Jordan.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/scottie-pippen-explains-why-kobe-bryant-was-better-than-michael-jordan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scottie Pippen Explains Why Kobe Bryant Was Better Than Michael Jordan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Chicago Bulls standout Scottie Pippen says he believes Kobe Bryant was a better basketball than Michael Jordan.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/scottie-pippen-explains-why-kobe-bryant-was-better-than-michael-jordan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-11T20:48:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-07-11T20:48:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Scottie-Pippen-Kobe.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Thomas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@NostraThomas123\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mike Thomas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/scottie-pippen-explains-why-kobe-bryant-was-better-than-michael-jordan\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/scottie-pippen-explains-why-kobe-bryant-was-better-than-michael-jordan\/\",\"name\":\"Scottie Pippen Explains Why Kobe Bryant Was Better Than Michael Jordan - Sports7\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/scottie-pippen-explains-why-kobe-bryant-was-better-than-michael-jordan\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/scottie-pippen-explains-why-kobe-bryant-was-better-than-michael-jordan\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Scottie-Pippen-Kobe.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-11T20:48:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-11T20:48:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#\/schema\/person\/ee02cb7d233260b2c9a2e6c26895e6d5\"},\"description\":\"Former Chicago Bulls standout Scottie Pippen says he believes Kobe Bryant was a better basketball than Michael Jordan.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/scottie-pippen-explains-why-kobe-bryant-was-better-than-michael-jordan\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/scottie-pippen-explains-why-kobe-bryant-was-better-than-michael-jordan\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/scottie-pippen-explains-why-kobe-bryant-was-better-than-michael-jordan\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Scottie-Pippen-Kobe.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Scottie-Pippen-Kobe.jpg\",\"width\":1500,\"height\":1000,\"caption\":\"MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - SEPTEMBER 01: Former NBA player Scottie Pippen speaks during a press conference as part of Heat Fest at Citibanamex Center on September 01, 2018 in Mexico City, Mexico. 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