Chicago Bulls

Most fans assumed that winning six championships together meant a lifelong brotherhood. But that assumption was always wrong, and Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan blunt truth of that.

Pippen finally admitted what people have suspected for years. He and Michael Jordan were never friends, on or off the court. In fact, they haven’t spoken a single word to each other since 2020.

Just to recap, they played 691 regular-season games together. They also went a perfect 6-0 in the NBA Finals during the Chicago Bulls’ legendary 1990s run, cementing themselves as the greatest duo in basketball history.

But when interviewer Patrick Bet-David pushed Pippen on how they actually got along behind closed doors, Pippen didn’t hold back on the PBD Podcast.

«Great teammate, but we were just never great friends,» Pippen admitted. He confirmed the two never golfed together and never shared a single one-on-one dinner in Chicago across their entire historic run with the Bulls.

Scottie Pippen says he and Michael Jordan were never friends off the court and haven’t spoken since 2020:
Pippen: “Great teammate, but we were just never great friends.”
PBD: “Never? Even when you guys played?”
Pippen: “No.”
PBD: “Did you guys golf a lot together or no?”… https://t.co/24W3Ayd6BG pic.twitter.com/byxVpTbjW9
— NBABase (@TheNBABase) August 10, 2026

Everything fell apart when ESPN aired “The Last Dance” in April 2020. Because Jordan had final editorial control over the 10-part docuseries, Pippen felt it turned into a huge spotlight for Jordan that completely shortchanged the rest of the team.

Pippen opened up about how much it hurt in his 2021 memoir, «Unguarded.» He admitted he wasn’t an innocent party throughout his career, but he blamed Jordan’s creative control for making the documentary so heavily one-sided.

That tension brought their relationship to a permanent end. When Bet-David asked when they last spoke, Pippen remembered it being «right around the pandemic.» It was actually a text exchange from May 2020, which happened when Jordan reached out after hearing Pippen was furious about how he was portrayed.

Pippen acknowledged that brief text message was the true end of their partnership, concluding, «I guess it was good and final.»

He also talked about how tough Jordan was to play with, calling him a very difficult person to deal with and made it clear that there was never a real friendship to save in the first place between them.

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