Chicago Bulls: KD straight up wrong calling out Scottie Pippen

A brouhaha emerged this week concerning the Chicago Bulls Hall-of-Fame forward Scottie Pippen and the Brooklyn Nets superstar forward Kevin Durant. It involved initial comments from Scottie concerning the comparisons between the Los Angeles Lakers superstar forward LeBron James and KD after each player had their run in the playoffs end earlier than anticipated.

The comments from Scottie on LeBron and KD emerged in a GQ interview titled “Scottie Pippen Has Something to Say”. And that was clearly something that KD took issue with, and he took to social media to express his frustrations as he often does.

Here is the meat of what Pippen mentioned in this GQ interview regarding KD and LeBron.

"And I used this example of what happened to Kevin Durant just the other day: this is the first time we’ve ever really seen Kevin Durant have to be the man and bring the team home. We ain’t never really had to see that because he’s had [Russell] Westbrook, Steph Curry, Klay [Thompson]. He’s been beating people, definitely in Golden State, by committee. With a team. He did that, but that team already knew how to win without KD. But you put KD in Brooklyn, and Kyrie [Irving] gets hurt and James Harden ain’t that guy, now KD not only has to score for them but also make plays for them. And this is no knock to KD, but they asked me, “Has he surpassed LeBron James?” And my answer was: LeBron James knows team basketball better than KD."

The response from KD came swiftly, and he really dug into some of the past issues with Pippen during his glory days with the Bulls dynasty teams of the 1990s. KD specifically called out Pippen’s moment in the 1994 playoffs when he took himself out of the game against the New York Knicks since head coach Phil Jackson drew up a late-game play for Toni Kukoc instead of him.

That was a point in time where Pippen was the Bulls shining star in the wake of Michael Jordan retiring from basketball for the first time to try his hand at baseball in the Chicago White Sox organization. Pippen was a true MVP contender for a lot of that season, but the Bulls still sputtered out in the playoffs before reaching the NBA Finals.

KD did dig into Scottie a bit further even, calling out how no one wanted to play with him in Chicago, but Phil instead. This seems to be a classic scuffle that KD likes to get involved in on social media. Knowing his past, it wasn’t all that surprising to get a response after what came from Pippen.

It is also important to note that Pippen was commenting on KD among a whole host of other players. And it was probably unnecessary for Pippen to go into the KD-LeBron comparison as much as he did in this GQ interview.

But the fact of the matter is that most accolades and numbers show that LeBron is a more accomplished player at this point in time than KD. KD is an 11-time All-Star selection, two-time NBA Champion, four-time scoring champ, two-time Finals MVP, and one-time NBA MVP. Meanwhile, LeBron is a 17-time All-Star selection, four-time NBA Champion, four-time Finals MVP, and a four-time NBA MVP.

There is no doubt that KD is one of the best players of this generation and an all-time great offensive player. It is very likely that another title is in his future before it’s all said and done for his playing days in the NBA.

On the other hand, it is unlikely that KD finishes out his career with as many All-Star selections and MVPs as LeBron. It will be close for the ring count too. Most of all, neither LeBron nor KD will likely reach the number of rings that Pippen had during his days with the Bulls, with six.

Pippen was there for all six titles during the hay day with Jordan and the Bulls during the 1990s. If that unit had stuck around for longer together in the mid-to-late 1990s, then more titles than just the six likely would’ve been on the way.