Hated rivals of Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen: Isiah Thomas
This is one of the most obvious names to include on this list. The former Detroit Pistons superstar point guard and Hall-of-Famer Isiah Thomas was one of the biggest rivals of Pippen, Jordan, and the Bulls throughout the 1980s and 1990s. That came to a head when the idea surfaced that Pippen and Jordan both apparently played a role in Thomas not making it on the “Dream Team” to some degree.
This was never really confirmed, but it appears that the dislike of Thomas from these two, among others on the 1992 United States men’s basketball team, definitely played a role in him not getting selected. Thomas was definitely one of the best players in the NBA at that point in time. Based on talent and merit alone, Thomas was worthy of making that team.
But in the early days of the Bulls trying to make their way through the playoffs in the Eastern Conference in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Pistons were a huge rival. And no player seemed to be a bigger rival of both Jordan and Pippen than Thomas. To this day, it still sounds like there’s friction between these parties.
At no point were Pippen and Thomas really friends. They still call each other out in media appearances on various occasions. Just do a Google, Twitter, and/or YouTube, search if you want to see all of the unkind words sent to each party from the other between Pippen and Thomas.
This is another situation where both Jordan and Pippen share the same rival. Thomas might be the biggest rival of any individual player of these two. But it’s not just the fact that Jordan played with Pippen as to why they don’t like Thomas. These three aren’t fans of each other.