Scottie Pippen spent his career as the sidekick to the greatest of all time, then he used a 30-second commercial to call the Jordan narrative a lie

Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan’s teammate and a multiple NBA champion, has once again reignited controversy with Jordan. Pippen was part of the Bulls team that dominated an era, but despite his efforts, he was considered the second-best by the media because of the narrative built around Michael Jordan. Now, in his recent advertisement, Pippen seemingly took a dig at the narrative, calling Michael the best.​

According to Marca, Scottie declared that the entire announcement of Michael Jordan as the greatest of all time is an advertising hoax to boost his media stocks. The ad tries to showcase his frustration with being called the second-best throughout his career, just because the media wanted to give all the attention to Michael rather than to him. He even questioned the reality of 2020’s “The Last Dance” documentary and its narrative’s agenda for Jordan.​

His exact words on the Mr Pibb commercial were, “When something has been considered second best for so long, we just blindly accept it as gospel…A decade-long plot built on marketing, social media, and multipart documentaries,”  This dialogue suggests he was considered the second best just because the media wanted to portray him as the second best instead of being called the best.

Scottie Pippen was quite crucial to the Bulls’ dominance during Michael Jordan’s era

Scottie Pippen might seem like a bitter opponent to Jordan, but even then, it’s hard to deny his importance in the team’s success. Even though he averages 16.1 points per game while Jordan averaged over 30, Pip has played a hybrid playmaker’s role at that time, and with his defensive contributions, the Bulls have been able to perform at that level.

Pippen, despite being a forward, has been selected to the All-Defensive Team for 10 NBA seasons and even had a higher rebound average than Michael Jordan. Jordan, who himself slams the GOAT debate as ‘empty comparison,’ leads the stats in points per game and assists per game, and in offensive metrics, Pippen falls a little behind, but this is not the complete story.

Even though Scottie has seemingly tried to overcome Jordan’s shadow, things do not stand as Scottie has painted them. He might have restarted the debate, but some of his stats seem to weaken his claims, and Jordan was quite an influence back then, especially with Nike. Regardless, this commercial has the potential to reignite the GOAT debate among the fans.