Why Karl Stefanovic's interview with NBA legend Scottie Pippen is going viral in America

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A heartwarming moment in Karl Stefanovic’s interview with NBA hero Scottie Pippen has gone viral after he made one major admission about Michael Jordan.

Pippen appeared to forget his long-time feud with the 61-year-old when he admitted his former Chicago Bulls teammate is the greatest player in basketball history.

‘It’s hard to make comparisons but from where you were standing playing, was Michael the best, the greatest ever?’ Stefanovic asked.

‘For sure, I mean, you look at the MVPs that he was able to achieve,’ Pippen told Channel Nine’s Today on Tuesday.

‘I think it was all brought from us being successful as a team,’ he continued. ‘Obviously someone is going to bring those accolades home. Yeah, he was the greatest player definitely, in basketball.’

It comes after the six-time NBA championship winner gave a starkly different answer when he was asked the same question by former teammate Stacey King last year.

A heartwarming moment in Karl Stefanovic’s interview with NBA hero Scottie Pippen has gone viral after he made one major admission about Michael Jordan

Pippen appeared to forget his long-time feud with the superstar when he admitted his former Chicago Bulls teammate is the greatest player in basketball history

‘LeBron [James] will be the greatest statistical guy to ever play the game of basketball,’ Pippen said on King’s Gimme The H๏τ Sauce podcast in May.

‘And there’s no comparison to him. None. So does that make him the greatest player to ever play the game? I’ll leave that up for debate, because I don’t believe there’s a great player because our game’s a team game, and one player can’t do it.’

He also told the podcast Jordan was a ‘terrible player’ before he joined the bulls.

‘I saw Jordan play before I came to play with the Bulls. You guys saw him play. He was a horrible player. He was horrible to play with,’ he said.

‘He was all one-on-one, he’s shooting bad sH๏τs, and all of a sudden we become a team and we start winning and everybody forgot who he was.’

The Today hosts asked Pippen of his impression of the ESPN ‘Last Dance’ docuseries, which chronicles the rise of Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.

Pippen was reportedly infuriated with how he was portrayed in the series, with his relationship with Jordan suffering as a result.

He surprised basketball fans by singing the praises of the docuseries on Tuesday.

Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls are seen discussing strategy in 1993

Pippen (pictured in Melbourne last week) shocked fans by admitting Jordan was the best basketball player of all time in an interview with the Today Show on Tuesday

‘I thought it was special,’ Pippen said. ‘I thought it was a special moment for us to really relive some of the greatest times in basketball history. More so, have an opportunity to see what team basketball was really like.

‘I think during the pandemic, everyone sitting at home, it was more like an educational tool to let people see how great the game can be if it’s played the right way. If there’s sharing of the basketball, there’s unlimited things you can achieve.’

Pippen had previously been critical of the series, saying Jordan was credited with the Bulls’ success in the 1990s while his teammates were portrayed as minor players.

‘They glorified Michael Jordan while not giving nearly enough praise to me and my proud teammates,’ Pippen, 58, wrote in his 2021 memoir Unguarded.

‘Michael deserved a large portion of the blame. The producers had granted him editorial control of the final product. The doc couldn’t have been released otherwise. He was the leading man and the director.’

As a result, Pippen claims, the documentary felt inauthentic.

‘I don’t think it was that accurate in terms of really defining what was accomplished in one of the greatest eras of basketball, but also by two of the greatest players — and one could even put that aside and say the greatest team of all time,’ Pippen told The Guardian in December 2020.

‘I didn’t think those things stood out in the documentary. I thought it was more about Michael trying to uplift himself and to be glorified. I think it also backfired to some degree in that people got a chance to see what kind of personality Michael had.’

Pippen (pictured in Melbourne) is in Australia this month to take part in an awards banquet for the country’s National Basketball League and a subsequent speaking tour with former teammates Horace Grant and Luc Longley

Further complicating matters is the romantic relationship between Pippen’s ex-wife, 49-year-old Larsa, and Jordan’s 32-year-old son, Marcus (the couple is pictured)

Further complicating matters is the romantic relationship between Pippen’s ex-wife, 49-year-old Larsa, and Jordan’s 32-year-old son, Marcus.

The couple are understood to have started dating since 2022 before they split up earlier this year.

Pippen and Larsa were married for nearly 20 years and had four children together before divorcing in 2021.

Pippen is in Australia this month to take part in an awards banquet for the country’s National Basketball League and a subsequent speaking tour with former teammates Horace Grant and Luc Longley.

The Hall of Famer was a member of all six of the Bulls’ тιтle-winning teams.

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