According to Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen, the late great Tex Winter instructed Phil Jackson to withdraw Michael Jordan from Game 6 of the 1992 NBA Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Bulls were down 15 points to the Blazers entering the fourth quarter of Game 6, and Jordan was trying to win the game on his own.
Pippen wrote about it in his book, Unguarded.
“Michael, meanwhile, was trying to do too much,” Pippen stated in his book. “And it was backfiring.” Tex Winter, one of our assistant coaches, implored with Phil, ‘Get him out of there. “He’s holding the ball for too long, destroying the action.”
The Bulls went on a 14-2 run to begin the fourth quarter. Jordan sat on the sideline, cheering on his teammates, before returning to the game when the Blazers led 81-78.
Chicago won Game 6 with a final score of 97-93. Jordan scored 33 points in 43 minutes, while Pippen added 26 points and five rebounds.
Episode 5 of the documentary series “The Last Dance” focused on the 1992 NBA Finals. However, there was no video evidence of what happened in Game 6, which infuriated Pippen.
Jordan and Pippen have won six championships together. They are largely regarded as the best NBA combo in history.
“The only footage of Game 6 was showing the final seconds ticking off,” Pippen said in a statement. “It would not have strengthened Michael’s legacy to have his’supporting cast’ making the difference in a game of this significance. If Phil had put Michael back in sooner in the fourth quarter, the Bulls would have most certainly lost the game. Tex was correct. Michael was not moving the ball.
However, the Bulls icons no longer communicate.
Pippen was furious with how he was represented in “The Last Dance,” and the Hall of Famer made several jabs at Jordan in his book.
“God, I hated that term and being referred to as Robin to his Batman,” Pippen writes in his essay. “Someone he felt he needed to pull along to approach every game and practice as intensely as he did; me, a team-oriented purist, offended when he tried to win games by himself.”
During the Jordan-Pippen era, the Bulls were 6-0 in the NBA Finals and three-peated twice. They beat the Los Angeles Lakers, Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Seattle SuperSonics, and Utah Jazz (twice).
Jordan averaged 31.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 2.5 steals, and 0.9 blocks over 930 games with the Bulls. He earned five regular-season MVPs, six Finals MVPs, and ten scoring championships. He’s widely regarded as the greatest player in NBA history.
Pippen averaged 17.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.1 steals, and 0.9 blocks over 856 games with the Bulls.
Jordan never won a postseason series until Pippen joined the Bulls. To be successful in the NBA, MJ needed a partner in crime, and Pippen was the right fit.
