During an appearance on the latest episode of the Dan Patrick Show, Scottie Pippen doubled down on his recent claims that Phil Jackson made some “racial” moves during his time coaching the Chicago Bulls.
In an interview with GQ published last week, Pippen claimed that Jackson’s motivations for giving Toni Kukoc, rather than himself, the last shot in a 1994 playoff game against the Knicks were purely motivated by race.
Now, Pippen is doubling down on his initial take, as he flat out agreed with the idea that Phil Jackson is a racist of sorts during his discussion with Patrick on Monday morning.
When Patrick said Pippen was implying Jackson is a racist based on what he said, the Bulls legend responded by saying he didn’t have a problem with that. It prompted Patrick to ask if Pippen thought Jackson was a racist, to which he said, “Oh yeah.”
Back in 1994, Kukoc hit a game-winning, buzzer-beating shot to beat the Knicks 104-102 in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. The moment became infamous due to Pippen’s refusal to take the court after Jackson called for Kukoc to take the shot instead of him during a pre-play timeout.
Days before sitting down with Dan Patrick, Pippen spoke with Tyler R. Tynes of GQ about that night, saying that he thinks Jackson’s decision was a “racial move.”
“I don’t think it’s a mystery, you need to read between the fine lines,” Pippen explained. “It was my first year playing without Michael Jordan, why wouldn’t I be taking that last shot? I been through all the ups and downs, the battles with the Pistons and now you gonna insult me and tell me to take it out?”
