NBA legend Scottie Pippen ripped the Detroit Pistons for walking off the court and not shaking hands with the Chicago Bulls after losing the 1991 NBA Eastern Conference Finals.
The Bulls swept the Pistons in the ’91 conference finals. With 7.9 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Detroit players got up from the bench and walked past Chicago’s bench without shaking hands or saying congratulations.
“No respect,” Pippen wrote in his book. “Nothing. In other words, precisely the type of juvenile behavior we had come to expect from a group led by Isiah Thomas and Bill Laimbeer. They couldn’t deal with our being the better team and their reign in the East being over. They were lucky their reign didn’t end in 1990.”
The Bulls lost to the Pistons in the 1988, 1989 and 1990 playoffs. Pippen and his teammates shook hands with Detroit, displaying proper sportsmanship, which made what the Pistons did in 1991 horrific.
“In The Last Dance, Isiah claimed that what the Pistons did wasn’t unusual,” Pippen wrote. “He said the Celtics did the same thing when the Pistons were about to beat them in the 1988 Eastern Conference Finals. I beg to differ. The Celtics left in the final seconds because the fans in Detroit were starting to storm the court. The Celtics were on enemy ground. The Pistons were not. No one was storming the court. After we lost to the Pistons in 1988, 1989 and 1990, we shook everyone’s hands and wished them well in their next series.”
Pippen and Michael Jordan hate Thomas. Neither Bulls legend will ever be friends with the Pistons icon.
“In the spring of 2020, while the doc was being aired, Isiah was interested in the two of us declaring a truce,” Pippen wrote in his book. “He reached out to B. J. Armstrong, who called me: ‘Would you be willing to talk to him?’ B.J. asked. Dude, are you kidding me? When I came into the league, he was never nice to me. Why would I want to meet with him now? Isiah is no fool. He knows better than anyone else how poorly he came across in The Last Dance, and with good reason. I wasn’t about to make it easier for him.”
Pippen and Jordan not only beat Thomas in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals, but they also prevented him from making “The Dream Team in 1992.
“Much has been written over the years about why Isiah didn’t make the team,” Pippen wrote. “What is true, without a doubt, is that a number of guys wouldn’t have participated if he had been selected, Michael and me included. Newton and other members of the committee knew how we felt. Not even Chuck Daly, the team’s head coach — and Isiah’s coach since 1983 — lobbied for him. What does that tell you?
“Looking at his numbers, it would be difficult to argue Isiah wasn’t deserving. He was a 10-time All-Star, a two-time champion, and a sure Hall of Famer. Except putting a basketball team together is about more than numbers. It is about chemistry, and with Isiah on the Dream Team, the chemistry would have been horrible.”
Pippen and Jordan won six NBA championships with the Bulls, while Thomas won two rings with the Pistons.
All three players are in the Hall of Fame.