Original subtitles

Scottie, in the paper today, it says that

Phil wants one more year back here and Michael wants $36 million,

and it also quotes Jerry krause is not ruling out a trade for you,

which leaves you flapping in the breeze.

Does that bother you?

I would love the opportunity of finishing my career in Chicago,

but if it don't happen, then I'll just have to look elsewhere.

I'm one of the best players to ever play the game.

I understand what my value is to this game.

You're very underpaid, though, as one of the top players.

What do you think your value is in terms...

My day will come.

My day will come.

Scott/e p/ppen/

Thank you. Thank you for all the wonderful moments

that the fans here in this city

have shown me and my teammates for ten long seasons.

I've had a wonderful career here,

and if I never have the opportunity to say this again, thank you.

Scottie pippen with a tearful thank you. We thought for one unconscionable moment

that we might be hearing a retirement statement there.

What made me upset was I knew it was the end of the journey,

and I'd never saw it ending like that.

Jerry krause made everything real murky when he said,

"this is Phil's last year. We're dismantling this team."

After this season, we're basically relieved of our duties.

The spectacular bulls.

0/7! The game's over.

Chicago stadium is going wild.

First of all, there's no backstabbing going on here.

It's time for me to move on.

This will be Phil's last year as the coach of the bulls.

Are the expectations way too h/gh 7

Where do we go from here?

The only question: How long can it last?

Ugh, I'm being squished.

- I'm sorry. - Take it easy, guys.

I mean, scottie has feelings.

I mean, he has certainly the dedication and love for the city of Chicago,

and, uh...

You know, it's... it's tough.

I mean, when you have so much appreciation for the fans

who have supported you for so many years

and sometimes when you get out there and you speak, I mean,

that has to touch you deep down inside,

and, uh, you, know, with all what's happened thus far,

I mean, it certainly can be a very emotional situation for him.

Have you talked with him at all?

Are y'all gonna talk about the game or y'all gonna talk about scottie?

A little bit of both.

Well, you talk to scottie to answer scottie's reply.

Okay, what about the game, then?

There you go.

Scottie pippen was the underrated, underappreciated Robin

to Michael's Batman.

I would never be able to find a tandem, another support system,

another partner in the game of basketball like scottie pippen.

He was a pleasure to play with.

Whata show the bulls are putting out here.

Piopen fightback to Jordan.

Yes.

Oh, my/

through trial and error,

through that kind of blast furnace that Michael would put people through,

scottie got tough...

Scottie coming hard on the drive,

takes it all the way to the rack.

And he was lethal defensively.

Seda/e threatt, Antonio Harvey... piopen/

oh/ sensational end-to-end defensive action.

On, p/p/

He helped me so much in the way that I approached the game,

the way I played the game.

Whenever they speak "Michael Jordan," they should speak "scottie pippen."

You know, and everybody says, well, I won all these championships,

but I didn't win without scottie pippen.

And, you know, that's why I consider him my best teammate of all time.

I grew up in a town of about 3,500 people.

Everybody pretty much new each other.

My mom and my dad were very strong people, and they were about surviving.

And, obviously, that's what they were about if they had 12 kids.

We used to have a basket in my grandmother's yard.

It was in the dirt, so it would be dusty all the time.

It didn't matter. I had old shoes anyway.

Everybody was close, and everybody shared everything, you know?

It was just a good time. We didn't even know we were poor.

I was about 11 or 12.

My dad had just gotten home,

and as he was eating his dinner, he just kind of fell back,

and he suffered a stroke.

I can still see it every time I think about it.

He lost his speech, and he was stuck in a wheelchair

and bedridden for the rest of his life.

Six years before that,

my second-oldest brother was injured in high school.

A kid fell on him in pe class with a wrestling move.

It paralyzed him, so...

Two. Yeah, yeah, with two people in my house in a wheelchair.

Basketball gave me an opportunity just to get out of the house and play

and didn't need anyone to kind of play with.

Dr. J was my childhood hero.

I always wanted to play like him and dunk the basketball like him.

I felt like that, one day, I was gonna be in his shoes.

Yeah, that's every kid's dream, you know.

Every kid's dream, wanting to play in the NBA at one time or another.

It's just a dream.

He always knew he was gonna make it to the NBA.

Not really.

Scottie arrived at uca, and he started off as being the equipment manager.

But he was practicing and doing all of those things

that he should do with the team.

A few guys academically fall off, so some scholarships come available,

and I go back, asked the coach.

I was very persistent, and he finally gave me a scholarship.

He came in as a 6'1", 155-pound guard.

I got to watch him play, and I thought,

"wow, this guy's got a little something if he can fill out."

He started lifting weights. He could handle the ball better.

He could shoot better. He could jump higher.

I was getting better at such a rapid pace,

and in my freshman to my sophomore year,

over the summer, I grew five inches.

When I seen him the next time, he was 6'5",

and then the next time I seen him, he was 67".

Beautiful pass underneath, and what a block.

7'o piopen, cutting fight, and draws the...

He exploded.

Three-on-one break. Parish to piopen.

He kept his guard skills that he had even when he grew.

Scottie piopen underneath mcclain...

He could grab a rebound on one end, take it the length of court,

weave in and out of people, and dunk it.

Very few players can do that.

I remember coach saying,

"scottie, they out there. They looking for you now."

I was a fanatic basketball fan, and I went down and watched pippen play.

I knew he was gonna be really good.

The first time I met him, he could hardly string three words together,

he was so shy.

By the time he graduated from the university of central Arkansas,

which was an Naia team,

he was the best player in his division in america.

I just really got excited.

When I saw scottie pippen play the first time, I thought,

"oh, my lord, he's gonna be a special player."

The NBA scouts saw the versatility,

they saw the athletic ability,

they saw the humbleness.

The Seattle supersonics select Scott pippen of central Arkansas.

Scott piopen from the university of central Arkansas.

He's 27 years old, and... That's right, folks.

You probably ha ve ne ver heard of scottie p/ppen.

Scottie, one year ago, if somebody said

you were gonna be the fifth player taken in the draft,

what would you have told them?

I would've told them probably that they was joking, you know, really.

I would've figured it'd just been a big joke.

Is there a deal

involving Seattle and Chicago that you're gonna be traded?

No, I've not heard about it.

Apparently, that's... You're wearing the wrong cap.

Yeah?

We realized that we were gonna have to maneuver

to get up in the draft to get a higher pick

than we othennise would've had in order to get him,

and krause was able to pull off a trade.

We were able to work a trade the night before the draft,

and, technically, the Seattle club took him for us,

and then we acquired him.

You know, Chicago is a great franchise,

and probably every player that's sitting out in the audience

wants to be a part of the bulls.

The bulls brought in scottie p/ppen,

touted to make an immediate impact in the NBA.

All right, let's go.

Scottie p/ppen about to make his b/g-league debut.

Barkley nearly kicked it a way, plays it outside, stolen by p/ppen.

Scottie p/ppen on the breakaway.

Scottie p/ppen made the steal,

then jammed with both hands at the other end

Scottie talked a lot of trash.

Scottie came in, said, "I'm gonna be better than Michael Jordan..."

As a rookie.

I was pretty confident in who I was as a player,

but, as a rookie, you get treated like a rookie,

and Charles was a bully,

so he beat me up... For saying that.

We are in an interview...

- All right? All right? - Yeah.

Okay.

I recognized that, instantly, that, you know,

you're not the top guy on the basketball team anymore.

Outside, chased the ball t/pped a way by Jordan.

It's loose to threatt. And to Jordan for the breakaway.

Michael was such a superstar in the game of basketball,

and he was bigger than any superstar that any sport had ever had.

So it wasn't like, you know, he was an average guy, like,

"let's go have lunch," or whatever.

It was different.

Actually, my rookie year, he gave me a pair of golf clubs.

Yeah, he was trying to lure me in so he could take all my money.

Everybody needs that number two,

the person that does the dirty work, and pippen was great at it.

Here come ll/lichae/ for a three again.

Oh, scottie with the left hand/ I/I/ow/

but he was so low-paid,

he was not even the 100th highest paid player in the NBA.

Pippen is as underpaid as underpaid gets,

only the 122nd highest paid player in the league.

I don't recall the terms,

but I do recall that it was a longer contract

than I thought was smart for him.

Let's go, pippen!

Scottie pippen signed a deal in 1991 for seven years for $18 million,

and if he played it right,

he could've made nine times that amount, ten times.

I said to scottie the same thing I'd said to Michael.

"If I were you, I wouldn't sign this contract.

You may be selling yourself too short.

It's too long a contract that you're locking yourself in for."

I felt like I couldn't afford to gamble myself getting injured

and not being able to provide.

I needed to make sure that people in my corner were taken care of.

He did take care of my dad, my mom, and he built them a house.

He sent them money every month and everything,

made sure they're taking care of.

I don't know nothing that I need or want.

Some of the things I don't have to ask him for.

So I feel like he loves me.

I know I love him.

He signed a long-term deal, and it was undervalued pretty quickly.

The league took off.

You know, the revenues went way, way up. Salaries went up.

Jerry reinsdorf was emphatic about it when guys signed the contract.

I don't want to hear from you again. Don't come back and try to renegotiate.

It was embarrassing

because he was maybe the number-two player in the NBA.

His value was immense.

Make it drop straight down. There you go.

You know what?

It's okay on this one,

but on my other one, my patella, not so much.

When we got to '97 and '98,

that was the last year of scottie's contract.

I know he was very frustrated because scottie needed to get paid.

He deserved to get paid.

There was a lot of, uh, anger from scottie.

You know, he'd been one of the best players in the game

for many years.

He had done so much for the bulls, so his frustration bubbled over.

The world champs making news this week.

Scottie pippen of the bulls will be out for two to three months.

Pippen unden/vent surgery Monday on his sore foot in New York.

It's an injury that's been bothering him,

dating back to the eastern conference finals.

I had a ruptured tendon in my ankle,

and I decided to have surgery late because I was like,

"you know what?

I'm not gonna fuck my summer up trying to rehab for a season, you know?

They're not gonna be looking forward to having me,

so I'ma enjoy my summer, and I'll use the season to prepare."

Scottie was wrong in that scenario.

He could've got his surgery done as soon as the season was over

and be ready for the season.

What scottie was trying to do

was trying to force management to change his contract...

And Jerry wasn't gonna do that.

So now I got to start the season

knowing that scottie wasn't gonna be around.

But we have to find a way to win.

How do you carry this team now in November and December without scottie?

I think we have to do it collectively.

I don't think one individual's gonna be able to do it.

You know, I think we as a team... that's what a team is all about, you know?

So we have to cover up for scottie not being here.

We know he's not here, but that don't mean we stop playing.

Our Chicago Bulls without scottie p/ppen,

and they apparently missed him ton/ght.

The Atlanta hawks beat the bulls here in Atlanta.

The final score, 80-78.

This is going to be the worst setback for the Chicago Bulls.

Cavaliers beat up the Chicago Bulls, and you can...

Again, it is still early,

but four in four for the bulls out of the gate.

Have not scored 700 points yet this season.

We're not playing with much continuity and much rhythm,

and that's something that scottie really provides for us.

Scottie was so key for our team. He tied us together in many ways.

And when you're a really good team, one loss feels like five.

You know, you're expected to win. You're supposed to win.

And so, early in that season, we were losing games,

and it felt like trouble.

As time expires,

and the Phoenix suns

have hung on for a dramatic victory over the Chicago Bulls.

Yes.

No, I wasn't.

You have to understand players' mentality and where they're coming from,

and some guys can handle it, some guys can't.

And, you know, scottie probably needed to have this

to feel like he justified what his salary was.

So I stayed solid, said,

"we're gonna survive this. We'll be fine. We'll go fonnard."

That's one of the things that Phil was really good at,

is managing distractions

and keeping us focused on what we had to do.

Scottie's on a different timetable.

It's gonna be a bumpy road till he gets back,

but we got to manage without him for right now.

When it came down to it, this burden always fell on Michael,

and he welcomed it in a lot of respects.

You know, he liked that. He liked to take the responsibility.

I'm gearing myself physically to deal with whatever I have to deal with.

I'm looking fonnard to it, actually.

Michael wanted to be the best player on the best team.

Scottie's not here, but we're still better than this.

I was trying to get the guys to understand it from my standpoint.

Scottie was out. My voice had to be the loudest.

I let my anger motivate the players by saying,

"I want this. Do you guys want it?"

He's raising his voice. He's calling guys out.

"You got to rebound better. Box out. We're not playing well as a team.

Defensively, we're lazy."

He's not worried about hurting your feelings.

If he hurts your feelings, you can leave.

He would gladly tell you,

"get out. We don't need you here. You don't want to play hard, get out."

Every day that scottie wasn't playing

gave someone else confidence that they can beat us.

And if you're trying to maintain dominance over people,

you don't want to give them a chance to gain confidence.

So that drove my energy. Let's get this thing rolling.

What time is it?

Game time! Whoo!

This bull team fired up ton/ght.

Really wants to get off this 0-4 start on the road.

Embarrassing for such a good team.

The bulls in their road blacks.

The cl/ppers in home whites.

They play the clippers, who were a joke, worst team in the league.

Yet the dregs in the league took the bulls to two overtimes.

Jordan kept waiting for somebody else to help him.

Nobody else would help.

For that game, he went somewhere, and he found a switch.

And the answer to the question,

”is Michael Jordan tired? ” is no.

Jordan had to score 49 for them to win that game.

No question. We saw greatness here ton/ght.

The bulls win for the first time on the road, 777 to 702.

Jordan finishes with a mere 49 points.

We've had opportunities to win, you know,

in all the games on the road except for Cleveland,

and, hopefully, we can build upon this, we can finish games on the road.

We've been in those games, and we really needed a win like this.

Jordan was really worn out. Worn out physically, worn out emotionally.

Good job, bro.

Anyway, Michael, I hope you like the story.

- Thank you. - Hi, Michael.

Clarence, what's up, man?

Come on, now.

My innate personality is to win at all costs.

If I have to do it myself, I'm gonna do it.

Let's go.

- Mj. - Michael.

Every time I step on that basketball court,

my focus is to win the game.

It drives me insane when I can't.

As you get older, you look back,

and you understand how you became the person you are.

I don't think I would be here

without the lessons that I learned at a very young age.

That competitiveness within me started when I was a kid.

You know, my parents provided us

with all the opportunities to succeed in life.

You know, my father worked at general electric,

my mother worked at the banks.

As a black person growing up in Wilmington,

we were trying to make our own footsteps.

As a family, we were naturally tough.

My father was tough, my mom was tough,

and the environment they brought us in was a tough environment.

You get knocked down, you got to get up

and you always give it your best and you always try to win.

We hated to lose.

Mr. Jordan and myself always tried to share with them,

"don't wait for somebody to give you something.

You're strong. You're intelligent. Go out and earn it and work for it."

We had five kids, and both the wife and I both worked,

and we would worry at times about the kids being home,

so we thought one of the things that we can do is get them involved in sports.

Drop them off at the little league field or the gym

and keep them involved in the community.

My parents were trying to keep my busy.

They always wanted all of us to play organized sports

so that we learned more about life.

At the time, you had racism all over north Carolina,

all over, you know, United States,

and there was a lot of it around there.

So, as a kid, it was like,

"okay, this is where I don't want to be."

You know, "I want to excel outside of this."

You know, so my motivation was to be something outside of Wilmington.

For me, it became athletics.

We used to compete an awful lot in the backyard.

My brothers hated losing, but not on the same level like me,

because if you beat me back then, we had to fight,

you know, and that's just the way I was.

They were so competitive between the two of them,

uh, matter of fact, at that time,

it might be said that Larry was the best basketball player.

My father pushed... he pushed everybody, and he had a tendency,

if he felt you weren't doing the best you could,

he would find a way to push you harder.

And that really drove Michael,

because Larry was pretty good at quite a bit.

I don't think, from a competitive standpoint,

I would be here without the confrontations with my brother.

When you come to blows with someone you absolutely love,

that's igniting every fire within you...

And I always felt like I was fighting Larry for my father's attention.

I'm one of these do-it-yourselfers around the house,

so I could take Larry out,

and he was fascinated by fixing things with his hands,

took a look of pride in it, and Michael would be out,

and you'd say, "give me a Phillips screwdriver,"

he might give you a pair of pliers, you know?

And I guess I was a little short-patient with him,

and I'd say, "get back in the house with your mom.

Boy, you're never gonna be anything. Just go back with your mom."

When you're going through it, it's traumatic, you know,

because I want that... you know, I want that approval.

I want that type of confidence.

So my determination got even greater

to be as good, if not better, than my brother.

I met him in tryouts,

but there was nothing particularly outstanding in tryouts.

He did not make the varsity team as a sophomore.

When I got home, and I told my mother I was cut,

I was demoralized. I didn't want to play any more sports.

I felt like, you know, the coach didn't like me.

He was devastated. He came home upset, crying,

and we both cried,

'cause I knew he wanted to really compete with the other guys.

My words to him was,

"if you really want it, you work hard over the summer."

And he did. That summer, he focused.

He would practice all day. That basketball never left his hand.

If you want to bring out the best in Michael,

tell him he can't do something or he can't do it as good as somebody else,

and I think that he takes it as a personal challenge

to go out and do it just to prove you wrong.

Mike's improvement from his sophomore year to his junior year was tremendous.

A lot of it had to do with his size.

He was about 5'10" or 5'11". He came back about 6'3" that fall.

He had great guard skills. He'd already played guard,

he always held on the ball,

and now becoming, you know, 6'3 ", 6'4",

that just made him into a much better ballplayer.

We knew that he was special.

The athletic director of Hanover county schools called us

and said, "we got a guy down here I think may have a chance,"

and that was Mike Jordan.

And so we invited him to our basketball camp.

When he got here, we knew of him. We'd heard he was pretty good.

Five days later, when we left here,

we thought he was the best player in america.

It was the third game of the season.

It was my second season.

We were playing golden state. I go up for a lob...

Bulls on the run. 7'o Michael Jordan.

And when I landed, I landed flat-footed.

Looks like Michael came out limping a little bit.

He's a little ginger on that ankle, and he had hurt it a little earlier.

When they did the cat scan,

it was a clear break, and I was done.

Last year's rookie of the year, Michael Jordan,

out with a broken left foot.

I was devastated because I never got hurt

and I'm in a cast, I couldn't do anything,

and I was anxious.

I'm pretty sure I was irritable to a lot of people.

He broke this bone right in the middle.

It's an area of the body that may not heal very rapidly

because of the poor blood supply.

The healing time can vary from six weeks, 12 weeks, or even longer,

and, occasionally, that fracture does not heal.

Michael had never missed a game through high school, college,

and the NBA so far.

All of a sudden, he misses 64.

I'm doing nothing, watching games, sitting on the bench.

My mother and my father came up and spent a lot of time.

You could not keep him on that bench.

Mr. Jordan, myself, is saying, "Michael, you're not ready,"

and he said, "I don't think you can tell me.

I know when my body's ready."

"But the doctor knows when you're ready."

I was itching to do something.

So I talked the bulls into letting me go back to college.

I just started going to the gym, shoofing,

and then I started playing one-on-one, then I started playing two-on-two,

then I started playing three-on-three.

Next thing you know, I was playing five-on-five,

and the bulls never knew I was doing it.

And when I got back with the bulls...

My calf muscles and my injured calf was stronger than my uninjured calf.

So the first thing they said,

"what in the hell have you been doing? Blah, blah, blah."

No, we don't really know he was playing till he came back and told us.

No, when Michael came back, he said,

"I've been playing an hour and a half a day for the last week."

And after my heart dropped out,

you know, I just dropped down and, "oh, my god."

I gradually worked my way up to a point

where I'm playing five-on-five in a game,

and I got the confidence that the foot is completely healed,

and I can play on it.

Michael asked, "well, if I play,

what percentage is there that I'm gonna get hurt again?"

Doctor said, "eh, 10%."

And I just lost it.

I said, "look, it's 10% chance, but it's 90% chance that I won't."

And then I chimed in to the doctors, "what happens if the 10% kicks in?"

And they said, "well, then his career would be over."

Well, everybody's just thinking about the negative.

While I think the glass is half full, everybody's thinking it's half empty.

So I said to Michael,

"you're not understanding the risk-reward ratio.

If you had a terrible headache and I gave you a bottle of pills

and nine of the pills would cure you and one of the pills would kill you,

would you take a pill?"

And I look at him. I said, "depends on how fucking bad the headache is."

From Jerry reinsdorf's perspective, a pure business decision,

you don't play the guy.

Here's your franchise, literally your franchise.

In my mind, he should not risk coming back,

because we weren't gonna win a championship anyway.

Why even take a 10% risk that your career's gonna be over?

Well, he didn't see it that way.

And I'm starting to think,

"well, maybe it's not me playing as opposed to us trying to lose games

so we can move, you know, into the lottery."

I hope not. I mean, that just shows a losing attitude

and not just on the team but in the front office, also.

Uh, we should always go out and try to win.

Exasperated bulls owner Jerry reinsdorf

finally agreed to a compromise,

which would allow his star to play

a specified number of minutes in each game.

We reached a compromise, and we allowed him to come back and play...

I think it was seven minutes each half.

So they let me go back and play,

and then, you know, they put a time restriction on me.

Jordan with ten points in limited playing time.

They had him on seven-minute-per-half time limit

with a stopwatch.

Jordan.

That's house for Michael

he could be almost in mid-shot, it's like, tweet...

"All right, Jordan, you're out."

Michael Jordan sat down.

He doesn't seem too happy to sit down. He's fired up and ready to go.

They're gonna have to hold him back.

What was the rationale for seven minutes per half?

Well, we felt that the doctors had said a certain amount of time.

We felt we were gonna try to make the odds right

in a situation where we would reduce the odds.

At the time, the coach was Stan albeck.

So I said, "Stan, fuck these guys, man.

Give me the most important seven minutes that you can think about."

So now we start winning,

and we start getting into the playoff picture.

We get to a pivotal game.

We go and play Indiana in Indiana.

We need this game because it puts us in a position to make the playoffs.

Stan got berated, saying,

"if you put him in one second more than 14 minutes,

you're fired on the spot."

Jordan around and oakley screen.

Lean in... less baseline, is in.

For 14 minutes, I just go absolutely ballistic,

and we were in a position to win.

In for the left.

Michael pops three, 78-footer, good bulls have the lead

outside, Richardson, right side, Fleming, 20-footer good

Thirty-one seconds left.

The bulls take time. Down one.

All of a sudden, my time is up.

I don't know if Jerry came down from the stands to say,

"hey, get him out of the game," and there's like 30 seconds left.

Thirty-one seconds to go. Michael's time is up...

I'm just, like... I'm angry.

Current lead what a sensational performance.

Michael saw it for what it was.

You play the game to win, period.

So I don't want to hear about your draft pick,

I don't want to hear about missing the playoffs

and how good that would be.

That's not how you play the game.

I'm begging Stan. "Put me in the game. Come on.

Four... it's only 14 fucking seconds, Stan, 13 seconds.

Put me in for 13 seconds."

He said, "mj, I can't put you in. I'ma lose my job."

It fueled a whole theory that,

are we trying to not make the playoffs so we can get a better draft pick?

But I've vowed to make the playoff every year,

and this is a chance for us to make the playoffs.

It's our ball. There's 13 seconds left.

Lo and behold, John paxson hits a game-winning shot.

Pax comes down with a jumping one-hander.

Fortunately, I get lucky and throw some shot in,

and we end up winning the game.

Chicago Bulls! The bulls win it/

the bulls hang on and win by one/

I/I/hoo/ what a b/g victory by the bulls.

We went into the locker room.

Stan locked that door,

and Jerry krause came, wanting to get in at the end of the game,

and Stan wouldn't let him in.

You know, it was... it was...

It wasn't a good... It wasn't a good situation.

The mistrust Michael had with management,

specifically with Jerry krause,

was he believed that they violated the most fundamental aspect of sport,

of... I would argue, the most fundamental aspect

of the way Michael conducted his life.

You do it at the highest level, and you do it to win all the time.

From that moment on,

Michael's relationship with the ownership and management

was deeply soured.

That never went away.

No one could limit the power and the glory of Michael Jordan.

The bulls made a late-season rush into a playoff berth,

which, ironically, cost them a chance

at one of the first seven choices in next year's draft.

We end up making the playoffs.

I believe we won only 30 games in the regular season that year.

We ended up the eighth seed.

Jordan essentially wills his team with a losing record into the playoffs,

and what is their reward?

Well, they get to play the almighty Boston celtics

with five guys who'd make the hall of fame.

We had parish, mchale, and walton.

All of them were about seven foot tall, that could score, run, defend.

We had Danny ainge and Dennis Johnson, our guards, and I was the small fon/vard.

So we had a big team, and we were deep, we were big,

and of all the teams I've been on,

there's no question that was the best team.

That setting against that team, that's what you play for.

You know, you get to be in those situations.

The celtics have won 37 in a row at home.

They beat Chicago six times this year in the regular season.

Michael had this just supreme confidence about him.

He loved the big stage.

This is the opportunity to play

against Larry bird and the Boston celtics.

Man, this is showtime.

Well, Michael was coming off a pretty serious injury,

and we didn't know what to expect.

Michael Jordan is back,

and there are no limits to his playing time,

so he's really ready to cut loose.

And we 're about ready to go at the Boston garden.

They took all the limitations off, and it was like unleashing a wild dog.

Jordan hangs in the air, puts it down.

Jordan got it from the baseline.

Jordan changed it in midair, got it nonetheless.

Our whole thing was just do what we can do to hold Michael down,

but you don't hold the great ones down.

Michael Jordan wheels, fades, off-balance.

Oh/ absolutely amazing.

Jordan beat Dennis. Ugh.

Car/isle has the unen viable task of playing Jordan.

Isn't that something 7

lmean, car/isle just wants his mommy.

Jordan with great antic/pation. He's off to the races.

Watch this. I/I/hoo-hoo/

we had a lot of guys in our league that could score a lot of points.

He took it to another level and we stuck with the game plan

and we end up winning the ball game.

/I/cha/e, bird, parish, and a foul.

There's the celtics.

Who do you have for the player of the game, John?

Pretty hard to ignore Michael Jordan tonight.

We chose him as our player of the game.

Forty-nine points, four rebounds...

A spectacular individual effort by this guy.

Tough job for the Chicago team now

and for Stan albeck trying to get them ready for game 2.

They played so hard here tonight.

I remember game 2.

I'd played golf with Michael the day before.

It was Michael, Danny, Mike Carey, and myself,

and Michael and Danny are giving it to each other back and forth.

Mm-hmm.

I cannot hit it today.

I took a few bucks off of Michael that day,

and we're talking trash to each other.

That might've been a mistake.

Hit it out.

Pissing me off, man.

We get done, we get in the car, we drop Danny off first,

and Michael says, "hey, tell your boy dj I got something for him tomorrow."

The first game, the guy scored 49, but I don't think anyone expected,

going into the next game, what was gonna happen.

J " ahh/ j"

j“ no rapper can rap quite like / can j“

j“ I'i/ take a muscle-bound man and put his face in the sand j“

j“ not the last ll/lafioso I'm an emcee cop j“

j“ make you say, ”go, ll ” and do the wop... j“

He was scoring at will... Dunks, bankers.

He'd get in the middle and shoot over guys.

J“ yeah, trendsetter, I'm better my rhymes are good j“

j“ / got a gourmet plate that says, ”/ wish you would... ”j“

I played practically every minute in the second game. I just never stopped.

Bird guards Jordan, and Jordan hits the jumper anyway.

Stan albeck kept putting me in isolated situations,

and I just took advantage of my youth and my energy.

Jordan trying to use his quickness, and it works.

Jordan with 37. Bull 's-e ye.

Jordan againstainge, spins into the Lane, scoops the shot up,

and in and draws the foul.

We all took our cracks at him that day. It wasn't one guy.

Dj was our best defensive player,

and he picked up fourfouls early in the third quarter.

Four fouls on Dennis Johnson.

Welcome to the club.

I was on him for a while. Danny was on him. Dj was on him a lot.

I remember laughing in the middle of the game

because walton was cursing me out

'cause he had to guard Jordan on a few occasions.

I/I/a/ton with five. Next foul, and he's gone.

Jordan isolated one-on-one.

Walton fouled out.

Jordan has shot 78 free-throws and made 76.

J“ le/iminate punks cut 'em up in chunks j“

j“ you were souped, you heard me and your ego shrunk j“

j“ I'm devastating I'm so good it's a shame j“

j“ 'cause / eat rappers like a cannibal they call me insane j“

j“ I'm as strong as a bull of course, you know why / pull j“

j“ / enjoy what I'm doin' plus I'm paid in full j“

Oh, my. F orty-e/ght for Michael Jordan.

J“ say the kinda rhymes that make emcees wish that I'd die j“

j“ ne ver retire or put my mic on the she/fl“

j“ the baddest rapper... j“

If you liked 49 on Thursday, how about 50 on Sunday?

Pull-up shot, and Perry's good fifty-two for Jordan.

Michael, right baseline jumper. Good, and a foul called

Michael's shooting for the tie with no time left.

Overtime in Boston garden!

Jordan hits it. Fifty-six for Jordan.

Sixty-one points to tie all-time single game playoff record

got it. Sixty-three for Jordan.

A new NBA record has been set in the Boston garden.

It was a high-scoring game. Fortunately for us, we had the last shot.

Bird, picking low.

And a hard-fought victory for the Boston celtics to take a 2-0 lead

we were fortunate to win that game, but Michael put on a show.

Our Miller lite most valuable player of the game

is Michael Jordan with an all-time record

63 points in a single playoff game.

We end up winning the series,

but it was an incredible, incredible playoff performance.

I've never seen it before, and I've never seen it after.

That wasn't Michael Jordan out there.

That was god disguised as Michael Jordan.

Nobody like him. Point-blank.

I never seen nobody play like he plays,

and, I mean, you can include all of them.

Jordan is the most talented player in the NBA, uh...

By far.

Guys like myself and Larry, who knew the game,

who knew championship basketball, we knew the guy was coming, right?

He just needed the right horses to go along with him.

We realized that Michael Jordan

was the greatest ball player in the NBA.

So a year later, we basically rebuilt the entire team.

Krause went to work.

We added some great people like Horace Grant and scottie pippen.

We changed the makeup of the team.

I will always give Jerry krause credit for assembling a roster that fit.

I'm sure one of the hardest trades he ever had to make

was trading Charles oakley to New York for bill Cartwright.

We needed a big man, so bill was a great fit.

As much as I love Charles,

this fits us better than what Charles gives us right now.

Michael was very fond of Charles 'cause Charles was his protector.

Michael was always attacking the basket, and he got knocked down a lot.

And Charles was always the guy to back him up.

Oakley going right after ”hot rod” I/I/I/liams.

When krause pulled the trigger on that trade,

that was probably one of the defining things in his career.

Charles oakley and I were good friends.

We spent a lot of time together,

but things were in place for us to win, you know, when he left.

Jerry did a phenomenal job with the team.

He made great trades, made great free-agent signings.

He deserves a lot of credit.

But he couldn't get out of his own way.

Scottie had real problems with Jerry, and it came out on several occasions.

The thing was... and part of, you know, scottie's anger

was they did look into seriously trading him

after that 96-97 season.

Anybody can be traded,

and part of my responsibility is to listen to other teams

when they talk to me about our players.

And we think scottie pippen is certainly,

you know, one of the top couple of players in basketball

and feel very strongly about him,

and I can't tell you what's gonna happen in the future,

because I don't know.

Krause's point then was, “look, we're gonna lose pippen in a year.

The group doesn't have that much left. Let's blow it up now."

But ownership said no.

I killed that because I decided that,

as long as Michael Jordan was still gonna be here,

we got to go for the sixth championship.

Well, we had a number of offers

we thought were good offers for scottie and for some of our other players.

I'm never going to stop being aggressive,

and I will never stop trying to do things that make the team better.

That really is what sort of

tarnished my relationship with Jerry.

He tried to make me feel so special,

but yet, he was still, like, willing to trade and do all that stuff

but never would tell me to my face.

After you're in the game for a while, you realize that nobody is untradeable,

but I felt insulted.

I sort of took the attitude of disrespecting him to some degree.

There was always barbs going back and forth,

but at a certain point, scottie crossed a line.

I mean, it was getting personal.

Pippen started abusing krause openly, you know, cursing him out on the bus.

Couldn't tolerate him anymore.

Didn't respect him.

Scott! Hey, scottie!

I remember some shots coming from the back of the bus.

Raise your eyebrows, you know?

Pippen started berating Jerry krause

in front of the team.

You know, we had to say, you know, "hey, let's hold it down," you know?

But that's when it was like, "hey, there's a divide here."

You know, it's not your normal... I mean, there's some hard feelings.

"You don't appreciate me. You're trying to trade me.

You won't pay me. Well, screw you.

You know, I'm taking care of myself now."

I was at that point where I felt like

I needed to do what was best for me.

I felt like it was time for me to go shopping.

Pippen is now demanding a trade,

and he says he will not return from the injured list

until he is gone from Chicago.

He said he's never gonna play for the bulls ever again.

"I'm never gonna wear this uniform ever again."

Can the bulls do something that would make you want to stay?

Nah. No, I don't see myself carrying on.

So, scottie made some earth-shattering comments last night

to one of the Chicago writers about wanting to be traded.

Can we get your thoughts on that?

I don't really have any right now.

I felt like scottie was being selfish,

you know, worrying about himself as opposed to what his word was

to the organization as well as to the team.

I'm done here. You know what I'm saying?

You've already written my script out that this is it.

So I had to do what was best for me.