Scottie Pippen says there is no such thing as the GOAT: "I saw a two-time, should have been three-time MVP, not even get picked by his peers"

Yahoo

13-05-2025

The discourse around basketball greatness has always rested on shaky ground. It's built on moments, championship rings, and breathless comparisons that span eras too distinct to measure by a single scale.
But Scottie Pippen shattered the entire premise of that conversation. The six-time NBA champion tore into the idea that basketball can crown a singular "greatest of all time." In his eyes, there's no throne, only a round table where greatness is layered, argued, and, more importantly, earned in different ways.
No greatest player
Pippen's words carry weight not just because he once played alongside the man often hailed as the GOAT but because his career was shaped inside the shadows of those debates. But from the lens of someone who's watched the league evolve and witnessed its biases firsthand, it doesn't sit right to make someone the greatest.
"There is not a greatest player," Pippen said. "I'm gonna put myself in there if you're gonna call out a greatest player. What makes Michael Jordan great? Because he had the media-gained MVPs.
"[Nikola] Jokic is great and they didn't even put him on the Motherf—ing team. I don't understand what people say make other people great because I saw a f—ing two-time, should have been three-time MVP, not even get picked by his peers."
Pippen has long challenged the narrative that Jordan's singular impact was enough to make him the undisputed GOAT And now, using Nikola Jokic, the Serbian center whose efficiency numbers and offensive IQ have revolutionized the modern big man, as a case in point, Pippen laid bare the often hypocritical way greatness is measured.
Jokic, a three-time MVP and centerpiece of the Denver Nuggets' first-ever NBA championship in 2023, has often been left out of popular debates on the all-time great despite having the highest Player Efficiency Ratings in NBA history. He was omitted from the All-NBA First Team that same year he won the championship despite leading his team to dominance.
It mirrored the very system that elevated media narratives, market size, and public sentiment. Pippen's tone was less about bitterness and more about recalibrating how the game tells its stories. The fact that a player can dominate the stat sheet, lead a franchise with unflashy brilliance, and still be snubbed by peers and pundits says everything about how flawed the GOAT debate has become.
Pippen's views
The NBA has long had a number of players who can be tagged as the greatest. But according to Pippen, it depends on how one views it.
"So, I don't want to hear about a great f—ing player unless he's winning," Pippen said. "LeBron James is probably one of the greatest winners that ever played the game. He wins. He ain't won that many championships, but he's been in the finals… does that make him the greatest player ever to play the game? No."
Pippen drew a brutal but fair line between impact and idolization. He acknowledged LeBron James' sustained excellence — he has reached 10 NBA Finals, a feat only matched by a handful of players in league history — but also challenged the lazy equating of longevity with greatness. Winning, according to Pippen, must come with context.
Bill Russell, an 11-time NBA champion, whose defensive dominance and leadership once defined an era. Yet many modern fans skip over Russell in G.O.A.T. debates, often because his stats don't match up with today's offensive metrics or because few of them watched him live.
Even Julius Erving, whose elegance and aerial grace laid the blueprint for today's high-flying forwards, rarely comes up in these conversations despite ushering in an entire style of play.
Pippen's list of greats included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the league's former all-time leading scorer for nearly 40 years and a player who won six championships and six MVP awards. Abdul-Jabbar's skyhook was nearly unguardable, and his consistency over two decades shaped generations. Still, his reserved personality and measured public presence meant he never became the face of flash like Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant.