Scottie Pippen's Book Further Challenges Michael Jordan's Questionable 1988 DPOY

Anthony Pasciolla | Jun 22, 2024

Mar 30, 1995; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Michael Jordan (45) talks with forward Scottie Pippen (33) after a timeout from the game against the Boston Celtics at Chicago Stadium. The Bulls beat the Celtics 100-82. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports / Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

Chicago Bulls legends Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan have been far from friends since retiring.

In 2021, Pippen even took a jab at Jordan's Defensive Player of the Year award in 1988.

Jordan brought home the hardware after averaging 3.2 steals and 1.6 blocks, but a recent article from Yahoo Sports' Tom Haberstroh vaulted the fraudulent part of it into the spotlight. This in-depth piece followed an excerpt from Pippen's book 'Unguarded'.

“Say I deflected the ball and tapped it over to [MJ]. I should get the credit with the steal right? Nope," Pippen wrote. "More often that not, the steal went into his column in the stat sheet and I could do nothing about it… One night a scorekeeper came into the locker room… to hand the stat sheets to Phil Jackson… I couldn’t believe the look the guy gave Michael: ‘See MJ, we take care of you.’”

Haberstroh's research found Jordan to receive favorable stats at home than on the road. Here's an excerpt from the Yahoo! report diving into the award that Pippen backs as fraudulent:

"Breaking out his numbers into game location, we find that Jordan averaged a mind-boggling 4 steals and 2.1 blocks at home. But on the road, those numbers shrunk to a more normal rate of 2.1 steals and 1.2 blocks," Haberstroh wrote. "Put simply, Jordan’s steals and blocks nearly doubled at home compared to the road. To account for possible uneven playing time effects, we can look at per-36-minute numbers for a truer portrayal of the phenomenon. Jordan’s combined block and steals numbers (“stocks”) were a whopping 82 percent higher at home (5.5 stocks per 36 minutes) than on the road (3.0)."

Jordan and Pippen won six championships together in Chicago, spending 10 years as teammates. The tandem made frequent appearances on the Defensive Player of the Year ballot, tying in placement twice while Jordan outplaced Pippen five of the other eight years.

Anthony Pasciolla is a contributing writer for Back In The Day NBA. He can be reached at ampasciolla@gmail.com or followed on X @anthonypasci.