"Here, 23. Bail us out" - when Larry Johnson bashed Scottie Pippen after locking him up

Johnson had a lot to say regarding Pippen's comments following his trade to the Knicks.
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Back in the day, Larry Johnson heard Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen say that the Knicks' offseason changes ahead of the 1996-97 season were for the worse and that they lost a lot of their toughness when they traded Anthony Mason to the Hornets for him.

Johnson didn't say anything then, but months later, he responded to Pippen after locking him up in the Knicks' 97-93 victory at Madison Square Garden on March 9, 1997.

"He needs to shut his mouth now," Johnson said. "All he needs to do is to give the ball to 23. That's his best play right there. 'Here, 23. Bail us out.' He needs to shut his mouth."

Serving revenge as a cold dish

Johnson took it even further and added that the Bulls were a great team only because of Michael Jordan.

"He's a bum," Johnson said of Pippen. "He shut himself down. Mike gives all them boys guts over there. If it wasn't for Mike..."

Pippen finished with 14 points on a dismal 4-of-18 shooting in 42 minutes. He was 1-of-8 from three-point range, where Johnson often forced him to shoot.

Johnson didn't shine on offense, scoring seven points with three assists and one rebound in 27 minutes, but he contained Pippen when he was on the floor.

Pippen loved bashing the Knicks

Over the years, Pippen took verbal digs at the Knicks whenever possible, like in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on May 20, 1994, when Pippen threw down arguably the best poster dunk of all time on Patrick Ewing.

"That was probably the easiest dunk I ever did," Pippen jokingly said. "I think I must have crossed Derek Harper over at half court because when I see the picture of it, he's back [near the top of the key] wondering what happened. All I remember is catching the ball and I don't know how Patrick even got down there. It was such a weird play."


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Stephen Beslic
STEPHEN BESLIC

Stephen Beslic is a writer on Sports Illustrated's FanNation Network. Stephen played basketball from the age of 10 and graduated from Faculty of Economic and Business in Zagreb, Croatia, majoring in Marketing.