Pippen: Jordan greatest scorer ever, LeBron best player

Scottie Pippen has said what will be viewed as no less than blasphemy in Chicago.

The Hall of Fame player was interviewed on ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike show Friday morning (via NBA.com’s Sekou Smith) following the Heat’s comeback win to eliminate the Bulls and he compared Michael Jordan and LeBron James.

“Michael Jordan is probably the greatest scorer to ever play in the game, but I may go as far to say LeBron James is probably the greatest player to ever play the game. Not only can he score at will, but he keeps everybody involved. You have to be on your Ps and Qs because everybody is a threat to score when he’s on the floor. Not only that, LeBron James will dominate the game on the offensive end and he’s able to do it on the defensive end as well. He can get in those passing lanes and dominate the game.”

Damn.

Not sure we’re there yet, Scottie. For the record, Jordan was dominant on the defensive end as well. No doubt LeBron has a fantastic all-around game, and I’ll even agree he is a more natural and gifted passer than Jordan.

But Jordan learned hard lessons about keeping others involved and when that sunk in sufficiently (and he was put in a system that promoted that) Jordan was good about keeping teammates in the game. Including Pippen. That is how the Bulls won those six rings.

And not to sound like Jason Segel in those Bad Teacher trailers but… Jordan has six rings. LeBron has none. It’s the only argument I need.

But that rings argument may be changing soon. And eventually this could be a different discussion. Remember Jordan was 28 when he got his first title, LeBron is only 26. We are nowhere near the end of this debate.

Here’s the video of the conversation, via CSN Chicago.

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