Scottie Pippen has more to say about his time as part of one of the NBA’s greatest dynasties, so he is hitting the road with former teammates Horace Grant and Luc Longley for the “No Bull Tour.” The athletes kicked off the string of speaking engagements on Friday (Feb. 23) at MyState Bank Arena in Tasmania, Australia.
The tour is an unabashed attempt for the championship winners to tell their side of the story of playing for the Chicago Bulls alongside Michael Jordan. The basketball icon famously told his version in 2020’s “The Last Dance” documentary series. The multipart project was a look at his legacy on and off the court and how he became a cross-generational sports figure.
Pippen has previously bashed the documentary and aired his grievances about his time playing with Jordan. “In the second episode, which focused for a while on my difficult upbringing and the unlikely path to the NBA, the narrative returned to MJ and his determination to win,” he writes. “I was nothing more than a prop. His ‘best teammate of all time,’ he called me. He couldn’t have been more condescending if he tried,” he wrote in his 2021 book “Unguarded.”
Stephen A. Smith is among the critical voices of the venture. “Scottie Pippen is going to embarrass himself," he said on Friday’s episode of “First Take." "Everybody knows he's not Michael Jordan, he never was. And the fact of the matter is, no matter what he is offended by, the facts were the facts. You saw what he did [by] not going in the game because Phil Jackson didn't call his number. You know he's a six-time champion, and Michael Jordan calls him his greatest teammate ever. But he's doing this because he's given resistance to what was portrayed in the documentary series. It's a huge mistake."
The tour is in partnership with Australia’s National Basketball League. “A lot of people really want to ask us questions about that bulls**t documentary, but just come out and get the tickets and you'll hear a lot,” said Grant at the NBL24 Andrew Gaze Award Night on Monday (Feb. 19).
On Saturday (Feb. 24) the men spoke at the Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne and are scheduled to hit the stage at the ICC Aware Super Theatre in Sydney on Feb. 27. According to Ticketek, tickets for additional dates go on pre-sale on Dec. 19, with a general release taking place the following day.