Starting to grow and mature and have each other's backs" - Pippen admits he and MJ didn't become friends until their playoff series against Detroit

Starting to grow and mature and have each other’s backs” – Pippen admits he and MJ didn’t become friends until their playoff series against Detroit originally appeared on Basketball Network.

Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan were the core of the Chicago Bulls dynasty.

They delivered a basketball blueprint that was as ruthless as it was graceful — six championships in eight years, two three-peats and the kind of legacy that pushed the NBA’s global profile to heights never seen before.

But the chemistry that defined their run wasn’t born overnight and wasn’t birthed in summer workouts or friendly dinners.

Going through the fire

According to Pip, the bond that came to define one of the greatest duos in sports history was built through pain and repeated heartbreak at the hands of the Detroit Pistons. It took years of playoff tough run-ins before they built that relationship to win.

“Yeah, that relationship, we established that, we felt like that in the late 80s, playing against the Pistons, just starting to grow and mature and have each other’s backs,” Pippen told The Guardian. “We grew up together and we defended each other.”

That rivalry with Detroit was no casual encounter. When Pippen was drafted fifth overall in 1987, the Bulls were on the rise. Still, they weren’t built to withstand the kind of physical dominance the Bad Boy Pistons brought every spring.

Jordan, already the league’s most electrifying scorer, was still without playoff success. Pippen, the raw and lanky forward out of Central Arkansas, was seen as a complementary piece — versatile, athletic, but young.

From 1988 through 1990, the Bulls fell to the Pistons in three straight playoff series. Each loss cut deeper. In 1988, it was the Eastern Conference semifinals. In ’89, it was the conference finals, one step away from the promised land.

In 1990, it happened again. This time, it wasn’t just physical. It was humiliating.

The Pistons deployed the now-famous Jordan Rules, collapsing defenders on the world’s most explosive basketball player, pounding him with double-teams and daring his teammates to beat them. Pippen struggled badly, including the infamous Game 7 in 1990 when he suffered a migraine, scoring just two points in 42 minutes.

Those losses did something to the Bulls that stat sheets couldn’t measure. They matured them. They sharpened the bond between Jordan and Pippen as warriors who had been repeatedly denied and finally understood what it would take to win at the highest level.

The Jordan-Pippen bond

By 1991, the dynamic had shifted. The Bulls swept the Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals, finally breaking through. Jordan averaged 29.8 points in that series, but Pippen, stronger, smarter, and more assertive, was everywhere. He guarded Isiah Thomas, drove the fast break, hit big shots, and never blinked.

Entering the mid-90s, their dominance was so consistent it almost felt inevitable.

The Bulls went 72–10 in 1995–96, a league record at the time. Jordan was the global icon, but Pippen was the engine that kept everything balanced. He defended all five positions, initiated offense and routinely guarded the opposition’s best scorer.

During Jordan’s first retirement, Pippen led the Bulls to 55 wins and finished third in MVP voting. Proving that he was a franchise-level player in his own right.

Their dynamic was more functional than friendly. Pippen has been honest over the years, especially in the wake of “The Last Dance” docuseries, that their relationship didn’t extend far beyond the hardwood. And yet, it worked. They understood their roles, trusted each other implicitly during games and pushed each other to the limits of greatness.

“That respect we had on the court, that competitiveness we took through to the top — it was special,” Pippen said. “That was the respect we had for each other, because we had to be on the court to do what we did. We had to be dominant.”

The Jordan-Pippen pairing remains an example of how mutual respect can sometimes be more powerful than personal closeness. They didn’t need to be best friends. They needed to be great together. And they were.

Between 1991 and 1998, they won six titles and never lost in the NBA Finals. They went 117–41 in the playoffs during that stretch. Their defensive synergy crushed offenses, and their transition game was poetry.

Their willingness to take hits, adjust, and evolve, especially in the face of early heartbreak, turned them into champions.

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 8, 2025, where it first appeared.

Starting to grow and mature and have each other’s backs” – Pippen admits he and MJ didn’t become friends until their playoff series against Detroit

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