Scottie Pippen Faces Backlash For Saying LeBron James Won NBA Championship ‘Without Any Help’

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When it comes to the NBA, there are few players as great or well-recognized as the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James, 36. Even though LeBron is surely one of the greatest of all time, former Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen, 55, landed in hot water when he said that LeBron “won a championship without any help” on Twitter on Friday June 25.

@stephenasmith @KingJames won a championship without any help

— Scottie Pippen (@ScottiePippen) June 25, 2021

In the tweet, Scottie tagged ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith, 53, who broke down Brooklyn Nets Small Forward Kevin Durant’s, 32, tweet calling out Scottie, after the former Bull said KD hasn’t “surpassed” Durant in a GQ profile. What Scottie seemed to miss when he tweeted was that Stephen was saying that KD’s response to Scottie was “unnecessary.”  He explained that as a six-time championship winner, Scottie is plenty qualified to give basketball analysis.

 

After Scottie tweeted that LeBron took home a championship ring on his own, Stephen listed players he felt were important to LeBron’s career: Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh with the Miami Heat, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Anthony Davis with the Lakers.

Fans roasted Scottie for the tweet, showing that they’d felt that he’d completely written off some of the accomplishments that LeBron’s teammates made that have earned the superstar four championship rings. One person ribbed Scottie by saying that three out of the four times that LeBron and his teammates took home a championship, the second “leading scorer averaged more than Scottie’s highest finals average.”

Lol. This interesting because every NBA finals LeBron won except 2013 his 2nd leading scorer averaged more than Scottie's highest finals average https://t.co/dnXzTxbyT8

— Jason Maples (@JJMaples55_MST) June 25, 2021

Scottie Pippen? More like Scottie Trippin…. 🍅🍅🍅🍅 https://t.co/AcH7CRzoIc pic.twitter.com/oaClDragtb

— Elijah 🇯🇲 (@eli_carey98) June 25, 2021

So when Kyrie and Love are healthy it’s no help but the Warriors won in 2015 it didn’t count cause they weren’t healthy?

The mental gymnastics here are outstanding https://t.co/3XSZZGqwDp

— Dru (@sftheletters) June 25, 2021

In his own tweet, Stephen let Scottie know that he respects him, especially since the former Bulls player has won six championships himself, but he also said the idea that LeBron did it on his own was “blasphemy.” Scottie said that he felt that LeBron was the only “star” on the court during the 2016 NBA Finals, but the First Take host fired back that LeBron had Kyrie out with him.

I already told you, Man! Who the hell is Kyrie Irving to you? Slava Medvedenko? https://t.co/Tfg3UrhQ86

— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) June 25, 2021

Ultimately, Scottie admitted that he’d just made a simple mistake and he was actually referring to the 2015 NBA Finals, which the Cavaliers lost to the Golden State Warriors. He joked that he was “too focused” on the launch of his bourbon brand Digits. A few fans were surely wondering if he’d had a few sips too many when he said LeBron had won a championship with no help.