Tell us how you really feel, Scottie.
Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen did not mince words when asked about the team hiring Billy Donovan as its new head coach, trashing Donovan’s NBA credentials.
“If you’re looking at it from a fan perspective, I’m not impressed with what (the Bulls) did,” Pippen, 55, told Forbes. “I don’t think that they have made any dramatic changes that are going to change who they are as a team. That’s just my personal opinion. I like Billy Donovan as a person but I don’t think he’s proved anything in the NBA that proves he’s worth investing in and bringing a team up that needs help like Chicago does. They’re a team that has been struggling for a long time. To me, I don’t see the value he brings to them. He’s going to be a coach but there are a lot of them out there. He didn’t do anything special in OKC that warranted him a second opportunity. That’s just my opinion.”
But he’s a good person, at least.
Pippen’s harsh critique doesn’t inspire confidence that the Bulls can turn things around under Donovan, who parted ways with the Oklahoma City Thunder earlier this month after his contract ran out. Chicago has been one of the worst teams in the NBA over the last three seasons, winning a combined 71 games over that span under Fred Hoiberg and the controversial Jim Boylen, who was fired in August and had several clashes with players during his 39-84 run.
Donovan, 55, led the Thunder to the Western Conference finals in the first of his five seasons with the team, but couldn’t get past the first round in the ensuing four years, including a seven-game loss to the Houston Rockets in the NBA bubble.
Speaking of the bubble, Pippen doesn’t think highly of the basketball that’s been played in Orlando over the last two months.
“Well, I’m going to be honest. It’s not NBA basketball,” Pippen said in a separate interview with Business Insider. “It’s not the hard grind. It’s not the travel. It’s not the fans. It’s not the distractions. Really, to me, it’s pickup basketball. It’s going to the gym. Yeah, you already got your team. Y’all practicing together. But it’s a more of a pickup type of basketball game, because there’s no fans in the stands. So there is no distraction. There’s no real noise. There’s no pressure on the players, you know. Prime example: I looked at [Lakers guard Rajon] Rondo. Rondo ain’t made 3-pointers in his whole NBA career. Now, all of a sudden, he’s in a bubble, he’s probably a 50% 3-point shooter. I haven’t even checked the stats.”
Rondo is shooting 44.8 percent from 3-point range in the playoffs despite being a career 31.6-percent shooter from beyond the arc.