Scottie Pippen, a six-time NBA champion and Hall of Famer, will release his memoir Unguarded on Nov. 16, 2021. Unguarded, written with Michael Arkush, will be published by Simon & Schuster. Pippen announced his new project on social media, promising that it will give his side of the story and address some of his concerns with Michael Jordan’s Netflix documentary The Last Dance.
“Ready to hear my side of the story? UNGUARDED. I’m giving you a behind-the-scenes look at growing up in Arkansas, college days at UCA, getting drafted, takes on my teammates and coaches, the locker room, and the rings. Stories I’ve kept to myself for years,” the former Chicago Bulls star wrote.
Pippen has already expressed his dissatisfaction with Jordan’s documentary series, stating that it is not a one-man show.
“I don’t think it was that accurate in terms of really defining what was accomplished in one of the greatest eras of basketball, but also by two of the greatest players — and one could even put that aside and say the greatest team of all time. I didn’t think those things stood out in the documentary. I thought it was more about Michael trying to uplift himself and to be glorified. I think it also backfired to some degree in that people got a chance to see what kind of personality Michael had…I told him I wasn’t too pleased with it. He accepted it. He said, ‘Hey, you’re right.’ That was pretty much it,” Pippen told The Guardian in an interview last year.
He declares himself “the true leader” of the Chicago Bulls during their two three-peats, and he makes no apologies for that. Pippen makes it clear in the book’s summary that he wasn’t Jordan’s “sidekick,” but rather an important part of the Bulls’ championship campaigns.
“Simply put, without Pippen, there are no championship banners — let alone six — hanging from the United Center rafters. There’s no The Last Dance documentary. There’s no ‘Michael Jordan’ as we know him. The 1990s Chicago Bulls teams would not exist as we know them…,” the book’s description states. “Pippen details how he cringed at being labeled Jordan’s sidekick, and discusses how he could have (and should have) received more respect from the Bulls’ management and the media…He discusses what it was like dealing with Jordan on a day-to-day basis, while serving as the real leader within the Bulls locker room.”
