An NBA scorekeeper from the ’90s who gave stats to Jordan even when he didn’t earn them went into the Chicago Bulls room after one game and said, “See MJ, we take care of you.”
Scottie Pippen, who won six NBA titles with Jordan, wrote about it in his book, “Unguarded.”
“Michael was better at getting people to do whatever he wanted,” Pippen wrote. “I saw it over and over, from the first training camp in 1987 to the last victory rally in 1998. Here’s how it worked: Say I deflected the ball and tapped it over to him. I should get credit with the steal, right? Nope. More often than not, the steal went into his column on the stat sheet, and I could do nothing about it.
“One night, a scorekeeper came into the locker room after the game to hand the stat sheets to Phil Jackson and the coaching staff. The sheet breaks down the points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocked shots, turnovers, and so on for everyone who played the game. I couldn’t believe the look the guy gave Michael: ‘See MJ, we take care of you.’ No wonder in the nine full seasons we played together, he averaged more steals than me in every year except two.”
Source: https://hoopswire.com/nba-scorekeeper-gave-stats-michael-jordan-bulls-news-rumors/
Two legends of the game, working in the same building for over a decade, Jordan and Rosenberg shared a strong kinship. On the side, Rosenberg made scrapbooks for Jordan to commemorate his achievements. In the opening lines of MJ’s 1999 retirement column, Chicago AP writer Jim Litke didn’t mention Phil Jackson or Scottie Pippen. Instead, he raised Rosenberg’s name and relayed a story about Jordan’s shared obsession with stats:
“The first week Jordan played for the Bulls, scorer Bob Rosenberg looked up to find him studying the scorebook every time he reported to the table to re-enter the game. It didn’t take long to figure out why. By knowing everybody’s point and rebound totals, Jordan knew how the newspaper stories the next day would begin. Then he took the floor and made sure they always began the same way: ‘Michael Jordan …’”
“I write down everything,” reports Rosenberg. “I have books that list every sporting event I’ve worked or gone to, the statistics, the results, what happened so I can look back knowing I was there. I like having a record. I also get a program from every game I go to and work. I get the newspaper clippings from the next day (Rosenberg kept at Michael Jordan’s request a scrap book of stories from every game Jordan played for the Bulls and says Michael rewarded him well);
The Rosenberg and Jordan dynamic was written about in the press, and reportedly at one point drew scrutiny from the league office. According to a 1989 report from the San Francisco Examiner, Rosenberg would flash hand signals to inform Jordan how close he was to a triple-double. The league reportedly stepped in and told Rosenberg to cut it out.
Rosenberg admitted to signaling to help Jordan chase stats during Chicago’s 1988 All-Star Game, a game in which Jordan scored a game-high 40 points, just shy of matching Chamberlain’s then-record of 42. As the site’s official scorekeeper, Rosenberg worked the game and remembered a postgame exchange he had with Jordan. In 2013, Rosenberg shared the following anecdote with the Chicago Tribune:
“Why didn’t you tell me I was two points short of Chamberlain?” Rosenberg recalled Jordan asking him.
“I said, ‘Look, every time you went by, I kept putting up two fingers. You didn’t understand that?’”
by bambam-in-vietnam
35 Comments
Man I’m so sick of hearing about pippen and Jordan.
Man shut the fuck up, you’re richer than 99.999% of anyone in the world.
Why should Caesar just get to stomp around like a giant while the rest of us try not to get smushed under his big feet? Brutus is just as cute as Caesar, right? Brutus is just as smart as Caesar, people totally like Brutus just as much as they like Caesar, and when did it become okay for one person to be the boss of everybody because that’s not what Rome is about! We should totally just STAB CAESAR!
-Scottie Pippen
I would still say the worse thing was Jordan’s son sleeping with Pippen’s ex wife lol
Ah yes notable impartial about Jordan observer Scottie Pippen. Love Scottie the player but dude is unhinged about Jordan at this point.
Edit: I see people are upset I’m judging pippen as a source. I acknowledge that there is a second article mentioned that doesn’t involve pippen. But like the title and the first half of the body of the post are all about pippen including a quote Scottie attributed to a look the scorekeeper gave which is presented as an actual quote lmao. So surely talking about pippen in this context is reasonable. And even more so the haberstroh article has been linked x1000 since it was published, the pippen quotes were new to me. But please stay big mad that MJ clowned your team for an entire decade.
This is probably true but I truly ignore everything Pippen has to say about Jordan nowadays lol
Pippen is ironically a terrible source for anything related to MJ.
How much did this guy get paid to come out with this stuff
The MJ slander era has begun.
I can see why Pippen is still kind of bitter about MJ, beyond MJ’s son getting with his ex-wife, which is insane.
Everyone knew MJ was better, but Scottie was never allowed to get his due as an individual. If you go to Pippen’s years without Jordan, he led them to 55 wins without him in 1994, and probably would have taken down a great Knicks team in the second round (that was one shot away from a championship) if not for the infamous Hubert Davis call.
In 2000, his Trail Blazers still would have won if they could have hit the basket in the fourth quarter, but an all-time memorably bad officiating job stopped them from taking down the Kobe/Shaq Lakers and being favored in the finals.
Even in the dunk contest, he dunked from further out than MJ or anyone else ever had with ** almost all of his foot beyond the line, and instead of becoming an icon that won multiple contests he got a low score. Some of it is definitely in his head, but at times he definitely got the short end of the stick to the NBA’s golden goose
I remember Bill Simmons, the self proclaimed ombudsman of NBA History, downplaying Russ Triple Double year by claiming “Magic Bird and Jordan didn’t care about stats, only winning, they didn’t track how close they were to certain stats, if they did they’d all have had triple doubles whenever they wanted”
not that he needed it, but this story about Jordan getting preferential treatment from the home scorekeeper is going to fuel Scottie’s hate for another 50 years.
Thats no GOAT, its a donkey
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Weird that nobody here seems to give any credit to the claim simply because it’s Scottie.
Lol, people talk about LeBron having a PR machine, but MJ’s PR machine and tendency is crazy, because while LeBron’s is so obvious, MJ’s isn’t as noticeable and very behind the scenes.
I am not an MJ Truther but Pippen is seriously getting on my nerves.
Dude is so obsessed and can’t move on with his life
This is too predictable and tiring.
Finally after all these years the truth is coming to light! It wasn’t Jordan that was dominating the league and winning championships… the stats were JUICED! Those accolades belong to Pippen!
lol won’t change a single mind
Jordan nostalgia is too strong.
Atp you could have the whole season timelapsed with an actual steals counter vs counted steals counter and these old geezers would still deny it
Pippen is a generational hater man, respect it but gotta take everything he says with a grain of salt.
I do find the difference in reaction of people to this compared to JJJ’s post, I’d say this is bigger news and the OG post got like 1/10th of the upvotes and like half the comments here are just complaining about the news
It’s a miserable life trying to unravel and deflate the legacy of possibly the greatest hooper of all time. Shame on these people.
MJ a gambling man, probably did what Jontay did too. Since he’s MJ no one will talk.
I don’t understand why this is being viewed as some big revelation. It was basically an open secret in the 80s and 90s that players would get favorable stats at home. Especially if they were star players.
I’m sure Jordan’s steals and blocks were inflated. I just don’t care.
I’m sure it’s all true, but damn dude, let go of the hate and jealousy. your saltiness is ruining your life. you’ve had a great life, have money. stop giving a fuck about negative things. enjoy your money and do productive things with it.
The question is, how many other stars in that period had guys padding their stats at home for them win awards also? The awkward dynamic of the whole thing is that, if that’s going on across the board, then it’s a fair fight.
Man Pippen is still so salty. He’s always bringing up MJ.
Funny how so many of the greatest athletes of all time can get nearly endless accolades, make mountains of money, and still go through life so bitter that they didn’t get even more
Something about human nature in there
What’s with the weird creepy people that try weasel their win into successful peoples lives
Jordan didn’t need someone cooking the books, but some weirdo decided he needed to be part of the magic somehow
Generally, I think the person who grabs the ball gets the steal, rather than the person who tips it.
This is silly in general. Were MJ’s stats likely inflated? Sure. But you’re kidding yourself if you don’t think stats are inflated now? Shit, the coaching and rules of the game inflates stats, never mind the score keeper..
bron out here seeing the shit against JJ and his son and decided to call the Klutchington Post as this has been noted for decades (but was also hilariously left out of the last dance)
Another example of how “comparison is the thief of joy”.
Pippen played 17 years, won six championships, was a 7-time all-Star, and got $109 million in career earnings.
But decades later he still doesn’t seem that happy with his career because he compares it with Jordan’s.
Y’all don’t want to have the conversation that your goat is a fraud
This is just sad. In his “infamous” HOF speech literally the first person MJ mentioned was Pippen. From arguably the greatest and most iconic duo in league history to now having beef, I hope they get to squash this out someday.
Only Jordan stans will try and diminish Scottie to a role player to try and build up Jordan more. Scottie was a superstar in his own right, just look at the year when Jordan played baseball, MVP type year
Lol what a hilarious off-season topic. Love it.