Bulls owner denies Michael Jordan threatened to retire due to proposed Scottie Pippen trade

In an appearance on NBC Sports Chicago’s Bulls Pregame Live, Chicago Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf refuted a claim by Tracy McGrady that Michael Jordan threatened to retire to shoot down a 1997 trade that would have sent Scottie Pippen to the Celtics and McGrady to the Bulls. “I understand that there’s a lot of truth to this story,” Reinsdorf said on the broadcast. “But the one part that’s not true is that Michael Jordan in any way communicated with the Chicago Bulls his displeasure over the trade.”
Source: Rob Schaefer @ NBC Sports

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Jeremy Woo @JeremyWoo
If Wisconsin can stop Tucker Richardson from turning into Michael Jordan again, I think the Badgers are in good shape – 12:24 AM The Ringer @ringernba
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👟: https://t.co/XdnT66lRgA pic.twitter.com/xThlsbNb8Y – 7:05 PM Justin Kubatko @jkubatko
📅 On this day in 1988, the @Chicago Bulls Michael Jordan had 50 points, five rebounds, nine assists, and five steals in a win over the Celtics.
Since the NBA started tracking steals in 1973-74, Jordan is one of only three players to record at least 50p/5r/5a/5s in a game. pic.twitter.com/tKY08KW019 – 2:32 PM Kevin O’Connor @KevinOConnorNBA
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“It’s not lost on me that this has been a bizarre experience.”
I sat down with Wes Unseld Jr. to discuss what has been a rookie season unlike any other, how he learned to manage people and his early days working for (and debating) Michael Jordan. nbcsports.com/washington/wiz… – 10:22 AM

More on this storyline

“We had won five championships at that point, and Krause came to me and said: ‘Look, I’m not sure I can guarantee — I don’t know how strong I feel about winning a sixth championship. But I have a chance to trade Scottie Pippen to the Boston Celtics for two very high picks (No. 3 and 6 in the 1997 draft),’” Reinsdorf said. “And Krause, if we had done that deal, he was going to take Tracy McGrady and he was gonna take Ron Mercer. “I thought long and hard about it, but my decision came down to this: What would our fans want us to do?’ And I concluded that our fans would want us to win a sixth championship, even if it meant we weren’t going to be that good afterwards. And that’s why I vetoed the trade. I never heard from Michael Jordan about it. If Krause heard anything from Michael Jordan, he would’ve had to have told me about it.” -via NBC Sports / March 19, 2022 Reinsdorf added in his sitdown that he reached out to Jordan after hearing the most recent re-telling of the story, and Jordan concurred with his version of events. “After this podcast, I contacted Michael Jordan, and asked him if there was any truth, and his reply to me was ‘BS.’ And that’s the case,” Reinsdorf said. “I don’t even know if Michael was aware of it (the trade). But he certainly never communicated to us, never threatened to retire. And the only reason that trade didn’t go through is I felt our fans wanted a sixth championship, and I wanted a sixth championship.” -via NBC Sports / March 19, 2022