"One year without Michael Jordan, can I get one shot?" - Scottie Pippen defended calling Phil Jackson a racist for giving Toni Kukoc the last shot in 1994 originally appeared on Basketball Network .
The Chicago Bulls found themselves tied with the New York Knicks in Game 3 of the 1994 Eastern Conference semifinals, with just 1.8 seconds left in regulation.
Michael Jordan had gone to play baseball and Scottie Pippen had led the team to 55 regular-season wins and stood as the unchallenged leader of a Jordan-less Bulls.
But when Phil Jackson crafted a final play for rookie Toni Kukoc to take the last shot, Pippen refused to go back in. It sparked a moment in NBA history that would never be forgotten, one that still lives at the intersection of legacy, respect and race.
Over three decades later, Pippen hasn't softened.
His defense of that night no longer dances around tact or diplomacy. It leans on facts. He had been with the Bulls long enough that he was the franchise's head in Jordan's absence, their stabilizer and arguably the best all-around player in the league.
And in his eyes, that night in Chicago should've been his moment.
"If you knew that Scottie Pippen had been with the Bulls since '87, battled through the Pistons and every other team that we had to get to those three championships, wouldn't you give Scottie Pippen one opportunity to get the last shot without Michael Jordan?" Pippen said.
"One year without Michael Jordan, can I get one shot? I'm doing all the dirty work."
That team belonged to Pippen, at least in the eyes of the locker room, the fanbase and nearly every advanced stat that season. Yet when the clock narrowed to 1.8 seconds against the Knicks, the final play belonged not to the seven-time NBA All-Star who had carried the franchise all year but to rookie forward Kukoc.
It was a betrayal in the eyes of Pippen. The kind that builds not in a moment, but over years of war. In the 1993–94 season, he emerged from the shadows in full daylight. Averaging 22.0 points, 8.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists and nearly three steals per game, Pippen led Chicago to just two fewer wins than the previous year with Jordan. He finished third in MVP voting, won All-Star MVP honors and was named First Team All-NBA and First Team All-Defense. It was, by every measurable standard, his team.
That's what made Jackson's call so hard to stomach. With Chicago tied 102-102 against New York and possession on the sideline, Jackson drew up the final play for Kukoc, a skilled but still green Croatian rookie.
Pippen, blindsided by the decision, sat out the play entirely, refusing to check-in. Kukoc would hit the shot and win the game, but the celebration was muted by what had just unfolded on the bench.
Years later, Pippen frames the choice not as tactical but personal. He said it was racial and the words cut deeper with time. That moment became a symbol of what the Hall of Famer always seemed to battle, being essential but never prioritized. The underlying tension wasn't just about one play. It was about a perception that Pippen, even at the peak of his powers, wasn't being positioned to win.
Despite his elite production and leadership in '94, the power dynamic within the organization hadn't shifted in his favor. That moment in Game 3 exposed what had been simmering beneath the surface. Kukoc had hit game-winners that season, but none came with stakes that high. And while Jackson defended the play as a strategy, Pippen has since framed it differently.
"Why would Toni, who was a rookie, get the last-second shot and you put me up for violence," Pippen said. "That's what I mean racial. That was Scottie Pippen's team. Scottie Pippen was on pace to be an MVP that year."
"Why wouldn't you put him in a position to be successful?"
For a player who ranked third in MVP voting that season and led the team in nearly every category, the idea that he wasn't seen as the go-to in crunch time suggested something deeper than just Xs and Os.
Jackson never publicly wavered from his stance that Kukoc was simply the better option for that play. But Pippen has refused to back down as time has passed. In his view, it wasn't just a play, it was a pattern. The same pattern that allowed Kukoc to be treated as a prodigy while the forward still fought for validation despite being one of the greatest two-way players of all time.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jun 25, 2025, where it first appeared.
