Michael Jordan may have stayed retired in ’95 if Bulls traded Scottie Pippen for Shawn Kemp: ‘I wouldn’t have been as comfortable’

Jordan rejoined the Chicago Bulls following his baseball stint with the Birmingham Barons, and Scottie Pippen still being on the Bulls was a big factor. 

The Bulls almost traded Pippen to the Seattle SuperSonics for Shawn Kemp following the 1993-94 season. However, the deal got squashed at the last minute, allowing Jordan to return to Chicago near the end of the 1994-95 NBA season.

During All-Star Weekend in 2008, Jordan told J.A. Adande of ESPN that he likely would have remained retired in 1995 had the Bulls traded Pippen to the SuperSonics for Kemp.

“I could have played with Shawn,” Jordan said. ”But I wouldn’t have been as comfortable as I was with Scottie.”

After hearing about the Seattle rumor, Pippen was set on leaving the Bulls in February 1995 and nearly got his wish. The Los Angeles Clippers offered Chicago two first-round picks and the right to swap picks the following two seasons.

However, Pippen changed his mind because his friend, Ron Harper, said playing for the Clippers was like being in jail.

Eight days after the Clippers failed to acquire Pippen, Jordan quit baseball because of a labor dispute, and the rest is history.

Behind Jordan and Pippen, the Bulls won three straight NBA titles in 1996, 1997 and 1998. Ironically, they beat the SuperSonics in the 1996 NBA Finals in six games.

During his second run with the Bulls, Jordan averaged 29.4 points. He won two MVPs, three scoring titles and three Finals MVPs.

Meanwhile, Pippen put up 19.7 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game from 1995-96 and 1997-98.

It’s easy to forget Jordan never won a playoff series without Pippen. That’s probably why Jordan appreciated Pippen so much since he knew how valuable Pippen was.

Jordan and Pippen won six championships together in the ’90s and went undefeated in the NBA Finals. In Episode 2 of ESPN’s “The Last Dance” docuseries, Jordan talked about his favorite partner in crime.

“I would never be able to find a tandem, another support system, another partner in the game of basketball like Scottie Pippen,” Jordan said. “He was a pleasure to play with. He helped me so much in the way that I approached the game, the way I played the game.

“Whenever they speak Michael Jordan, they should speak Scottie Pippen. When everybody says, well, I won all these championships, but I didn’t win without Scottie Pippen and, you know, that’s why I consider him my best teammate of all time.”

Pippen may have refused to go into a playoff game in 1994 and thrown a chair on the court in 1995, but his basketball talents were impeccable.

After all, there’s a reason Jordan never wanted to play for the Bulls without Pippen by his side.