NBA and Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen has responded after being trolled for a tweet where he appeared to praise Elon Musk.
Musk’s already sizable stock has risen significantly in the past year after he aligned himself with Donald Trump, helping him get reelected as US president, essentially becoming his right-hand man and being gifted a place in his administration.
However, one thing that no one has been asking is whether Musk, 53, is any good at basketball. Everyone, that is, except for 59-year-old Pippen, who is largely considered to be an icon of the game.
On Sunday (1 December) Pippen, who played alongside the great Michael Jordan at his height in the 1990s, posted an AI-generated image of Musk in a Chicago Bulls outfit and asked: “How many championships would we have won with @ElonMusk?”
It’s not obvious why Pippen asked this question or where he got the image from but it soon backfired on him as the post was flooded with memes and jokes.
One person replied: “Probably fewer because he doesn’t play basketball at a professional level.”
Another quipped: “The internet did to our elders what they said video games were going to do to us.”
A third said: “This is an absolute travesty- an insult and degrading of Luc Longley’s championship winning number. Shame on all involved.”
Luc Longley wore the number 13 jersey for the Bulls when he was a part of their title winning teams between 1996 and 1998.
Some also made reference to the recent habit that Musk has made of jumping in ‘X’ shape when appearing with Trump.
One person said: “I remember the time Elon blocked Jordan’s dunk. It was epic.”
A second asked: “What kind of dip s*** fan fiction is this Scottie? Be serious we’ve all seen this guy jump.”
Fortunately, Pippen appeared to see the funny side to the reactions, writing in response: “Y’all are funny. I’m following my favourite comments.”
Pippen is considered to be one of the greatest small forwards in the history of baseketball and was a key part of the Chicago Bulls’ dominance of the sport in the 1990s.
During his time with the Bulls, he won six NBA titles, was a seven-time NBA All-Star and won two Olympic gold medals, in 1992 and 1996 respectively.
