Does anybody here celebrate Spotify?
-MAN: Yeah. -Yeah? Is it, like, pretty pop...
-Yeah, you love music. -MAN: Yeah.
Did you get your, um...
like, your year... year list thing that they do
where they wrap up your-your yearly...
'Cause they send that to you, and they go like,
"This is the music you listened to this year."
Like, first of all, why do they say "congratulations"
like you achieved something?
"Congratulations, Trevor.
You listened to 40 hours of music this year."
Like I had a choice.
Like, I'm like, "Yeah, it was either listening to music
or listening to my 60-year-old neighbors smash."
Like, that was my choice, basically.
Of course I was gonna listen to the music.
And them at the same time.
I wanted the music. You know?
It's also, like, a weird thing to, like, wrap up all my...
Have you ever been disappointed
when you see what your wrap-up is?
'Cause everyone thinks they're a lot cooler than they are, right?
With their Spotify. Everyone's like, "Oh, shit.
"My wrap-up's coming. I got this Kendrick.
"I got a little bit of this underground.
Yeah, I got this. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm."
We should have wrap-ups of, like, our lives as people.
Just, like, a wrap-up of everything.
Everyone you hung out with, everything you did,
just to realize, like, what a loser you actually were.
-(laughter) -'Cause we all think we're a lot cooler than we are.
And then when you look at the wrap-up of your year,
you'll think it was all the highlights,
and then you realize all the cool shit you did
was, like, moments.
Really, most of your life was you,
like, scrolling Instagram on the couch
and then scrolling Instagram on the toilet
and then going back to the couch
and realizing that you left your phone in the toilet.
ANNOUNCER: Coming to you from the heart of Times Square
in New York City, the only city in America,
it's The Daily Show.
Tonight, Roe v. Wade aborted?
Ryan Busse
and Scottie Pippen.
This is The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
Hey! What's going on, everybody?
Welcome to The Daily Show. I'm Trevor Noah.
We got a lot to talk about,
so let's jump straight into the news.
♪ ♪
Our first story is about abortion.
What? No.
No, no, no. No, no. Guys, I'm not...
No, I'm not starting the show with the abortion...
What do you mean, I have to?
It's... But it's my show.
I-I can choose what I want to do. It's my choice.
No, I'm not... Yeah, it's my show, so it's...
Well, you know what? I'm-I'm not gonna start the show.
Yeah, I'm not gonna start it on that.
Yeah, and you can tell the Supreme Court
that I said it. You tell them!
All right, we're gonna get to the story of the Supreme Court,
but first, let's warm up with a more fun story.
Yeah. For years,
one of cable news's biggest stars
has been Chris Cuomo.
Right? CNN anchor and human protein shake.
But now Cuomo's network
has decided that they've had enough
of his extracurricular activities.
NEWSMAN: CNN has suspended anchor Chris Cuomo indefinitely.
It comes after records showed Cuomo took an active role
in helping his brother, the former governor of New York,
respond to sexual harassment charges.
NEWSWOMAN: Text messages and interview transcripts
released this week
by the New York attorney general's office
showing Chris Cuomo helped prepare his brother
for a press conference,
assisted in drafting public statements
and even shared a lead
on a woman accusing the former governor
of inappropriate behavior at a wedding.
NEWSWOMAN 2: The documents also reveal
Chris Cuomo offered to use his media sources
to find out if more women were coming forward.
In March, a top aide to then-Governor Cuomo
texted Chris Cuomo, "Rumor going around from Politico
"one to two more people coming out tomorrow.
Can you check your sources?"
Four minutes later, Cuomo responded, "On it."
Whew.
Okay, look, look, look, on the one hand,
this is a story about a guy helping his brother
in a time of crisis.
And, I mean, who wouldn't do that for their brother?
'Cause you got to remember, brother is the top level
of male relationship.
Yeah, it goes brother,
my dude, homie,
this guy, then stepdad.
And don't forget-- this is ingrained. Right?
Siblings learn to cover for each other from a really young age.
Like, your brother tries to steal some cookies,
he breaks the cookie jar,
you tell your mom the jar fell by itself
and then your brother shares the cookies with you.
That's how it works.
Although, now that I think about it,
Isaac never did share the cookies.
Mom! Isaac broke the jar!
I changed my mind!
Of course, it does matter,
and it does make a difference how you help your brother
and what you're helping him with.
Like, if your brother murdered somebody,
you can either help him get the best lawyer in the country
or you can help him bury the body.
I mean, both make you a good brother,
but one makes you an accessory after the fact.
That's a choice that you're making.
And the big problem is that Chris used his influence
as a CNN journalist to help dig up info
on Andrew's accusers.
And, people, that's not what CNN is about.
CNN is about sitting 12 people together at a desk
and having them yell at each other
about whether Adele's Las Vegas residency
is gonna hurt Biden's poll numbers or not.
-That is CNN. -♪ ♪
Anyway, enough about CNN.
Let's talk about COVID,
the disease that's been around for so long
that it's now at high risk of catching COVID.
Since first being discovered in South Africa,
we've now learned that Omicron
has been in countries around the globe.
And, today, they confirmed the first known case
in the United States.
Yeah. I mean, damn.
Omicron got here quickly, you know?
Say what you want about Joe Biden,
but he got that supply chain moving.
Am I right, guys?
No? All right.
So, yes, apparently, they found a single case of Omicron
in California,
which is just so typical.
You know? Omicron gets a little buzz
and immediately wants to try and make it in Hollywood.
"Oh, I'm special."
But aside from learning about COVID's newest variant,
now we're also learning more about its most famous supporter,
Donald J. Trump.
Do you remember how, last year,
a month before the election,
he suddenly came down with coronavirus? Yeah?
(chuckles) It was hilarious.
I mean, it was very scary.
We were all so scared. So scared.
Well, now we're finding out
that Trump was basically a one-man superspreader.
We do begin with breaking news.
Donald Trump tested positive for coronavirus
three days before his first debate against Joe Biden
on September 29, 2020.
This stunning revelation is in a new book
by former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows
that was obtained by The Guardian.
A positive test the country never knew about.
Here is the timeline as we know it:
on Saturday, September 26 of 2020,
Trump hosted the Rose Garden event
for Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
NEWSWOMAN: And then, later that evening,
he made his way to a rally in Pennsylvania.
As Marine One is lifting off for that event,
the White House doctor calls and says to stop him
because his COVID test came back positive.
According to Meadows, he was then tested again.
That test came back negative,
so they moved on as though nothing had happened.
On Tuesday, the day of the debate,
Meadows says Trump was moving more slowly than usual,
but "Nothing was going to stop Trump from going out there."
SCIUTTO: Of course, two days after that,
Trump tested positive again, alerts the world by tweet.
Later spend three nights in a hospital, getting treatment.
Yeah, people. Donald Trump got a positive COVID test,
then retested and got a negative test,
and then just went about his life without telling anybody.
Which, I mean, on the one hand,
was incredibly irresponsible and dangerous,
but on the other hand, it was very relatable.
I mean, that's why you get second opinions, right?
If one doctor tells you that you're very ill,
and you don't have much longer, but another doctor says,
"Looking good, my man. You should go to Miami,"
I mean, you're going to roll with that doctor.
But what was especially irresponsible about this
is that he hid,
he completely hid his positive test
right before he went on stage
and screamed at 98-year-old Joe Biden for two hours.
I'm not saying that Trump was trying to assassinate Joe Biden,
but he definitely wasn't going out of his way to avoid it.
If this is God's plan for Joe Biden,
what can I do to stop it, except maybe wear a mask?
Which I won't do because it's totally gay. So gay.
And looking back on it, we should have been able to tell
that Trump had coronavirus at the debate.
I mean, just look at the footage.
Look, I mean, I have a mask right here.
I put a mask on, you know, when I think I need it.
Are you in favor of law and order?
Following a little bit of order. Yes, I'm in favor.
-Mr. President, no. -Can I be honest?
-It's a very important question. -Try to be honest.
When they run through the middle of the town...
-President-President Trump? -...and burn down your stores
and kill people all over the place?
President Trump, I... President Trump?
(applause)
CHRIS WALLACE: Thank you.
I'm not sure how we missed it back then. Huh.
All right, but let's move on from Trump to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court that he created in his image, in fact.
Abortion has been a constitutional right
in the United States ever since the Supreme Court decided
Roe v. Wade nearly half a century ago.
But based on what happened at the Supreme Court today,
it seems like it won't be a right for much longer.
A Fox News alert. Oral arguments
in a landmark abortion case wrapping up
at the Supreme Court after nearly two hours.
The hearing setting up a decision by this high court,
now with a six to three conservative majority,
that could change abortion laws across the country.
NEWSWOMAN: Hundreds of protesters
from both sides of the issue gathered outside
of the Supreme Court.
NEWSMAN 2: The stakes could not be higher.
Roe v. Wade is on the line
as the justices consider a law from Mississippi
that would ban almost all abortions
after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
NEWSWOMAN 2: After today's arguments over abortion,
it appears abortion rights in America,
as they stand right now, are in grave danger.
After two hours of questioning, the general consensus
among legal experts is that there are at least five votes
to uphold Mississippi's ban on abortion
after 15 weeks of pregnancy,
and possibly as many votes to overturn a federal right
to an abortion altogether.
Ooh, boy, based on the oral arguments
in the Supreme Court today, it looks very likely
that Roe v. Wade will soon be overturned.
And you know, when you think about it, it is wild.
It's wild for the United States
to take such a step backwards in women's rights.
It's almost like the U.S. invaded Afghanistan
to defeat the Taliban, and then came back to the U.S. like,
"Actually, those guys have some pretty good ideas."
And now, the truth is, the truth is
that this is the culmination of a 50-year plan
for the conservative movement
to reshape the courts for this very purpose.
And say what you want about it, but you've got to admit, man,
the conservative movement
is just that dedicated to protecting life.
I mean, not protecting life from coronavirus or school shootings
or from a lack of healthcare or climate change
or poverty or homelessness or...
And I know, I know, I know there are guys out there right now
who are saying, "Well, you know what?
Tough luck, ladies, but this doesn't affect me."
Well, first of all, you're gonna see it affect your bank account
when you're paying child support for 18 years.
And secondly, you guys clearly don't see what's happening here.
Yeah, because first, first they said a baby
is only a baby when it comes out of the vagina.
Then they said it's a baby when it's viable
outside of the womb, right?
Now you've got people arguing that if there's
any electrical signal, it counts as a heartbeat.
You realize what's coming up next, right?
At some point they're gonna be like:
Okay, we decided that sperm is babies,
so you can't jack off anymore.
Be like: What? But what if I have a wet dream?
Then your ass is going to jail!
Yeah, now you're in your dreams
trying to get your high school teacher
to put her shirt back on.
No, Mrs. Patterson, please, please,
I can't do hard time.
Please get dressed.
I'm kidding, of course. I'm kidding.
Obviously nobody's ever going to regulate
what men can do with their bodies.
Calm down, everybody.
Now, look, we don't know for sure
what the ruling will be yet, and we won't find out
until next year, but you can tell a lot
about where the justices stand
based on what kind of arguments they made.
For example, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Trump appointee
and guy at the bar who insists he's totally fine to drive,
well, he emphasized the view that overturning
the right to abortion would actually be
the neutral position,
because it is neither pro-life nor pro-choice,
but simply leaves the issue up to the states.
And I have to admit, guys,
that argument actually makes a lot of sense.
Like, why should there be one abortion law
for the entire country?
I mean, people in Alabama and people in California
have very different views on this,
so maybe it should be different in different states.
Although, when you think about it,
there are also differences in different parts of each state.
So, really, the law should be, like, by county.
You know what I mean? That would be better.
They should say, like, red counties
in a blue state can ban abortion,
but blue counties in a red state can allow abortion.
I mean, that seems fair, right?
Yeah, it's up to the states but make it up to the county.
Well, except, actually, sometimes you have
urban and rural areas sharing a county,
so maybe it should be at the level of the city or the town.
Yeah. No, wait.
what if each house-- oh, yes, each house!
Each house could have its own rule.
Yeah, this makes sense, right? Because the neighbors,
they don't always agree with each other.
Like, in the house, you...
Within the house, people have different opinions.
You know what, what if each person made their own rule?
Like, each person could decide for themselves
what they could do with their...
Oh, shit, people, I figured it out.
Yo, get me a taxi to the Supreme Court!
You know what, get me a taxi to the bar
next to the Supreme Court.
I want to tell Justice Kavanaugh something.
Yeah. Man, this is amazing.
All right, all right, I got to go to D.C.,
but when we come back, I'll be talking
to a former gun manufacturer about what he regrets.
And then Scottie Pippen will be joining me on the show.
You don't want to miss it.
Yeah, tell the taxi to wait! I'm gonna get my robe.
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
My first guest is Ryan Busse.
He's a former firearms executive
who blows the whistle on the gun industry
in his new book, Gunfight.
Ryan Busse, welcome to the show.
-Thanks so much, Trevor. Fantastic to be here. -Uh...
You know, you've written a book that I think threads the needle
in a very complicated conversation
that America is having, and that conversation
is, "What are guns?
"What do guns mean to America?
"And is there anything that can be done
to try and reduce gun violence in the country?"
And-and just so people have an understanding of who you are,
I mean, you're like the poster child for the NRA.
I mean, you-you were gifted shotguns as a kid, right?
You were an avid hunter.
You-you were an avid defender--
you still are-- of the Second Amendment.
Uh, you worked as a... you know, for a gun manufacturer
for 25 years.
And yet you say that there is a lot that is wrong
with the gun industry.
Let's talk about that. What changed in your life?
What-what was the moment where you thought,
"This is not going the way it should"?
I think there's a few things that changed.
Uh, more than anything,
I think the gun industry and the NRA
changed around all of us.
And I think democracy...
You know, there's a lot of freedoms in America
which are beautiful.
Um, the right to self-defense and to own guns
and to do things that I love to do with my boys
and to shoot and to hunt
and-and all of those things is fantastic.
But if it's not balanced with responsibility,
it's gonna run out of control.
And I started to see things in the firearms industry
and in my life and in my career where responsibility
was not being inserted into the discussion anymore
and-and just runaway rights were-were taking over.
And-and in the early 1990s
and in the 2000s when I got into the industry,
it-it was a much different place
where responsibility and decency
were still inserted into the argument.
And they're no longer there anymore.
Um, it's a very frightening...
It's a very frightening place we live in now.
I-It's interesting you say that
because, you know, when I was reading the book,
there were so many things I-I didn't know
about the journey of the NRA.
I didn't know about the journey of guns in America.
You know, I-I've read about it, but as somebody...
As an insider, you-you really give an insight
into a world that I think a lot of people don't know much about.
You know, for instance, I didn't realize
that at some point, the NRA essentially became more powerful
than the manufacturers of guns themselves.
You talk about a moment where Smith & Wesson
decided to stand up and say, "Actually,
maybe we could do more for gun safety."
And the NRA led a boycott against them.
Yeah, I think it's-it's important to note,
I often hear on reports and NPR, uh, segments
where people say, "Well, the-the NRA
is just a tool of the firearms manufacturers."
I found that to be exactly the opposite.
The NRA ran the show.
They still ran the show.
They set the narrative.
Everything that they stated,
every-every tactic that they laid down,
everybody said, "Yes, sir, can I have another?"
Um, my experience is there's no separation between the NRA
and the firearms industry,
because there's an intertwined sort of symbiosis
between what drives success for the NRA,
which is fear, conspiracy theory,
hatred of the other, acceptance of racism.
Those things drive electoral outcomes,
-and the NRA stumbled on to that 15 or 18 years ago. -Hmm.
Those are exactly the same things that drive firearm sales.
And so there's a-a very unhealthy symbiosis
between those two entities.
Yeah, you know, o-one of the parts of the book
that really stuck with me was when you were talking
about yourself as a gun owner
and you're talking about your sons and your family
and you said something really interesting that I think
a lot of people don't actually think about and you said,
"We don't identify with guns.
"We like using them. We like hunting with them.
-"We like shooting with them. -Yeah.
But we don't identify ourselves with the firearms."
What did that mean and why is that important?
Well, I think...
There's a couple different types of flags that we saw
on January 6.
We saw Trump and American flags,
and then we saw-- the other type of flag we saw
-were "Come and take it" AR-15 flags. -Mm-hmm.
Political radicals, right-wing political radicals
in this country now are driven,
are-are owned...
They use guns as the central symbol of their identity.
It's a dangerous thing.
This is authoritarianism,
you know, at its formative stages.
There are millions of responsible gun owners
in this country who love to shoot with their kids
-and hunt and do all the things that I love to do. -Right.
And believe in the right to self-defense.
But this-- but this idea
that guns are somehow the symbol
of some right-wing political movement,
that-that's dangerous 1936 Germany stuff.
And it-it's frightening.
So do you think there's a world then
where America can find a balance between owning guns
and still living in a safer society?
And I-I ask this question because, I mean,
here on the show, you know, we've done a piece
on Switzerland and how Switzerland, I think,
has more guns per capita than the U.S.
and yet has lower gun deaths than the U.S.
You know, because the Swiss say
they teach people to respect the weapons.
They teach people, you know, how to hold the weapons,
play with the weapons,
use the weapons in the right environments.
Even kids are taught how to shoot in some of the schools.
-Yeah. -You know? And-and it feels like there's a culture
around the gun.
But what I found interesting again in the book is,
you talk about how that culture used to exist.
And then it started getting mocked.
Like, you talk about the Fudds, as they call them,
-the Elmer Fudds with the gun safety guys. -Yeah.
Like, it seems like it's not cool to be safe with guns
now in the world of gun ownership.
Well, that sort of responsible activity
slows down the desired outcome.
It's not cool to be responsible in our politics anymore.
If you haven't noticed, all of these social norms
that once existed, where you didn't say certain things,
you didn't tweet death threats to former...
-to members of Congress... -Right.
-...these norms were not broken. -Mm-hmm.
That's... The same thing happened
in the firearms industry 15, 18 years ago.
These norms of self-control, responsibility, decency...
And to your point about, like, what is the way out of this?
Well, America is a democracy
that operates in the gray spaces.
It's a beautiful thing, but it only exists
because of norms and imposed self-responsibility.
And gun owners, for a long time, were a poster child,
for that sort of responsibility. The fire...
I tell stories in the book
about how the firearms industry 15 or 18 years ago
would not allow tactical anything to be displayed
in its own trade show.
Gloves, tactical vests,
-AR-15s, high-cap magazines. -Interesting.
Those were not displayed in its own trade show.
-And now... -And why was that?
Because it imposed-- the firearms industry--
imposed these rules upon itself, upon ourselves.
We knew that this was a bad thing
to infiltrate society with...
So, sort of like a fringe idea of what owning a gun was about.
-And we knew that that was a dangerous thing. -Right.
That meant that we accepted a certain level of sales,
and that we wouldn't infiltrate guns,
proliferated guns and lack of decency throughout society.
But you have to accept that sort of self-restraint.
That sort of self-restraint is now gone.
And the same exact thing is happening
in our politics, right?
Like, the sorts of things that we once knew not to say,
-not to do... -Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
not to call your relative, not to call your coworker,
not to say in polite society, that's all gone.
The NRA and the gun industry perfected that.
When we talk about some of the policies, what do you look at?
I know one of the proposals right now
that seems to have support from the right and the left
is people saying, "Hey, let's go after those dealers
"who are selling guns to people,
"and they know that it's going straight to the black market.
Let's go after those dealers."
Are you for legislation like that?
And what other policies do you think
America could actually implement
where people would see a change in gun violence?
I'm in favor of two things right now.
One, we need to close the gun show loophole.
We've been trying to do this since before Columbine.
The kids in Columbine used guns
that were purchased through the gun show loophole.
20-something years later, we still haven't closed it.
It's a simple thing.
It's unforgivable. We should do it.
It's not going to be perfect. It's gonna fix some things.
It's gonna mitigate some things. That needs to be done.
Secondarily, I'm worried about the larger societal impacts
and the graph of where gun radicalization
and right-wing radicalization is taking our country.
I don't think Kyle Rittenhouse was an aberration.
I think he's a warning of what's to come.
We need to outlaw, as a country, state by state,
county by county, or hopefully as a nation,
open armed intimidation.
You can't have open civil society,
you can't have democracy, when one party
is standing over the other with a loaded AR-15.
That's not civil.
So I believe two things would help now.
-Close the gun show loophole, -Mm-hmm.
and legislation to outlaw armed intimidation and open carry.
Well, you've written a really compelling book.
I know there will be people who will be for it,
people who will be against it,
but that's what arguments are for.
Thank you so much for joining me on the show.
-Thanks, Trevor. Yep. -Appreciate having you here.
All right, Gunfight is available wherever books are sold.
When we come back, the NBA legend Scottie Pippen
will be joining me right here. Stay tuned.
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
My next guest is NBA Hall of Famer
and six-time NBA champion
and two-time Olympic gold medalist
Scottie Pippen.
He's here to talk about his brand-new memoir, Unguarded.
Scottie Pippen, welcome to The Daily Show.
Thank you. It's a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
-Um... -It's a pleasure to be on your show.
Hey, it can't be a pleasure.
Let me tell you what a pleasure is.
A pleasure is me talking
to one of my favorite basketball players of all time.
I'm someone who didn't even know basketball,
but all I knew was the number one player
to play with on NBA Jam was Scottie Pippen.
I had two favorite players in the NBA Jam game.
It was Scottie Pippen and it was Muggsy Bogues.
-Wow. -And if I wanted to win, I went with Scottie Pippen.
If I wanted to play, like, the cheat codes,
I'd play with Muggsy Bogues.
Um, so, thank you for being on the show,
-um, and thank you for writing the book, man. -It's a pleasure.
It's-it's been a really amazing journey
getting to know who you are as a human being.
I think let's start with the life side of Scottie Pippen.
I think everyone starts with the basketball,
but what I really found interesting about you
was starting with-with the life that you lived.
You had to really get over so many hurdles in life.
You know, you come from a big family.
You come from a family that went through a lot of struggles.
You know, you talk about your brother
and him being paralyzed at a young age.
You talk about your dad suffering a similar fate
but from a very different standpoint.
When you look at that journey that Scottie Pippen had,
you know, you had to make decisions in life,
and you had to become a really resilient person.
What do you think it was that gave you the fortitude
to get through the things that you got through
to get to where you got to?
I would say it was my parents.
Um, just kind of seeing the life that they had taken on.
And, you know,
it wasn't something that they were prepared for.
And by any means could we, uh, afford to have,
you know, two disabled people living in one household.
But we were able to pull through it,
uh, through the struggles and the ups and downs,
and, you know, we...
we made the best of what we had.
I found myself wondering the whole time reading the book,
did young Scottie Pippen know
that he was going to be one of the greatest
every time he touched the ball?
Or was young Scottie Pippen just trying to get
from one play to the next, one moment to the next?
I-I think I was taking it day by day, step by step.
Uh, I... Like any kid, I was dreaming
and wanting one day to play in the NBA,
but, you know, along that journey,
you got to reach certain other steps, you know?
Like playing college basketball.
-Right, right. -Getting my education.
Things of that nature.
So those things were important to me, uh, along the way,
but, ultimately, uh,
I didn't know what type of basketball player I would be,
if I would be one of the 50 greatest,
if I'd just, you know,
maybe get a trial for an NBA team.
You know, you just hope for the best,
and you-you work as hard as you can
to make sure that you're prepared for it.
Uh, you know, it's a long journey, and...
I, you know-- I feel like that I prepared myself for it.
I feel like you've lived a life
as one of the greatest basketball players,
and now you've become an author
of one of the greatest books that delves into the minds
and the inner workings of one of the greatest teams
and-and sports legacies of all time.
Let's start with the beginning.
I mean, that's where the-the book starts.
The prologue. If we-- if we jump right to the beginning.
In the prologue,
you talk about The Last Dance,
you know, the-the documentary that everyone was watching
during the pandemic,
the story that everybody was talking about.
And-and you talk about how,
you know, you wanted to speak your truth.
You wanted to get your story out there.
When you were writing the book, was this-- was this your way
of feeling like you could answer some of the questions
that people asked from the documentary
and maybe didn't show your side of the story?
Well, I-I think I kind of, um,
you know, took myself away from being in the public eye
during the documentary.
-Right. -Uh, I don't know if people even recall,
but I was working for ESPN when the documentary came out
and, uh, took a little hiatus,
because I didn't want to have to relive telling the story
about, uh, what happened, you know, 20 years ago.
So, uh, that was one thing.
But I did feel like that the documentary
was not really about the Last Dance,
because I felt like that it was, uh,
a lot of footage that was taken
that was gonna be really, uh, praising
one of the greatest teams, um,
that really ever been put together in the NBA
and really praise a lot of the people
that was a part of that great team.
And I felt like that the documentary was solely, uh, uh,
built and controlled, you know, through Michael Jordan,
and I didn't feel like it-it really gave justice
to a lot of the great players, um, Coach.
Just that we're a part of that-that journey.
Uh, it was truly something that I felt, like,
needed to be expressed from a team standpoint.
You know, Michael Jordan is undoubtedly
one of the greatest to ever do it, but clearly as a person,
it must be challenging to play with somebody like that
who, you know, has a certain frame of mind
for what they're doing.
When you were playing with him as a teammate,
did you have to, you know,
situate yourself according to him?
Or how did you manage Michael's ego,
whilst also playing in a team with Michael?
Well, it was an adjustment.
You know, when I came into the NBA,
and to the Chicago Bulls organization,
Michael had been with the organization
for three seasons, um, three losing seasons.
So it was an adjustment for him to change his style of play
and how he played the game, and it was, I guess, up to me
to sort of pick up areas
where I felt like that I could be a good fit
for the team to, you know, get us in a position
where we could be successful,
but also opening up as a player
where I could show my talent
and my greatness on the court, as well.
You know, every page I turned to, I could see why
this became a New York Times Best Seller
because it's Scottie Pippen telling us, you know, his truth.
It's, you know, one of the greatest NBA players
delving into, you know, the inner workings
of one of the greatest periods in basketball.
And there's a part that I... that really stuck with me.
It's when you wrote your own tombstone,
which is really funny.
I mean, it seems morbid, but it's really funny,
where you write, you know,
"I'm almost convinced that literally to my grave
"this will be my tombstone.
"'Scottie Maurice Pippin, beloved husband and father,
"'1965 to...'" You know? And then, it's,
"'Seven-time NBA All-Star,
six-time NBA champion.'"
And below that, it says,
"'Sat out the final 1.8 seconds of a play-off game
between the Chicago Bulls and the New York Knicks.'"
And I was interested in that.
Like, you know, obviously, that's something
that people have talked about, but I wonder why you think
that would be something that would always follow your legacy.
Why do you think that moment was so big, not just for you,
but for how people saw it from the outside?
Well, I think for what people saw from the outside,
they had never saw a player really stand up
for himself, uh, against a coach in that type of situation.
And I think I was that player to sort of break that ice.
And it was a moment in time for me
because I have been challenged my whole life.
Uh, and I had been playing under the wings of Michael Jordan
-for, I guess at that time, six years, -Mm-hmm.
three championships, so I felt like it was time
for me to break out and to let them know that,
hey, I came here to be a star player.
I didn't come here to be a second fiddler to anyone.
And I think I needed to make that stance.
And just so happened it was a, you know,
a game that I felt like, uh,
you know, it was that moment where I needed to speak out.
Well, you know what,
there's a reason you're a Hall of Famer.
There's a reason you have your six rings.
There's a reason you're a New York Times bestseller.
And in my heart, because of NBA Jam, there's a reason
you're still the best video game character of all time.
That move, I used to do that move with you the whole time,
just to get the guy off the ball.
(laughing)
Scottie could rebound better than anyone in that game.
Have you ever played yourself in that game, by the way?
No, I kind of missed my time for video games.
You're missing out in life, Scottie.
-Yeah. -Let me tell you something now, man.
You did this thing with--
I didn't even know what basketball was.
I just played video games.
And then there was this move you would get.
You would just, you would rebound, right?
You'd jump up, Scottie could get it before everybody,
and then as soon as I would land,
I'd do this, I'd just do this,
and then everyone would, like, fall around me,
and then I'd go to the other side and then I'd dunk.
I was like: I don't know who Scottie Pippen...
I literally knew you as a video game character.
Like, in my world, there was, like, Ken and Ryu
from Street Fighter,
and Scottie Pippen from NBA Jam.
And then someone was like: This is a real person
in a real country.
I was like: That's ridiculous.
No one can jump that high and then fight people like this.
But here he is. So thank you again, Scottie.
-I appreciate you, man. -That's amazing.
Thank you, Trevor, forever, man. I appreciate it.
All right, don't forget, people, Scottie's memoir,
Unguarded, is available right now.
You're definitely gonna want to read it.
We're gonna take a quick break,
but we'll be right back after this.
Well, that's our show for tonight, but before we go,
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Now, here it is, Your Moment of Zen.
♪ ♪
KENNEDY: We have elected officials in this country
who have used the pandemic as a pretext
to exercise their power gratuitously.
I mean, they... they will shut down everything
at the slightest excuse.
And they don't care if you end up homeless
on the beach eating seaweed.