MovieChat Forums > The Last Dance (2020) Discussion > The controversial Pippen contract

The controversial Pippen contract

posted 5 years ago by BillySlater (4246)
4 replies | jump to latest

At one point in the series, Pippen hates Krause because he was not willing to renegotiate Pippen´s contract that had him undervalued because of how the league grew financially. My question is, why is Krause blamed entirely? Reinsdorf was the one paying the contracts, surely he was the one that had the final say? In addition, I was reading Pippen´s contract was complicated by the salary cap. At one point, he was getting paid $2.8M a season to Jordan´s $33M. If there were cap restrictions, why didn´t Jordan offer to take a pay-cut to bolster Pippen´s contract? Of course none of this is brought up.

[–] Fandango (534) 5 years ago

Good points.

The reductionist answer is because documentaries are rarely, if ever, balanced. This documentary was more of an homage to Michael Jordan as a sports figure.

I'm sure the only people who know the answer are the players themselves. Krause seemed like an easy scapegoat for a few reasons. One, he was the top-dog, and likely seen as the ultimate arbiter of everything; and two, he died in 2017, so we never hear his side of things.

Michael Jordan never took a pay-cut because he believed he deserved his salary. In his mind, he likely thought, "why should I sacrifice a little bit of the pie I worked so hard for for someone who just didn't advocate for themselves (Pippen)?"

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

It wasn't up to Jordan to pay his fellow players and that is a ridiculous idea.

When you sign a contract you are locked in, if you don't want to be locked in, write in renegotiation clauses.

[–] BillySlater (4246) 4 years ago

No its actually not ridiculous. Altruism exists even though it might seem like a foreign concept to you. And contracts can be terminated if there is agreement by both parties. It is not uncommon for professional athletes to take pay cuts to keep their teams strong because of salary caps. Pippen has himself to blame more than anyone else but it rubs me the wrong way the amount of blame that went on the dead guy, when clearly more people could have shouldered the blame including Jordan himself.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Jordan is a businessman too, he probably thought it was Pippin's own fault.