Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen grabbed headlines earlier this week when he accused his former head coach Phil Jackson of being racist, and drawing up a game-winning play for Toni Kukoc during the 1994 playoffs that was racially motivated.
And the news came as quite a surprise to one of Pippen's old teammates.
"The only thing I can relate to is what I saw, what I experienced. And at that moment, and prior to that, I had not experienced [racism from Jackson]," former Bulls center Will Perdue told The Zach Gelb Show on Wednesday. "Now, this is also me as a white guy. I don't know what they experienced behind closed doors, or things that they experienced, because it wasn't like we were always with each other 24/7. But the only thing I can say, we ran a very similar play previous to that -- not in that series, but earlier in the season with Pete Myers and Toni -- and it worked...
"It's either one of two things: it's who [Jackson] is, and I just missed it, or it's a situation where [Pippen] believes that's what it was when it really wasn't. And that's what we don't know. To really define this and to really step up and say, 'Okay, what you're saying carries merit,' another player who's been on either the Bulls or the Lakers has to step up and say, 'Hey, I've experienced that as well, I've got Scottie's back.'"
In the last two days, Shaquille O'Neal and Robert Horry -- two of Jackson's former players with the Los Angeles Lakers -- have refuted Pippen's claims, stating that they don't believe Jackson is a racist.
Perdue saw Pippen last week at a party celebrating the Hall of Fame forward's new bourbon brand. The topic of Jackson being racist was never discussed, and the get-together occurred before GQ magazine released a story that first mentioned Pippen's strong accusations against Jackson.
"I did, since that stuff was released, go out and speak to some of my teammates," Perdue said. "And everybody seems to be a little stunned by that, as far as, 'Where's this coming from? Now he's doubling down, he's not backing off.' So, we'll see where it goes."
The entire NBA conversation between Perdue and Gelb can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow The Zach Gelb Show on Twitter @ZachGelb and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.