Michael Jordan’s son and Scottie Pippen’s ex are dating — here is a timeline of their relationship
Scottie #Scottie
Imagine trying to explain this one to a sports fan in the 1990s.
In a time when eyebrow-raising celebrity relationships are the norm, none might be more shocking in the sports world than the one between Larsa Pippen and Marcus Jordan.
Pippen, 48, who frequently made cameos on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and starred in “The Real Housewives of Miami,” is the founder of Larsa Marie, a high-end jewelry brand. Jordan, 32, is a former college basketball player and the CEO of The Trophy Room, a retail store specializing in Nike and Air Jordans. However, for the sake of this relationship, it is more notable that he is the son of Michael Jordan, and she is the ex-wife of Scottie Pippen, former Chicago Bulls teammates.
Marcus and Larsa have been the subject of dating rumors for a while now, but only recently did they seemingly confirm their status as a couple on Instagram.
Here’s a complete timeline of their relationship.
They have been dating since September or October
TMZ first spotted the pair together in early September, when they were photographed at a Miami restaurant. That encounter was described by those who witnessed it as possibly “a double date of some sort.”
After that spotting, rumors that they were dating were quickly shot down, as TMZ was told they were “strictly friends” at the time.
However, three weeks later, they were seen “snuggling” at a music festival in footage obtained by TMZ.
Things then appeared to get more serious the following month.
In November, they were spotted together at the beach in what TMZ described as a “PDA-packed Miami Beach trip.” A source told TMZ that the couple was dating then and that things “turned romantic” the previous month.
In December, the couple appeared more open about their relationship. They were seen together at a Travis Scott performance during Miami Art Week.
A week later, they were seen together again, this time in New York. This was the same day Pippen was a guest on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen,” and Jordan was spotted in the audience.
During the appearance on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen,” with Marcus in the audience, host Andy Cohen asked about the relationship. Pippen played coy.
“We’re friends,” she said. “We’ve been friends for a few years, and that’s really what it is. We’re friends.”
Previously, a source told Us Weekly that the pair were “trying to keep it on the down low because of the rift between Scottie and Michael.”
Making it official
In January, the couple seemed ready to stop hiding, all but confirming the relationship with a public kiss in Miami and holding hands at night on what looked like a date.
Finally, the pair made it Instagram official at the end of January. Pippen shared a photo from Jordan’s Trophy Room store. The couple is seen holding hands in front of a Michael Jordan jersey made of flowers.
A relationship between Larsa Pippen and Marcus Jordan might not register as more than a footnote for most, if not for the soap opera-like relationship between Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
One is arguably the greatest basketball player who ever lived. The other helped the GOAT win six NBA titles and is, depending on who you talk to, either: 1) one of the greatest players who ever lived but was overshadowed by Jordan; or 2) a very good but possibly overrated player who benefited from having Jordan as a teammate.
That dynamic and interpersonal rivalry seemed to leak into their relationship, which may have never been as close as many assumed and is certainly, at best, strained now. The most recent blow was 2020’s “The Last Dance” docuseries, in which Pippen was not pleased about how he was portrayed and confronted Jordan about it.
“I don’t think it was that accurate in terms of really defining what was accomplished in one of the greatest eras of basketball,” Pippen told The Guardian. “But also by two of the greatest players — and one could even put that aside and say the greatest team of all time. I didn’t think those things stood out in the documentary. I thought it was more about Michael trying to uplift himself and to be glorified.”
There is also the issue of when the orbits of Larsa Pippen and Marcus Jordan first crossed. Marcus was six or seven when the Pippens married.
Larsa and Scottie wed in 1997, in the heart of the Bulls’ second three-peat of world championships.
Larsa filed for divorce in 2018, and it was finalized in 2021. The couple has four children, ranging in age from 13 to 21, according to Page Six.
Former NBA player Jalen Rose spoke about the couple on his ESPN podcast and said Marcus should be more of a nephew to Larsa than a “mate.”
They haven’t known each other as long as most assume
Many on social media assumed that the pair knew each other when Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen played together. However, that does not appear to be the case.
According to Larsa, she first met Marcus in the last few years, addressing the topic when Cohen asked if she understood why some people might call the relationship “wild.”
“I mean, I guess, yeah,” Larsa said via People. “But I think a lot of people think that our families were really close and intertwined, and they really weren’t. Like I never really knew Marcus’ mom or them. I just recently met them a couple of years ago.”
She wrote something similar in November, in the comments section of an Instagram post, according to Complex.
“I just met him 3 years ago I never knew him or his family,” she wrote on a Shade Room post. “I was 21 yrs old and in college when Scottie played that one year [with] MJ and we weren’t friends with them like everyone thinks.”
Larsa didn’t want to date athletes after Scottie
According to TMZ, Larsa Pippen was previously linked to NBA players Ben Simmons and Malik Beasley and social media personality Harry Jowsey. She also has said that she dated NBA player Tristan Thompson and had a brief romance with rapper Future.
The relationship with Beasley was particularly drama-filled, as he was still married at the time. Pippen later said Scottie Pippen called Beasley a “loser,” after he was found guilty of felony threats of violence and was sentenced to four months in jail.
In January 2022, Pippen told Us Weekly that she was “trying to avoid” dating athletes. However, she also acknowledged that she had been in the NBA circle for so long that it was everywhere in her life.
“It’s almost like a nurse and a doctor — if you’re a nurse and you’ve worked in a hospital, you’re more likely to like have friends that are doctors,” Pippen told Us Weekly. “So, I feel like I’ve been in the basketball world for so long that I feel like I’m just surrounded by that world.
“It’s not like I go look for it. It’s just there, you know?”