Scottie Pippen has spoken with Michael Jordan since "The Last Dance" aired in the spring and has downplayed reports of a rift between the two.

"Why would I be offended by anything that happened 30 years ago?" Pippen said.

Pippen was criticized in the documentary for refusing to play in Game 3 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Semifinals after Phil Jackson drew up a play for Toni Kukoc.

"It didn't bother me at all," Pippen said. "It was an opportunity for our younger generation that hadn't seen or knew anything about basketball in the '90s."

Thad Young is considered the "most readily available" player on the Chicago Bulls roster, sources told K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports.

Sources cite a combination of Young's unhappiness with his role last season, plus a team-friendly contract that features a partial guarantee for the 2021-22 season.

The news comes after reports that the Knicks and Nets were both monitoring the potential availability of Zach LaVine.

Johnson adds that while LaVine is eligible for a contract extension in October, the uncertainty surrounding the team's future may dampen negotiations.  

The New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets have monitored the potential availability of Zach LaVine.

Sources tell SNY that both the Knicks and Nets have done background work on LaVine in case the Chicago Bulls make him available. 

LaVine can become a free agent in 2022.

Sam Smith wasn't sure if he would be interviewed for "The Last Dance" documentary about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Smith wrote "The Jordan Rules" which was a revealing look at Jordan in the early 1990s, depicting a side of him many didn't know existed.

“'The Jordan Rules' was bothersome to him at the time, and controversial," Smith told Isaac Chotiner of the New Yorker. "I used to have a good relationship with him before the book came out. I wasn’t a close friend, but we would joke when I was around the team. We travelled commercial together, and all that sort of stuff."

Jordan and Smith have never talked about the book.

"Jordan has never said a word to me about 'The Jordan Rules,'" said Smith. "Never once, in thirty years. At the end of the [documentary] interview, I said, 'Hey, tell me something. Did you have to ask Michael permission to talk to me?' And the guy kind of stammered a little bit. And he said, “Well, we actually did ask him if it was O.K.” And I said, 'Well, what’d he say?' He said, 'I don’t give a [expletive] who you talk to.' The way I understood it is, he didn’t say whether they could or could not. They weren’t sure whether they should."

Smith was asked if director Jason Hehir was the one who said this to him.

"Yeah, I think so," Smith said. But I don’t know who I was talking to. There’s always a bunch of guys who come and do these things; it’s always, like, six people. And I didn’t know who they were. I’d never heard of them or talked to them before."

The New York Knicks will interview Chris Fleming their head coaching vacancy.

Fleming is currently lead assistant coach of the Chicago Bulls and considered an "innovative offensive architect."

Fleming was previously as an assistant coach with the Denver Nuggets and Brooklyn Nets. Fleming has head coaching experience in Germany.