How Good Was Scottie Pippen Actually?

scottie pippen was the first person michael jordan thinked in his hall of fame speech because he never won a title without pippin here's the retrospective of the 90s bulls dynasty through the lens of scottie pippen we'll talk about his road to the nba where does he rank all time and how good he was without jordan early life and the road to the nba scottie pippen grew up in a small town in arkansas as the youngest of 12 children when he was a freshman in high school his father suffered a stroke which placed him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life and the poor pippin family didn't have enough funds to send scotty to college scotty made the varsity team as a sophomore but he struggled to earn playing time until his senior year because he was always super skinny even though he was a talented point guard scotty stood only at six foot one when he graduated and had zero college offers his basketball dreams would have likely been dead right then but his high school coach intervened and asked a favor of his good friend don dyer who coached at the university of central arkansas dyer couldn't offer scotty a scholarship but he gave pippin the role of a team manager which enabled him to earn some money and train with the basketball team scotty barely played and coach dyer told him he needed to use his freshman year to bulk up however scotty experienced a remarkable growth spur and before the start of the next season he stood at his current height of six foot eight the university offered him a full scholarship and scotty got inserted into the starting lineup with his new height and a pterodactyl wingspan of seven foot three on top of his point guard skills pippins started to dominate coach dyer first played scotty at both guard positions but later on he used him on the wing and sometimes even at center because of that pippin began developing the all-around game that later made him famous in the nba scotty also gained weight and strength and he finished his senior year with the averages of 24 points 10 rebounds and 4.5 assists on 60 shooting however because central arkansas competed in the lowly naia division pippin was a hidden gem and many gm's figured he wouldn't be able to replicate that output in the nba the bull's jerry krause was not one of those gm's and he wanted pippin badly in the 1987 nba draft scotty was selected fifth overall by seattle but krause then traded chicago's eighth pick and multiple future picks to get pippin which proved to be one of the smartest decisions of his career adapting to the nba and the pistons roadblock until the arrival of pippin and horace grant for the 1987-88 season the chicago bulls were a one-dimensional team that depended heavily on one player michael jordan mj was a superstar and the main offensive option but although his qualities were undeniable he could not lead the team on his own the bulls never had a positive record in jordan's first three seasons and have won only one playoff game routinely losing in the first round of the postseason scotty came off the bench as a rookie and he struggled with the speed of the game and tactics at first but with pippin on the team chicago had won 50 games and in the deciding game five of the first round scotty had his first career start and he contributed with 24 points five assists and three steals the bulls won the series and finally advanced to the second round where they would lose to the pistons in five games pippin had back surgery and missed the start of the 89 season he came off the bench in the first 16 games upon his return but once he entered the starting five he never subbed in again pip finished the regular season with 14 points six rebounds and 3.5 assists on average and the bulls made it to the eastern conference finals where they once again lost to the pistons in 1990 phil jackson became the head coach the bulls won 55 games and pip displayed an excellent all-around game he improved in all statistical categories and was named an all-star in the playoffs the bulls reached the eastern conference finals for the second season in a row but again lost to old acquaintances from detroit this time in seven games pippin played great for the entire playoffs but in the crucial game seven he complained of having terrible migraines and ended up scoring two points on one for ten of shooting jordan who wasn't accustomed to not trusting his teammates was not too pleased with scotty and didn't fully believe in his headaches but that would all soon change three-peat for the 1991 season the bulls fired on all cylinders they were the best offensive team in the league and won a franchise record 61 games with jordan as the mvp pippen again improved in almost all statistical categories with 18 points seven rebounds and six assists on average but was unjustly left off the all-star game roster in the playoffs hippin's numbers improved again and he played the most suffocating defense in the entire nba outside of maybe dennis rodman the bulls finally got their revenge on the pistons sweeping detroit in the eastern finals which ended in the famous pistons walk-off without the congratulatory handshakes in the finals the bulls played against the lakers and magic johnson who was playing in his ninth finals while jordan was absolutely spectacular in that series offensively it was pippin's defense on magic and made a big difference and gave the bulls a lot of fast break points in the fifth game pip led both teams in scoring with 32 and rebounding with 13 along with 7 assists and 5 steals and the bulls have won the first title in franchise history next year pippin averaged 21 8-7 and made the all-star game again second all-nba team and first team all-defense in the playoffs he shined when it mattered the most in game seven of the eastern semifinals against the knicks he recorded a triple double and for the series pip led the team in all statistical categories other than scoring in the finals chicago defeated portland in six games and a few months later pippin won the gold medal at the olympics as a member of the dream team the bulls entered 1993 fatigued and won 10 games less than the year before however jordan and especially pippin raised their games for the playoffs where the bulls reached another nba finals scotty averaged a near triple-double in the finals with 22 points nine boards and eight assists in six games like always he was tasked with the assignment of guarding the best opposing player which in this case was charles barclay scotty delivered once again perfectly doubling barkley with horus grant and then switching on everybody else when barkley got rid of the ball defensively he was in the prime of his career and this series showed perfectly how instrumental pippin was for the bulls despite jordan averaging 41 points in the finals pippin's best season after the death of his father and enormous media pressure michael jordan retired from basketball before the start of the 1994 regular season the bulls added steve kerr the most accurate three-point shooter ever and tony cucoch the best european player at the time but more than anything the bulls now became scotty's team there were people who expected scotty to become jordan shoot 25 times per game and average over 30 points but that was not pippin's game and he continued to play like he always did yes he averaged a career high in scoring with 22 points per game but he only marginally increased the number of shot attempts from the previous years shooting at an excellent 49 clip and his passing game didn't suffer pippin also notched a career high in rebounds in 1994 snatching 8.7 boards per game as well as steals with 2.9 thefts per contest i never thought about trying to win mvp or do things as an individual it never crossed my mind to try and lead the league in scoring that's just not how i played the game and it wasn't in my pedigree pip showed that he was an unbelievable leader propelling the bulls to a 55-27 record just two wins shy from the year before and the bulls showcased a level of play that no one thought could be achieved without the services of number 23. pippin was the all-star mvp in 1994 the leading vote-getter for all nba first team and for the all-defensive team and he finished third in mvp voting tony cucoch said that pippin helped him tremendously in his first nba season and the entire bulls team praised scotty for putting the team on his shoulders and giving it all on both ends of the court and it was tony cucoch who stole the show in the pivotal moments of game three in the eastern semis against the knicks the game was tied with 1.8 seconds remaining when phil jackson called a timeout pippin demanded the ball in the final possession but jackson drew the play for cucoch pissed off and thinking that the coach doesn't trust him pippin refused to go back into the game cue coach did eventually get the ball and he sank a beautiful turnaround jumper for the win while everybody celebrated pippin was still soaking on the bench he apologized to everybody when they got back to the locker room and this was the only dark moment of pippin's phenomenal season the series was eventually decided in game seven during which pippin scored arguably the most disrespectful dunk in nba history over ewing but ewing would have the last laugh and the knicks won the game and would later go on to the finals in 1995 pippin had virtually identical numbers as the year before he led the league in steals and made the first team all nba and first team all defense but the season will forever be remembered by the i'm back return of michael jordan however jordan wasn't as effective as before and also the bulls lost horace grant who was their best rebounder and interior defender and chicago lost to orlando in the conference semis second 3p for the 1996 season jordan came fully prepared and even more importantly the bulls replaced grant the dennis rodman a fierce defender and the best rebounder in nba history with their new big three and an excellent supporting cast the bulls won an nba record 72 games and steamrolled true opponents to win their fourth nba title in 1997 it was much the same pippin scored a career-high 47 points against the nuggets the bulls dominated the regular season with 69 wins and had very little trouble on their way to another nba finals but in the finals stockton malone led utah proved to be extremely tough and the bulls never scored 100 points in the series pippen tied the finals record in game three with seven made threes and in game five jordan managed to give the bulls a 3-2 lead with the infamous flu game after which he collapsed into pippin's arms in game six pippin made one of the biggest plays of his career with chicago up by two and five seconds left scotty stole the inbounds pass dove on the floor and passed the ball to ku coach for a game-winning dunk and the championship next year which was thoroughly described in the last dance documentary pippin deliberately delayed surgery and missed the first half of the season due to a quarrel with the bulls gm jerry krause who wanted to trade scotty on several occasions and wouldn't restructure his contract when it was clear that pippin was the most underpaid player in the league pippin played through the injury the whole playoffs and he mostly served as a decoy in the finals against utah because his back was killing him and he couldn't shoot still the bulls bested utah again and the bulls won title number six later years scottie was sent to houston to team up with the agent barkley and delajuan for 11 million dollars per year in a sign and trade deal but other than a big payday his lone year in houston was a failure he often fought with barkley and the team lost in the first round of the playoffs scottie was then traded to portland and the blazers reached the conference finals with a 15 point lead in the fourth quarter of game seven against the lakers close but no cigar as the lakers pulled off a miraculous comeback highlighted by kobe's crossover on pippen and the alley-oop to shaq for the next three seasons in portland pippin was still productive but in a reduced role he played his last season with the bulls under the pretext of mentoring young players but more to muster as many dollars from them as he could it was a severance pay for those underpaid years in the 90s legacy along with larry bird scottie pippen was the original point forward he could pass like a point guard and score like a shooting guard and control the entire offense by himself but unlike bird scotty could impact the game without scoring a single point or dishing a single assist due to his brilliant defensive skills his incredible lateral quickness and long arms allowed him to guard all five players during one possession which was beautifully described in kobe bryant's detail series pippen is underrated because he was always in jordan's shadow and understandably so but if it weren't for pippin the bulls wouldn't be able to execute full court pressure as they did their half-court ball distribution wouldn't be the same and their transition game wouldn't be as deadly if scottie didn't play next to michael jordan wouldn't be able to focus the majority of his energy on scoring because he knew that pippin would hound the opponent's best player for 48 minutes pippin was the ultimate team player who could do everything on the court and in my opinion he's among the five or six best small forwards ever

Channel: Nonstop

Views: 1,552,927

Keywords: NBA, NBA history, scottie pippen, chicago bulls, michael jordan, nonstop sports

Id: -vAlbvt68Wc

Length: 13min 16sec (796 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 16 2021