Scottie Pippen said he received some tips on how to treat his sore ankle from James Andrews, the Birmingham, Ala., doctor from whom he sought a second opinion last week.
“I have to wear high-top shoes, get taped higher up on my leg to cover up the tendon that was torn, and I’ll probably get some orthotics for my shoes,” he said. “I’m glad I went. Anything I learned was a comfort to me.”
Pippen could not predict when he would return to action, but said it would not be before the Bulls play Phoenix Nov. 30 at the Stadium. “I want to make sure I’m 100 percent before I come back. I’m not toying around with just one season. I still have a career I’m looking forward to.”
Although he agreed with his agent, Jimmy Sexton, who said he came back three weeks too early from his Aug. 30 surgery, Pippen wasn’t blaming anyone.
“More time could have helped me to heal, but I won’t say I was pushed back too soon. With the retirement of Michael (Jordan) and being put in a situation where I had to step up, maybe I did more than I should have.
“I felt I was ready to come back. It boiled down to hurting myself in the first game (when the top of his bad foot was accidentally stepped on by Scott Williams).”
Pippen will remain in Chicago for treatment with John Paxson and Williams during the two-week trip that begins Tuesday.
Talkin’ trash: Toni Kukoc looked a bit confused when asked if he and Boston forward Dino Radja, a friend and fellow Croatian, have exchanged friendly “trash talk” about who is doing better in the NBA so far. Kukoc said he’s still mystified by the bantering here.
“In Europe, it’s not the usual thing, trash-talking. I have to adjust to that. Now when someone tries talking-trash to me, I’m like, `I don’t understand.’ I only heard it two or three times before in my career. I don’t think I need that for my game. Maybe later on.”
Going strong: Horace Grant was amazed when told that Boston center Robert Parish had turned 40 recently. “I’ll be drinking pina coladas on some beach when I’m 40,” he said. “But you have to tip your hat to him. For the guy to run the court like that and still have a year or two of basketball left, he’s amazing.”
No go-to: Is Kukoc the new “go-to guy?” coach Phil Jackson was asked after Toni’s winning shot in Milwaukee last Wednesday.
“We’re trying to eliminate that term `go-to guy,’ ” Jackson said. “We’re trying to say, let the situation develop, let people in their right spot step up and do the right thing rather than searching the floor to find a guy. Hit the open man, and we’ll be all right.
“If we stand in front of TV cameras and say we have go-to people, they think they have to do it in a game, and they end up not having good shots or people take on too big a burden.”
Big Red: Johnny “Red” Kerr received his second nomination to the Basketball Hall of Fame on Wednesday, joining Denny Crum, Chuck Daly, Cesare Rubini from Europe and Gene Shue.
Kerr is one of just 17 NBA players to score at least 12,000 points and get 10,000 rebounds in a career. He played 12 years for Syracuse, Philadelphia and Baltimore, was a three-time NBA All-Star and played in 844 consecutive regular-season games, the second-longest streak in NBA history.
“It’s like our late Mayor Daley said,” quipped Kerr, “an indictment is not a conviction.”
Ad man: B.J. Armstrong donned his Bulls uniform after practice last week to participate in ESPN SportsCenter’s “Da-da-da” advertising campaign. Armstrong had no problem skipping backward on the court while humming the last few bars of the show’s theme song.
Jackson had no idea what the commercial was referring to, but was a good sport anyway, pretending to kneel in a huddle.
Pippen is lined up for a future spot. He planned to wear the Jordan line of Nike apparel. “I wouldn’t as long as Michael was around. But he asked me to, and if Nike wanted me to, I would.”
As it turns out, Nike would rather its biggest stars didn’t wear Jordan apparel, though word is other company spokesman plan to. The problem is that several players like Pippen, Charles Barkley and David Robinson have royalty agreements in their contracts, so they can’t wear Jordan’s line.
