The locker room door has finally opened and half the throng of reporters immediately sprint to Michael Jordan. The other half make their way through the maze of lockers to where Dennis Rodman is holding court. If he’s even holding court.
They run around, oblivious to Scottie Pippen–all 6 feet 7 inches of him–stretched out on the floor in a corner of the room. His shoes are off. His eyes are closed. He’s got headphones on. Pippen is in his own little world.
For two seasons, the Bulls were Scottie Pippen’s team. Now, nobody even notices him.
“That’s just fine with me,” Pippen says. He sounds very convincing.
As the Bulls’ season begins Friday against the Charlotte Hornets at the United Center, Pippen is happy to be somewhere in the background. It’s a pretty nice comfort zone. What a difference a year makes.
“Last year, he may not have had the positive feelings, as far as winning or having a chance to win a championship,” Jordan said. “This year, things have improved with myself and some of the acquisitions that we have made. He’s a little more comfortable with himself. He’s at peace.”
Pippen has had the spotlight all to himself before. At one time, he craved the attention. Now he knows better. He welcomes any attention Jordan and Rodman can deflect from him.
“It doesn’t really matter to me,” said Pippen, a five-time NBA All-Star. “It doesn’t really faze me one way or the other. I know what my value is to the team and what my value is as a player. I don’t have to rely on the spotlight.”
The rest of the league already knows Pippen’s value.
He had begun to move out of Jordan’s shadow during the Bulls’ three championship runs, becoming a superstar in his own right. When Jordan abruptly left basketball before the 1993-94 season, the natural progression was for Coach Phil Jackson to make Pippen the team’s leader.
At the time, Pippen thought he could handle it. But as the season went on, Pippen viewed it more as a burden. The Bulls exceeded expectations without Jordan, making it to the Eastern Conference semifinal series against the New York Knicks, with Pippen and Horace Grant leading the way. But Pippen began to have mood swings, which were magnified when Pippen took himself out of a playoff game against the Knicks with 1.8 seconds left.
Last season was even more of a burden. Pippen blamed Bulls General Manager Jerry Krause for letting Grant get away to the Orlando Magic and center Bill Cartwright to the Seattle SuperSonics. Pippen thought the team was falling apart, with no chance of winning a title.
There were outbursts, on the court and off. He publicly ripped Krause and demanded to be traded. He criticized teammates. He began to get the reputation as a hothead on the court. It all came to boil when the league fined and suspended Pippen for his notorious chair-throwing incident last season.
“If you put any good player on a winning team for the number of years that I was on a winning team, then you allow the team to be destroyed within a couple of seasons,” Pippen says, “it will destroy you inside. If you put anybody in the position that I was in, they’re going to show their frustrations on the court.”
Pippen also was frustrated with his teammates. He was disappointed with the acquisition of power forward Larry Krystkowiak, who spent a majority of the season injured. Pippen had to pick up the slack and, in turn, thought he was being asked to do too much–score, rebound, be a playmaker and team leader. He ended up leading the team in scoring (21.4 points per game), rebounding (8.1), assists (5.1), steals (2.94), blocks (1.13) and minutes (38.2).
The game had become mentally and physically draining to him.
“I realized the last couple of seasons–especially last season–that we didn’t have anybody to rebound and we had no power forward,” Pippen says. “Nobody wanted to be aggressive and get in there and bang and mix it up. It’s been difficult because when you want to win, somebody has to step up and be in that position. That’s what I had to do.”
Pippen says that’s all in the past now.
“I know it’s behind me because there are players on this team who, like myself, want to win and have the same mentality to win,” he says.
Pippen’s attitude began to change when Jordan first told him he was thinking about coming back to basketball. When Jordan finally returned last March it rejuvenated Pippen to the point that the day after the Orlando Magic eliminated the Bulls from the Eastern Conference semifinal, he phoned his personal trainer and close friend Mike Okun to begin preparing for this season and the Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
“He’s more focused than he’s ever been,” says Okun, who also runs a sales and marketing firm in the Chicago area. “He’s prepared to do things this season, as long as the team around him is prepared. Scottie’s a superstar. Even when he says he needed to be pushed, he already knows what he’s got to do. We worked real hard. We really worked hard on his nutrition. It’s like a car. If you run a car on bad gas, it’s not going to run good. If you run a car on gas that has high octane, it’s going to run so efficiently. That’s really how Scottie is right now. He’s heavier, stronger and faster than he’s ever been.”
Pippen showed that during the exhibition season as the team’s most consistent player. He’s slowly making the adjustment to what amounts to the team’s point guard.
Phil Jackson says the changes are evident, especially on the court.
“He’s extremely active,” Jackson said. “Every day, he brings a new element to our practices–not only playing well but showing his leadership on the court. By and large, what I’ve seen out of him so far, he’s going to be the guy who takes us and leads us on the court, offensively and defensively.”
Pippen says that has a lot to do with the additions of Jordan and Rodman.
“I have a lot more freedom on the offensive end,” Pippen said. “I can concentrate on taking my outside shot rather than going to the basket because I know Dennis plays a lot around the basket and, because of the structure of our offense, most of the time Luc (Longley) is going to be around the basket.”
Pippen says he’s glad things worked out the way they did. He won’t be complaining about his contract. There will be no demands to be traded.
He just wants a shot at another ring. All he wanted the last two seasons was a legitimate chance at another title.
“I’m happy to be playing here,” Pippen said. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t. With Michael coming back and Dennis here, it’s a strong nucleus. There’s a difference when you’re playing with a team that doesn’t care if they win. I felt it was time for me to get out and if I had to go through that again, I’d feel the same way. I want to win. I play hard enough. I just want to win.”
