There’s often this debate when Scottie Pippen returns to Chicago, as he has with his Portland Trail Blazers for Friday night’s game against the Bulls, about whether the Bulls should retire Pippen’s No. 33 jersey.
Pippen believes it will happen.
“I would probably look forward to it,” said Pippen, who started on six Bulls championship teams in the 1990s. “Would I expect it? I’d say yes, basically because Jerry Krause told me he’d do it.”
But the big question about Scottie Pippen is not whether he should be immortalized in Chicago, but whether he should be immortalized in Springfield, Mass.–in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
The answer is yes.
“You can’t appreciate Scottie unless you watch him every day,” Blazers coach Maurice Cheeks said. “He was in the top 50 and now I can see why. I see him now and I think, `If he was this good five or six years ago, well, no wonder they won all those titles.’
“The way he defends at his age (36) and his competitive spirit, even in practice, is unbelievable. And he transfers all that out to the games. He’s a leader and he’s with guys here who really need someone. He talks to the players, telling guys what to do and where to go.”
Pippen has told a lot of people where to go. Krause, of course. Phil Jackson that one horrible playoff night in 1994, Michael Jordan on occasion, Charles Barkley and limousine drivers and waitresses.
But there have been few better teammates, as the Blazers are finding out, which in no small part is the reason they are the NBA’s hottest team the last two months. The Blazers are an NBA-best 16-3 since the All-Star break and have won 28 of 36. That success just about coincides with the return of Pippen, who missed most of the first two months of the season.
“That’s normally my hiatus,” Pippen joked Thursday after practice at Moody Bible Institute.
But his presence has been no joke for Portland.
“Without him we wouldn’t be any better than we were two months ago,” Steve Kerr said. “People ask me why we are better, and I say because we got healthy. When I say that, I am really talking about Scottie. We had Ruben [Patterson] and Bonzi [Wells] and Damon [Stoudamire] out, but the constant that was missing was Scottie.
“He is the guy who gives our team not only the rhythm and the flow, but sort of that swagger. He has six rings. He has been there. He is the one smiling with three seconds left when he goes to the foul line with the game on the line. He is so relaxed. I feel so lucky to have played with the guy. He is one of my favorite teammates of all time.”
And Kerr is the guy who’s played with Jordan, Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Shaquille O’Neal, Brad Daugherty and Luc Longley.
“I’m feeling great,” said Pippen, who is averaging 11 points on the season but 16.3 points and 7.8 rebounds in March as the Blazers have taken off. “I’m feeling as youthful as I’ve felt the last three or four years. I was a little bogged down at the start of the season, but I’ve been able to work through it and feel fine.
“Now we’re having fun, winning games, and I’m feeling healthy. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be happy.”
It’s not an emotion often associated with Pippen during a career filled with as many controversies as accomplishments.
And it’s not only the six championships, which many credit only to Jordan. He was voted among the top 50 players of all time for the NBA’s 50th anniversary, and many derided Pippen’s inclusion. They said he just floated in on Jordan’s air of greatness.
But Pippen recently moved up the NBA’s all-time scoring list to No. 47 ahead of Hall of Famers Calvin Murphy and Lenny Wilkens. If he plays another season, he should pass Dave Bing, Julius Erving, Rick Barry, Bob McAdoo, Isiah Thomas and Chet Walker.
Plus Pippen ranks 11th all time in playoff scoring. And we all know he couldn’t score. See, he should have gotten that shot in 1994.
Pippen was voted to the all-defensive team 10 straight seasons, tying him with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most. Jordan and Dennis Johnson made it nine times, Bobby Jones, Dennis Rodman and Gary Payton eight. Pippen also was on two Olympic gold-medal basketball teams and was voted all-NBA seven times.
Much about the Blazers these last two months has put a scare into Western Conference teams. They rank second in the NBA in rebounding. Their defense has been tenacious.
Cheeks’ professionalism and demeanor has calmed an often-riotous team to the point where players say they enjoy one another. Finger-pointing is no longer an official team sport.
“I don’t think anyone wants to play us in the first round of the playoffs,” Kerr said. “But we could go out in the first round, too, or win the whole thing.”
Which would be something special for Pippen, still in search of that Jordan-separating seventh championship ring–but undoubtedly headed for the Hall of Fame.
