Scottie Pippen
Encyclopedia
Scottie Maurice Pippen (born September 25, 1965) is a retired American
professional
basketball
player who played in the National Basketball Association
(NBA). He is most remembered for his time with the Chicago Bulls
, with whom he was instrumental in six NBA Championships and their record 1995–96 season of 72 wins
. Pippen, along with Michael Jordan
, played an important role in transforming the Bulls team into a vehicle for popularizing the NBA around the world during the 1990s.
Considered one of the best small forwards of all time, Pippen was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team eight times (all consecutive) and the All-NBA First Team
three times. He was a seven-time NBA All Star and was the NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1994. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History during the season, and is one of four players to have his jersey retired by the Chicago Bulls
(the others being Jerry Sloan
, Bob Love
, and Michael Jordan
). During his seventeen-year career, he played twelve seasons with the Chicago Bulls
, one with the Houston Rockets
and four with the Portland Trail Blazers
, making the postseason sixteen straight times. He is third on the list of most postseason games played, behind Robert Horry
and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
. Pippen is also the only person to have twice won both an NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal in the same year. Pippen was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame
on August 13, 2010.
, and attended college at the University of Central Arkansas
in Conway. At the start of his college career, the then 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) Pippen was a walk-on for the now-former NAIA
school and depended on his stipend for being the team manager and his summer job as a welder to fund his education. He eventually reached 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m). Pippen's 23.6 points per game
average and near 60% field goal
shooting earned the Central Arkansas senior Consensus NAIA all-American honors in 1987.
by the Seattle SuperSonics
and traded eventually to the Chicago Bulls
for Olden Polynice
.
Pippen became part of Chicago's young forward tandem with 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) power forward
Horace Grant, although both came off the bench to back up Brad Sellers
and Charles Oakley
, respectively, during their rookie seasons. With fellow Bull Michael Jordan
as a motivational and instructional mentor, Pippen refined his skills and slowly developed many new ones over the course of his career. Jordan and Pippen were known to frequently play one-on-one outside of team practices simply to hone each other's skills on offense and defense. Pippen claimed the starting small forward position during the 1988 Playoffs
, helping the Jordan-led Bulls to reach the conference
semifinals for the first time in over a decade. Pippen emerged as one of the league's premier young forwards at the turn of the decade, recording then-career highs in points (16.5 points per game), rebounds
(6.7 rebounds per game), and field goal shooting (48.9%) as well as being the NBA's number three leader in steals
(211). These feats earned Pippen his debut NBA All-Star
selection in 1990
. Pippen continued to improve, helping the Bulls to the Conference Finals the 1989
as well as in 1990
. However they lost both Conference Finals to the Detroit Pistons
, and in 1990 Pippen suffered from severe migraines during the deciding seventh game as the Bulls were defeated.
's 'Triangle offense'. He helped lead the Bulls to their first three NBA championships .
Pippen earned 10 NBA All-Defensive Team
nods, including eight on the first team. In 1992, he was named to the original Dream Team which competed in the Olympics in Barcelona, Spain
. With the U.S. winning the gold medal, Pippen and Michael Jordan would become the first players to win both an NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal in the same year.
retired before the season, and in his absence Pippen emerged from Jordan's shadow. That year, he earned All-Star Game MVP honors and led the Bulls in scoring, assists, and blocks, and the entire league in steals
, averaging 22.0 points, 8.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 2.9 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game, while shooting 49.1% from the field and a career-best 32% from the three-point
line. For his efforts, he earned the first of three straight All-NBA First Team nods, and he finished third in the MVP
voting. The Bulls finished the season with 55 wins, only two fewer than the year before.
However, the most infamous episode of Pippen's career came in the postseason of his first year without Jordan. In the 1994 NBA Playoffs
, the Eastern Conference Semifinals pitted the Bulls against the New York Knicks
, whom the Bulls had dispatched en route to a championship each of the previous three seasons. On May 13, 1994, down 2-0 in the series in Game 3, Bulls coach Phil Jackson
needed a big play from his team to have any chance of going on to the conference finals. With 1.8 seconds left and the score tied at 102, Jackson designed the last play for rookie Toni Kukoc
, with Pippen instructed to inbound the basketball. Pippen, who had been the Bulls' leader all season long in Jordan's absence, was so angered by Jackson's decision to not let him take the potential game-winner that he refused to leave the bench and re-enter the game when the timeout was over.
Although Kukoc did hit the game-winner, a 23-foot fadeaway jumper
at the buzzer, there was little celebrating to be done by the Bulls, as television cameras caught an unsmiling Phil Jackson storming off the court. "Scottie asked out of the play", Jackson told reporters moments later in the post-game interview.
Teammate Steve Kerr
elaborated when recently asked to recall the event: "I don't know what got into Pippen. He is such a great teammate and maybe the pressure was getting to him and he just could not take it anymore, no one knows for sure but he is a team player."
In Game 6, Pippen made the signature play of his career. Midway in the third quarter, Pippen received the ball during a Bulls fast break, charging toward the basket. As center Patrick Ewing
jumped up to defend the shot, Pippen fully extended the ball out, absorbing body contact and a foul from Ewing, and slammed the ball through the hoop with Ewing’s hand in his face. Pippen landed several feet away from the basket along the baseline, incidentally standing over a fallen Ewing. He then made taunting remarks to both Ewing and then Spike Lee
, who was standing courtside supporting the Knicks, thus receiving a technical foul. This extended the Bulls' lead to 17; they would triumph in the game 93-79.
However, the Bulls went on to lose the 1994 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Knicks in seven games. A key play occurred in the series at the end of Game 5 when Pippen was called by referee Hue Hollins
for a questionable touch foul on the Knicks' Hubert Davis in the waning seconds of the game, which allowed the Knicks to shoot the game-winning free throws. This helped lead the Knicks to a seven-game series victory. All seven games in the series were won by the home team, and the Knicks had home court advantage.
Trade rumors involving Pippen escalated during the 1994 off-season. Jerry Krause
, the Bulls' General Manager, was reportedly looking to ship Pippen off to the Seattle SuperSonics
in exchange for all-star forward Shawn Kemp
, moving Toni Kukoc
into Pippen's position as starting small forward with Kemp filling in the vacant starting power forward position in place of Horace Grant, a free agent who left the Bulls for the up-and-coming Orlando Magic
during the off-season. However, the trade was never made and those rumors were put to rest once it was announced that Michael Jordan would be returning to the Bulls late in the season. The Pippen-led Bulls did not fare nearly as well in the season as they had in the season before—in fact, for the first time in years they were in danger of missing the playoffs (though much of this may be due to a lack of interior defense and rebounding due to Grant's departure). The Bulls were just 34–31 prior to Jordan's return for the final 17 games, and Jordan led them to a 13–4 record to close the regular season. Still, Pippen finished the season leading the Bulls in every major statistical category—points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks—becoming only the second player in NBA history to accomplish this (Dave Cowens did it in ).
, the Bulls posted the best regular-season record in NBA history (72-10) in en route to winning their fourth title
against the Seattle SuperSonics
. Later that year, Pippen became the first (and to this date, the only) person to win an NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal in the same year twice, playing for Team USA at the Atlanta Olympics
.
In the following season, Chicago finished a league-best 69–13 and again won the title
, this time defeating the Utah Jazz
. Amid speculation that the season would be the last in Chicago for Pippen, Jordan, and Jackson, the Bulls followed up by topping the Jazz again in the 1998 NBA Finals
to cap their second three-peat. Pippen was selected as one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players
when the league was celebrating its 50th season in 1997.
for the lockout
-shortened season of . Pippen's trade to Houston received much publicity, including his only solo cover of Sports Illustrated
. He teamed with Hakeem Olajuwon
and Charles Barkley
, but there were chemistry problems, especially with Barkley. In that season, the Rockets went 31–19, but lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs, 3 games to 1.
On April 22, 1999, Pippen was detained under suspicion of driving while intoxicated, but the charges were later dropped due to insufficient evidence.
Following the lockout-shortened season in Houston, Pippen was traded in the off-season to the Portland Trail Blazers
, whom he helped to the Western Conference finals. But once there, they lost to the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers
in seven games, despite holding a 15-point lead (75-60) in the fourth quarter of Game 7. Pippen played on for several more seasons in Portland, but they never again advanced that far in the playoffs. After the season, he signed once more with the Chicago Bulls
, but due to injuries, he was only able to suit up for 23 games in and retired shortly after the season.
Pippen was a near-constant presence in the NBA post-season during his career, reaching the playoffs 16 straight years (11 with Chicago, one with Houston, four with Portland). He played in more playoff games than any NBA player except Robert Horry
and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
.
. On December 25, 2005, Pippen debuted as studio analyst for the NBA on ABC. Before that, he was a part-time analyst for ESPN
.
The Chicago Bulls retired Pippen's jersey number in a ceremony on December 9, 2005. The team played against the Los Angeles Lakers
that night, and Pippen was reunited with Phil Jackson
, Michael Jordan
, Dennis Rodman
, and Horace Grant during the ceremony. Pippen's jersey number 33 joined Michael Jordan's 23, Jerry Sloan
's 4, and Bob Love
's 10 as the only numbers retired by the Bulls.
In January 2008, Pippen made a brief comeback to professional basketball at age 42, when he made a tour of Scandinavia
and played two games for top Finnish league
team Torpan Pojat
(ToPo), and top Swedish league team Sundsvall
. In his first game, on January 4, Pippen scored 12 points in ToPo's 93-81 win over Porvoo. He registered nine points and nine rebounds in a 98-85 win over Honka on January 5. In his third game of the tour, Pippen registered 21 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and two steals in 30 minutes in a 102–74 Sundsvall Dragons win over Akropol of Rinkeby. The Dragons paid Pippen $66,000 for his appearance.
According to Investopedia, since retirement Pippen has lost $120 million in career earnings because of poor financial planning and bad business deals. Investment busts account for $27 million of the lost fortune.
Pippen returned to the Bulls on July 15, 2010 as a team ambassador.
On offense, Pippen relied primarily upon his remarkable athleticism to gain an advantage towards the basket and slashed towards the basket for higher percentage shots. Early in his career, particularly, Pippen was not an adept jump shooter, and struggled when shooting directly on a line to the basket. He favored shooting his jump shots on angles, such as along the free throw line extended (to the right and left of the elbows of the free throw lane), such that he could bank the ball off the backboard into the basket. He honed this shot over the course of his career and was therefore able to become more effective at scoring from distance in the later stages of his career.
Pippen's unusually long arms and jumping agility gave him the ability to clog the passing lanes on defense, to block shots from behind on players that had managed to pass by him, to grab out-of-reach rebounds, to make unusual plays in mid-air, and to make passes around defenders that most players are physically unable to make. He often led the Bulls in assists and blocks as a result. Pippen was also a selfless player. His team-focused approach to the game was a key component in the Chicago Bulls’ championships. Pippen’s career assists total of 6,135 (5.2 per game) is a testament to that approach. It is the record among forwards and was 23rd all-time among all players when he retired (now 26th).
His intensive work ethic and athletic physique gave him the ability to consistently make highlight-reel plays, such as applying defensive intensity, forcing a turnover, stealing the ball and starting a one-man fast break that he would finish with a thunderous slam dunk at the other end of the court. As Pippen himself has attested, he and Jordan would compete to see who could force more turnovers and produce more offense from defense in each game (fast break points). During the 1990 Slam Dunk Contest, Scottie exhibited his leaping ability with a dunk from the free throw line. He was an athletic finisher at the rim, both with dunks and with a skillful finger roll shot that he added to his skill set over time. He was also a prolific perimeter shooter, taking about three thousand and making almost one thousand three-point shots in his career.
Pippen’s style of play is perhaps best illustrated by a play he made against the New York Knicks during Game 6 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Semifinals. While the Knicks had possession of the ball, Pippen pressured Hubert Davis with his defense on the perimeter and led him into a help defender in the paint, Horace Grant, who promptly rejected Davis’s shot. The blocked shot was rebounded by the Bulls and triggered a fast break. Pippen ran all-out down the court as the Bulls passed the ball around, and he received a bounce pass from Pete Myers
(at the free throw line extended) to set up one of the most famous dunks in history. As Hall of Fame center Patrick Ewing
jumped up to defend the shot, Pippen jumped from the left block, fully extended the ball out in his right hand, absorbed body contact from Ewing, and slammed the ball through the hoop with Ewing’s hand in his face. Pippen landed several feet away from the basket along the right inbounds baseline, standing over a fallen Ewing.
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Chicago
| 79 || 0 || 20.9 || .463 || .174 || .576 || 3.8 || 2.1 || 1.2 || 0.7 || 7.9
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Chicago
| 73 || 56 || 33.1 || .476 || .273 || .668 || 6.1 || 3.5 || 1.9 || 0.8 || 14.4
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Chicago
|bgcolor="CFECEC"| 82 ||bgcolor="CFECEC"| 82 || 38.4 || .489 || .250 || .675 || 6.7 || 5.4 || 2.6 || 1.2 || 16.5
|-
| align="left" style="background-color:#AFE6BA"| †
| align="left" | Chicago
|bgcolor="CFECEC"| 82 ||bgcolor="CFECEC"| 82 || 36.8 || .520 || .309 || .706 || 7.3 || 6.2 || 2.4 || 1.1 || 17.8
|-
| align="left" style="background-color:#AFE6BA"| †
| align="left" | Chicago
| 82 ||bgcolor="CFECEC"| 82 || 38.6 || .506 || .200 || .760 || 7.7 || 7.0 || 1.9 || 1.1 || 21.0
|-
| align="left" style="background-color:#AFE6BA"| †
| align="left" | Chicago
| 81 || 81 || 38.6 || .473 || .237 || .663 || 7.7 || 6.3 || 2.1 || 0.9 || 18.6
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Chicago
| 72 || 72 || 38.3 || .491 || .320 || .660 || 8.7 || 5.6 || 2.9 || 0.8 || 22.0
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Chicago
| 79 || 79 || 38.2 || .480 || .345 || .716 || 8.1 || 5.2 ||bgcolor="CFECEC"| 2.9 || 1.1 || 21.4
|-
| align="left" style="background-color:#AFE6BA"| †
| align="left" | Chicago
| 77 || 77 || 36.7 || .463 || .374 || .679 || 6.4 || 5.9 || 1.7 || 0.7 || 19.4
|-
| align="left" style="background-color:#AFE6BA"| †
| align="left" | Chicago
| 82 ||bgcolor="CFECEC"| 82 || 37.7 || .474 || .368 || .701 || 6.5 || 5.7 || 1.9 || 0.6 || 20.2
|-
| align="left" style="background-color:#AFE6BA"| †
| align="left" | Chicago
| 44 || 44 || 37.5 || .447 || .318 || .777 || 5.2 || 5.8 || 1.8 || 1.0 || 19.1
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Houston
|bgcolor="CFECEC"| 50 ||bgcolor="CFECEC"| 50 || 40.2 || .432 || .340 || .721 || 6.5 || 5.9 || 2.0 || 0.7 || 14.5
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Portland
| 82 ||bgcolor="CFECEC"| 82 || 33.5 || .451 || .327 || .717 || 6.3 || 5.0 || 1.4 || 0.5 || 12.5
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Portland
| 64 || 60 || 33.3 || .451 || .344 || .739 || 5.2 || 4.6 || 1.5 || 0.6 || 11.3
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Portland
| 62 || 60 || 32.2 || .411 || .305 || .774 || 5.2 || 5.9 || 1.6 || 0.6 || 10.6
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Portland
| 64 || 58 || 29.9 || .444 || .286 || .818 || 4.3 || 4.5 || 1.6 || 0.4 || 10.8
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Chicago
| 23 || 6 || 17.9 || .379 || .271 || .630 || 3.0 || 2.2 || 0.9 || 0.4 || 5.9
|-class="sortbottom"
| align="left" colspan=2| Career
| 1,178 || 1,053 || 34.9 || .473 || .326 || .704 || 6.4 || 5.2 || 2.0 || 0.8 || 16.1
|-class="sortbottom"
| align="left" colspan=2| All-Star
| 7 || 6 || 24.7 || .442 || .318 || .625 || 5.6 || 2.4 || 2.4 || 0.9 || 12.1
Led the league in steals (232) and steals per game (2.94) in .
His 10 NBA All-Defensive honors and 8 NBA All-Defensive First Team honors are one shy of the NBA record
.
Member of the Olympic gold medal winning USA Men's National Basketball Teams in 1992 ("Dream Team 1", Barcelona, Spain) and 1996 ("Dream Team 2", Atlanta, USA)
Selected in 1996 as one of the "50 Greatest Players in NBA History"
Elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. The 1992 Olympic Basketball "Dream Team", of which he was a member, was also elected to the Hall of Fame in 2010.
Pippen is also the only NBA player known to have recorded 5 steals and 5 blocks in a playoff game, which he did against the Detroit Pistons on May 19, 1991.
Steals by a forward, career: 2,307
Steals by a forward, season: 232
Highest average, steals per game, by a forward, season: 2.94 (232/79)
One of at least two pairs of teammates in NBA history to record triple-doubles in the same game: Chicago Bulls (126) vs. Los Angeles Clippers (121), (OT)
Steals, quarter: 4, third quarter, vs. Milwaukee Bucks,
Three-point field goal attempts, 6-game series: 39, vs. Seattle SuperSonics, 1996 NBA Finals
)
Three-point field goal attempts, half: 7 (1994)
Turnovers, 6-game series: 26, vs. Phoenix Suns, 1993 NBA Finals
Highest average, assists per game, by a forward, career: 5.21 (6,135/1,178)
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
professional
Professional
A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...
basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
player who played in the National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
(NBA). He is most remembered for his time with the Chicago Bulls
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois, playing in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1966. They play their home games at the United Center...
, with whom he was instrumental in six NBA Championships and their record 1995–96 season of 72 wins
1995–96 Chicago Bulls season
In the 1995–96 season, the Chicago Bulls set an NBA record by becoming the first team to win 70 regular season games. They finished the season with a record of 72–10 and would go on to defeat the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1996 NBA Finals.-Offseason:...
. Pippen, along with Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
, played an important role in transforming the Bulls team into a vehicle for popularizing the NBA around the world during the 1990s.
Considered one of the best small forwards of all time, Pippen was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team eight times (all consecutive) and the All-NBA First Team
All-NBA Team
The All-NBA Team is an annual National Basketball Association honor bestowed on the best players in the league following every NBA season. The voting is conducted by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. The team has been selected in every season of the...
three times. He was a seven-time NBA All Star and was the NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1994. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History during the season, and is one of four players to have his jersey retired by the Chicago Bulls
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois, playing in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1966. They play their home games at the United Center...
(the others being Jerry Sloan
Jerry Sloan
Gerald Eugene "Jerry" Sloan , is an American former National Basketball Association player and head coach, and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. NBA commissioner David Stern called Sloan "one of the greatest and most respected coaches in NBA history." Sloan had a career regular-season...
, Bob Love
Bob Love
Robert ' Earl “Butterbean” Love is a retired American professional basketball player who spent the prime of his career with the NBA's Chicago Bulls...
, and Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
). During his seventeen-year career, he played twelve seasons with the Chicago Bulls
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois, playing in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1966. They play their home games at the United Center...
, one with the Houston Rockets
Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston, Texas. The team plays in the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was established in 1967, and played in San Diego, California for four years, before being...
and four with the Portland Trail Blazers
Portland Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers, commonly known as the Blazers, are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. They play in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . The Trail Blazers originally played their home games in the...
, making the postseason sixteen straight times. He is third on the list of most postseason games played, behind Robert Horry
Robert Horry
Robert Keith Horry Jr. is a retired American basketball player and current sports commentator. He played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association , winning seven championships, the most of any player not to have played on the 1960s Boston Celtics...
and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a retired American professional basketball player. He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points. During his career with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969 to 1989, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season...
. Pippen is also the only person to have twice won both an NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal in the same year. Pippen was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame
Basketball Hall of Fame
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States, honors exceptional basketball players, coaches, referees, executives, and other major contributors to the game of basketball worldwide...
on August 13, 2010.
Early life
Scottie Pippen was born in Hamburg, ArkansasHamburg, Arkansas
Hamburg is a city in Ashley County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 3,039 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Ashley County.-Geography:...
, and attended college at the University of Central Arkansas
University of Central Arkansas
The University of Central Arkansas is a state-run institution located in the city of Conway, the seat of Faulkner County, north of Little Rock and is the fourth largest university by enrollment in the U.S. state of Arkansas, and the third largest college system in the state. The school is most...
in Conway. At the start of his college career, the then 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) Pippen was a walk-on for the now-former NAIA
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics is an athletic association that organizes college and university-level athletic programs. Membership in the NAIA consists of smaller colleges and universities across the United States. The NAIA allows colleges and universities outside the USA...
school and depended on his stipend for being the team manager and his summer job as a welder to fund his education. He eventually reached 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m). Pippen's 23.6 points per game
Points per game
Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of points by number of games. The terminology is often used in...
average and near 60% field goal
Field goal (basketball)
In basketball, the term field goal refers to a basket scored on any shot or tap other than a free throw, worth two or three points depending on the distance of the attempt from the basket. "Field Goal" is the official terminology used by the National Basketball Association in their rule book,...
shooting earned the Central Arkansas senior Consensus NAIA all-American honors in 1987.
Early career (1987–1990)
He was selected fifth overall in the 1987 NBA Draft1987 NBA Draft
The 1987 Draft of the National Basketball Association was held on June 22, 1987 in New York City, New York.This draft is notable for the selection of two future members of the NBA 50 Greatest Players list, David Robinson and Scottie Pippen. Other notable selections include Reggie Miller, Kevin...
by the Seattle SuperSonics
Seattle SuperSonics
The Seattle SuperSonics were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle, Washington that played in the Pacific and Northwest Divisions of the National Basketball Association from 1967 until 2008. Following the 2007–08 season, the team relocated to Oklahoma City, and now plays as...
and traded eventually to the Chicago Bulls
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois, playing in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1966. They play their home games at the United Center...
for Olden Polynice
Olden Polynice
Olden Polynice is a Haitian former professional basketball player. He played center for the Seattle SuperSonics, Los Angeles Clippers, Detroit Pistons, Sacramento Kings, and Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association.-Career:After graduating from All Hallows High School in the Bronx,...
.
Pippen became part of Chicago's young forward tandem with 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) power forward
Power forward (basketball)
Power forward is a position in the sport of basketball. The position is referred to in playbook terms as the four position and is commonly abbreviated "PF". It has also been referred to as the "post" position. Power forwards play a role similar to that of center in what is called the "post" or "low...
Horace Grant, although both came off the bench to back up Brad Sellers
Brad Sellers
Bradley Donn Sellers is a retired American professional basketball player. A 7'0" power forward/center from the University of Wisconsin and Ohio State University, he was selected by the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the 1986 NBA Draft.Sellers was a controversial selection among the Bulls'...
and Charles Oakley
Charles Oakley
Charles Oakley is a retired American professional basketball player and is currently an assistant coach for the Charlotte Bobcats of the National Basketball Association...
, respectively, during their rookie seasons. With fellow Bull Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
as a motivational and instructional mentor, Pippen refined his skills and slowly developed many new ones over the course of his career. Jordan and Pippen were known to frequently play one-on-one outside of team practices simply to hone each other's skills on offense and defense. Pippen claimed the starting small forward position during the 1988 Playoffs
1988 NBA Playoffs
The 1988 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1987-1988 season. The tournament concluded with the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers defeating the Eastern Conference champion Detroit Pistons four games to three in the Finals...
, helping the Jordan-led Bulls to reach the conference
Eastern Conference (NBA)
The Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association is made up of fifteen teams, organized in three divisions of five teams each.The three division winners and the non-division winner with the best record are seeded 1 through 4 for the playoffs in order of their records, with all...
semifinals for the first time in over a decade. Pippen emerged as one of the league's premier young forwards at the turn of the decade, recording then-career highs in points (16.5 points per game), rebounds
Rebound (basketball)
A rebound in basketball is the act of successfully gaining possession of the basketball after a missed field goal or free throw. Rebounds in basketball are a routine part in the game, as all possessions change after a shot is successfully made...
(6.7 rebounds per game), and field goal shooting (48.9%) as well as being the NBA's number three leader in steals
Steal (basketball)
In basketball, a steal occurs when a defensive player legally causes a turnover by his positive, aggressive action. This can be done by deflecting and controlling, catching, or batting to a teammate a pass or dribble of an offensive player...
(211). These feats earned Pippen his debut NBA All-Star
National Basketball Association All-Star Game
The National Basketball Association staged its first All-Star Game in the Boston Garden on March 2, 1951. From that year on, the game has matched the best players in the Eastern Conference with the best players in the Western Conference....
selection in 1990
1990 NBA All-Star Game
GAME 40: at Miami, Feb. 11, 1990MVP: Magic JohnsonThe East was led by the trio of Celtics' big men Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, and the Bull's dynamic duo of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen...
. Pippen continued to improve, helping the Bulls to the Conference Finals the 1989
1989 NBA Playoffs
The 1989 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1988-89 NBA season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Conference champion Detroit Pistons defeating the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers, who were severely hampered by injuries, four...
as well as in 1990
1990 NBA Playoffs
The 1990 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1989-1990 season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Conference champion Detroit Pistons successfully defending their championship by beating the Western Conference champion Portland Trail Blazers...
. However they lost both Conference Finals to the Detroit Pistons
Detroit Pistons
The Detroit Pistons are a franchise of the National Basketball Association based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The team's home arena is The Palace of Auburn Hills. It was originally founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana as the Fort Wayne Pistons as a member of the National Basketball League in 1941, where...
, and in 1990 Pippen suffered from severe migraines during the deciding seventh game as the Bulls were defeated.
The Bulls' first three-peat (1991–1993)
In 1991, Pippen emerged as the Bulls' primary defensive stopper and a versatile scoring threat in Phil JacksonPhil Jackson
Philip Douglas "Phil" Jackson is a retired American professional basketball coach and player. Jackson is widely considered one of the greatest coaches in the history of the National Basketball Association . His reputation was established as head coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1989 through 1998;...
's 'Triangle offense'. He helped lead the Bulls to their first three NBA championships .
Pippen earned 10 NBA All-Defensive Team
NBA All-Defensive Team
The NBA All-Defensive Team is an annual National Basketball Association honor given since the 1968–69 NBA season to the best defensive players during the regular season. Voting is conducted by the NBA head coaches; the coaches are not allowed to vote for players on their own team...
nods, including eight on the first team. In 1992, he was named to the original Dream Team which competed in the Olympics in Barcelona, Spain
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same...
. With the U.S. winning the gold medal, Pippen and Michael Jordan would become the first players to win both an NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal in the same year.
Pippen without Jordan (1993–1995)
Michael JordanMichael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
retired before the season, and in his absence Pippen emerged from Jordan's shadow. That year, he earned All-Star Game MVP honors and led the Bulls in scoring, assists, and blocks, and the entire league in steals
Steal (basketball)
In basketball, a steal occurs when a defensive player legally causes a turnover by his positive, aggressive action. This can be done by deflecting and controlling, catching, or batting to a teammate a pass or dribble of an offensive player...
, averaging 22.0 points, 8.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 2.9 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game, while shooting 49.1% from the field and a career-best 32% from the three-point
Three-point field goal
A three-point field goal is a field goal in a basketball game, made from beyond the three-point line, a designated arc radiating from the basket...
line. For his efforts, he earned the first of three straight All-NBA First Team nods, and he finished third in the MVP
NBA Most Valuable Player Award
The National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player is an annual National Basketball Association award given since the 1955–56 NBA season. The winner receives the Maurice Podoloff Trophy, which is named in honor of the first commissioner of the NBA who served from 1946 until his retirement...
voting. The Bulls finished the season with 55 wins, only two fewer than the year before.
However, the most infamous episode of Pippen's career came in the postseason of his first year without Jordan. In the 1994 NBA Playoffs
1994 NBA Playoffs
The 1994 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1993-94 season. The tournament concluded with the Western Conference champion Houston Rockets defeating the Eastern Conference champion New York Knicks 4 games to 3 in the NBA Finals...
, the Eastern Conference Semifinals pitted the Bulls against the New York Knicks
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
, whom the Bulls had dispatched en route to a championship each of the previous three seasons. On May 13, 1994, down 2-0 in the series in Game 3, Bulls coach Phil Jackson
Phil Jackson
Philip Douglas "Phil" Jackson is a retired American professional basketball coach and player. Jackson is widely considered one of the greatest coaches in the history of the National Basketball Association . His reputation was established as head coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1989 through 1998;...
needed a big play from his team to have any chance of going on to the conference finals. With 1.8 seconds left and the score tied at 102, Jackson designed the last play for rookie Toni Kukoc
Toni Kukoc
Toni Kukoč is a retired Croatian professional basketball player. He was renowned for his versatility and passing ability; although his natural position was small forward, he played all five positions on the court with prowess and demonstrated court vision and an outside shooting touch that were...
, with Pippen instructed to inbound the basketball. Pippen, who had been the Bulls' leader all season long in Jordan's absence, was so angered by Jackson's decision to not let him take the potential game-winner that he refused to leave the bench and re-enter the game when the timeout was over.
Although Kukoc did hit the game-winner, a 23-foot fadeaway jumper
Fadeaway
A fadeaway in basketball is a jump shot taken while jumping backwards, away from the basket. The goal is to create space between the shooter and the defender, making the shot much harder to block. However, this benefit comes with a drawback...
at the buzzer, there was little celebrating to be done by the Bulls, as television cameras caught an unsmiling Phil Jackson storming off the court. "Scottie asked out of the play", Jackson told reporters moments later in the post-game interview.
Teammate Steve Kerr
Steve Kerr
Stephen Douglas "Steve" Kerr is a retired American professional basketball player. He shot .454 from three point range over his career and currently holds the record as the most accurate three-point shooter in NBA history...
elaborated when recently asked to recall the event: "I don't know what got into Pippen. He is such a great teammate and maybe the pressure was getting to him and he just could not take it anymore, no one knows for sure but he is a team player."
In Game 6, Pippen made the signature play of his career. Midway in the third quarter, Pippen received the ball during a Bulls fast break, charging toward the basket. As center Patrick Ewing
Patrick Ewing
Patrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. is a Jamaican-American retired Hall of Fame basketball player and current assistant coach for the National Basketball Association's Orlando Magic. He played most of his career with the NBA's New York Knicks as their starting center and played briefly with the Seattle...
jumped up to defend the shot, Pippen fully extended the ball out, absorbing body contact and a foul from Ewing, and slammed the ball through the hoop with Ewing’s hand in his face. Pippen landed several feet away from the basket along the baseline, incidentally standing over a fallen Ewing. He then made taunting remarks to both Ewing and then Spike Lee
Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....
, who was standing courtside supporting the Knicks, thus receiving a technical foul. This extended the Bulls' lead to 17; they would triumph in the game 93-79.
However, the Bulls went on to lose the 1994 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Knicks in seven games. A key play occurred in the series at the end of Game 5 when Pippen was called by referee Hue Hollins
Hue Hollins
Hue Hollins is a former professional basketball referee in the National Basketball Association for 27 years. During his career in the NBA, Hollins officiated 19 NBA Finals games and five NBA All-Star Games...
for a questionable touch foul on the Knicks' Hubert Davis in the waning seconds of the game, which allowed the Knicks to shoot the game-winning free throws. This helped lead the Knicks to a seven-game series victory. All seven games in the series were won by the home team, and the Knicks had home court advantage.
Trade rumors involving Pippen escalated during the 1994 off-season. Jerry Krause
Jerry Krause
Jerry Krause is a former professional basketball scout and general manager for, among other franchises, the Baltimore Bullets and, most notably, the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association. He is a two-time recipient of the NBA's Executive of the Year award.-Early career:Krause was...
, the Bulls' General Manager, was reportedly looking to ship Pippen off to the Seattle SuperSonics
Seattle SuperSonics
The Seattle SuperSonics were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle, Washington that played in the Pacific and Northwest Divisions of the National Basketball Association from 1967 until 2008. Following the 2007–08 season, the team relocated to Oklahoma City, and now plays as...
in exchange for all-star forward Shawn Kemp
Shawn Kemp
Shawn T. Kemp is a former American professional basketball player, who played in the National Basketball Association for 14 seasons. He was a six-time NBA All-Star and a three-time All-NBA Second Team member.-Early years:...
, moving Toni Kukoc
Toni Kukoc
Toni Kukoč is a retired Croatian professional basketball player. He was renowned for his versatility and passing ability; although his natural position was small forward, he played all five positions on the court with prowess and demonstrated court vision and an outside shooting touch that were...
into Pippen's position as starting small forward with Kemp filling in the vacant starting power forward position in place of Horace Grant, a free agent who left the Bulls for the up-and-coming Orlando Magic
Orlando Magic
The Orlando Magic is a professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. They play in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association and are currently coached by Stan Van Gundy...
during the off-season. However, the trade was never made and those rumors were put to rest once it was announced that Michael Jordan would be returning to the Bulls late in the season. The Pippen-led Bulls did not fare nearly as well in the season as they had in the season before—in fact, for the first time in years they were in danger of missing the playoffs (though much of this may be due to a lack of interior defense and rebounding due to Grant's departure). The Bulls were just 34–31 prior to Jordan's return for the final 17 games, and Jordan led them to a 13–4 record to close the regular season. Still, Pippen finished the season leading the Bulls in every major statistical category—points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks—becoming only the second player in NBA history to accomplish this (Dave Cowens did it in ).
The Bulls' second three-peat (1996–1998)
With the return of Jordan and the addition of two-time champion Dennis RodmanDennis Rodman
Dennis Keith Rodman is a retired American Hall of Fame professional basketball player of the National Basketball Association's Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, he was nicknamed "Dennis the Menace" and "The...
, the Bulls posted the best regular-season record in NBA history (72-10) in en route to winning their fourth title
1996 NBA Finals
The 1996 NBA Finals was the championship series of the 1995-96 NBA season of the National Basketball Association. The Seattle SuperSonics of the Western Conference took on the Chicago Bulls of the Eastern Conference, with the Bulls holding home court advantage...
against the Seattle SuperSonics
Seattle SuperSonics
The Seattle SuperSonics were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle, Washington that played in the Pacific and Northwest Divisions of the National Basketball Association from 1967 until 2008. Following the 2007–08 season, the team relocated to Oklahoma City, and now plays as...
. Later that year, Pippen became the first (and to this date, the only) person to win an NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal in the same year twice, playing for Team USA at the Atlanta Olympics
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics of Atlanta, officially known as the Games of the XXVI Olympiad and unofficially known as the Centennial Olympics, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States....
.
In the following season, Chicago finished a league-best 69–13 and again won the title
1997 NBA Finals
The 1997 NBA Finals was the concluding series of the 1997 NBA Playoffs that determined the champion of the 1996–97 NBA season. The Utah Jazz of the Western Conference took on the Chicago Bulls of the Eastern Conference for the title, with the Bulls holding home court advantage...
, this time defeating the Utah Jazz
Utah Jazz
The Utah Jazz is a professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City, Utah. They are currently a part of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...
. Amid speculation that the season would be the last in Chicago for Pippen, Jordan, and Jackson, the Bulls followed up by topping the Jazz again in the 1998 NBA Finals
1998 NBA Finals
The 1998 NBA Finals was the championship round of the 1997-98 National Basketball Association season. The Chicago Bulls of the Eastern Conference played against the Utah Jazz of the Western Conference, with the Jazz holding home-court advantage with the first 2 games in Salt Lake City...
to cap their second three-peat. Pippen was selected as one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players
NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team
The 50 Greatest Players in National Basketball Association History were chosen in 1996 to honor the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the National Basketball Association...
when the league was celebrating its 50th season in 1997.
Later career (1998–2004)
After being in Chicago for 11 seasons, Pippen, the second all-time leader in points, assists, and steals in Bulls franchise history, was traded to the Houston RocketsHouston Rockets
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston, Texas. The team plays in the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was established in 1967, and played in San Diego, California for four years, before being...
for the lockout
Lockout (industry)
A lockout is a work stoppage in which an employer prevents employees from working. This is different from a strike, in which employees refuse to work.- Causes :...
-shortened season of . Pippen's trade to Houston received much publicity, including his only solo cover of Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
. He teamed with Hakeem Olajuwon
Hakeem Olajuwon
Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon is a retired Nigerian-American professional basketball player. From 1984 to 2002, he played the center position in the National Basketball Association for the Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors. He led the Rockets to back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995. In 2008,...
and Charles Barkley
Charles Barkley
Charles Wade Barkley is a former American professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Sir Charles" and "The Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley established himself as one of the National Basketball Association's most dominating power forwards...
, but there were chemistry problems, especially with Barkley. In that season, the Rockets went 31–19, but lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs, 3 games to 1.
On April 22, 1999, Pippen was detained under suspicion of driving while intoxicated, but the charges were later dropped due to insufficient evidence.
Portland Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers, commonly known as the Blazers, are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. They play in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . The Trail Blazers originally played their home games in the...
, whom he helped to the Western Conference finals. But once there, they lost to the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers
Los Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California. They play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...
in seven games, despite holding a 15-point lead (75-60) in the fourth quarter of Game 7. Pippen played on for several more seasons in Portland, but they never again advanced that far in the playoffs. After the season, he signed once more with the Chicago Bulls
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois, playing in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1966. They play their home games at the United Center...
, but due to injuries, he was only able to suit up for 23 games in and retired shortly after the season.
Pippen was a near-constant presence in the NBA post-season during his career, reaching the playoffs 16 straight years (11 with Chicago, one with Houston, four with Portland). He played in more playoff games than any NBA player except Robert Horry
Robert Horry
Robert Keith Horry Jr. is a retired American basketball player and current sports commentator. He played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association , winning seven championships, the most of any player not to have played on the 1960s Boston Celtics...
and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a retired American professional basketball player. He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points. During his career with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969 to 1989, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season...
.
Retirement
After retiring, he spent some time working as a basketball analyst for the Chicago Bulls. He was a special assistant coach for the Los Angeles LakersLos Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California. They play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...
. On December 25, 2005, Pippen debuted as studio analyst for the NBA on ABC. Before that, he was a part-time analyst for ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
.
The Chicago Bulls retired Pippen's jersey number in a ceremony on December 9, 2005. The team played against the Los Angeles Lakers
Los Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California. They play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...
that night, and Pippen was reunited with Phil Jackson
Phil Jackson
Philip Douglas "Phil" Jackson is a retired American professional basketball coach and player. Jackson is widely considered one of the greatest coaches in the history of the National Basketball Association . His reputation was established as head coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1989 through 1998;...
, Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
, Dennis Rodman
Dennis Rodman
Dennis Keith Rodman is a retired American Hall of Fame professional basketball player of the National Basketball Association's Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, he was nicknamed "Dennis the Menace" and "The...
, and Horace Grant during the ceremony. Pippen's jersey number 33 joined Michael Jordan's 23, Jerry Sloan
Jerry Sloan
Gerald Eugene "Jerry" Sloan , is an American former National Basketball Association player and head coach, and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. NBA commissioner David Stern called Sloan "one of the greatest and most respected coaches in NBA history." Sloan had a career regular-season...
's 4, and Bob Love
Bob Love
Robert ' Earl “Butterbean” Love is a retired American professional basketball player who spent the prime of his career with the NBA's Chicago Bulls...
's 10 as the only numbers retired by the Bulls.
In January 2008, Pippen made a brief comeback to professional basketball at age 42, when he made a tour of Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
and played two games for top Finnish league
Korisliiga
Korisliiga is the top league of basketball in Finland, comprising the top 12 teams of the country. In current format each team plays all other teams twice in the regular season, both at home and away...
team Torpan Pojat
Torpan Pojat
Torpan Pojat is a basketball club, based in Helsinki, Finland. It was formed in 1932, originally as a sport club for the school of Munkkiniemi. With approximately 500 members, it includes men's, women's, and junior teams...
(ToPo), and top Swedish league team Sundsvall
Sundsvall Dragons
Sundsvall Dragons is a professional Swedish basketball club from Sundsvall. Sundsvall Dragons have made it to the Liganfinals 4 times 2005, 2008 and in 2009 and 2011 as winners.-Current Roster:Head CoachPeter ÖqvistAss. Coach...
. In his first game, on January 4, Pippen scored 12 points in ToPo's 93-81 win over Porvoo. He registered nine points and nine rebounds in a 98-85 win over Honka on January 5. In his third game of the tour, Pippen registered 21 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and two steals in 30 minutes in a 102–74 Sundsvall Dragons win over Akropol of Rinkeby. The Dragons paid Pippen $66,000 for his appearance.
According to Investopedia, since retirement Pippen has lost $120 million in career earnings because of poor financial planning and bad business deals. Investment busts account for $27 million of the lost fortune.
Pippen returned to the Bulls on July 15, 2010 as a team ambassador.
Player profile
Pippen was renowned for his defensive abilities, having made the NBA All Defensive Team ten consecutive years during his career and leading the league in steals in . Phil Jackson once described him as a "one-man wrecking crew, capable of guarding anyone from the point guard to the five position." Pippen is one of three NBA players to record 200 steals and 100 blocks in a season, and he also has the record for career steals by a forward (2,307), as well as in the playoffs (395). He was skilled at staying in front of his man on defense, and particularly effective as a help defender, with his long, swarming arms in traps.On offense, Pippen relied primarily upon his remarkable athleticism to gain an advantage towards the basket and slashed towards the basket for higher percentage shots. Early in his career, particularly, Pippen was not an adept jump shooter, and struggled when shooting directly on a line to the basket. He favored shooting his jump shots on angles, such as along the free throw line extended (to the right and left of the elbows of the free throw lane), such that he could bank the ball off the backboard into the basket. He honed this shot over the course of his career and was therefore able to become more effective at scoring from distance in the later stages of his career.
Legacy
Pippen is remembered as one of the most versatile and agile players, and perhaps most notably as one of the greatest defenders, to ever play the game of basketball. Much like fellow Bull Michael Jordan, Pippen could provide tenacious on-the-ball perimeter defense, or tough interior defense, and he was particularly effective as a help defender. He was gifted with extraordinary athleticism, even compared with other professional athletes, and skills in areas that bode well for basketball.Pippen's unusually long arms and jumping agility gave him the ability to clog the passing lanes on defense, to block shots from behind on players that had managed to pass by him, to grab out-of-reach rebounds, to make unusual plays in mid-air, and to make passes around defenders that most players are physically unable to make. He often led the Bulls in assists and blocks as a result. Pippen was also a selfless player. His team-focused approach to the game was a key component in the Chicago Bulls’ championships. Pippen’s career assists total of 6,135 (5.2 per game) is a testament to that approach. It is the record among forwards and was 23rd all-time among all players when he retired (now 26th).
His intensive work ethic and athletic physique gave him the ability to consistently make highlight-reel plays, such as applying defensive intensity, forcing a turnover, stealing the ball and starting a one-man fast break that he would finish with a thunderous slam dunk at the other end of the court. As Pippen himself has attested, he and Jordan would compete to see who could force more turnovers and produce more offense from defense in each game (fast break points). During the 1990 Slam Dunk Contest, Scottie exhibited his leaping ability with a dunk from the free throw line. He was an athletic finisher at the rim, both with dunks and with a skillful finger roll shot that he added to his skill set over time. He was also a prolific perimeter shooter, taking about three thousand and making almost one thousand three-point shots in his career.
Pippen’s style of play is perhaps best illustrated by a play he made against the New York Knicks during Game 6 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Semifinals. While the Knicks had possession of the ball, Pippen pressured Hubert Davis with his defense on the perimeter and led him into a help defender in the paint, Horace Grant, who promptly rejected Davis’s shot. The blocked shot was rebounded by the Bulls and triggered a fast break. Pippen ran all-out down the court as the Bulls passed the ball around, and he received a bounce pass from Pete Myers
Pete Myers
Peter E. Myers is an American former professional basketball player and an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors.-NBA career:Myers played in the NBA from 1986 to 1991 and also from 1994 to 1998...
(at the free throw line extended) to set up one of the most famous dunks in history. As Hall of Fame center Patrick Ewing
Patrick Ewing
Patrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. is a Jamaican-American retired Hall of Fame basketball player and current assistant coach for the National Basketball Association's Orlando Magic. He played most of his career with the NBA's New York Knicks as their starting center and played briefly with the Seattle...
jumped up to defend the shot, Pippen jumped from the left block, fully extended the ball out in his right hand, absorbed body contact from Ewing, and slammed the ball through the hoop with Ewing’s hand in his face. Pippen landed several feet away from the basket along the right inbounds baseline, standing over a fallen Ewing.
Career statistics
| † | Denotes seasons in which the Bulls won an NBA Championship |
| Led the league | |
| Bold | Denotes career highs |
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game |
| FG% | Field-goal Field goal (basketball) In basketball, the term field goal refers to a basket scored on any shot or tap other than a free throw, worth two or three points depending on the distance of the attempt from the basket. "Field Goal" is the official terminology used by the National Basketball Association in their rule book,... percentage |
3P% | 3-point field-goal Three-point field goal A three-point field goal is a field goal in a basketball game, made from beyond the three-point line, a designated arc radiating from the basket... percentage |
FT% | Free-throw Free throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points from a restricted area on the court , and are generally awarded after a foul on the shooter by the opposing team... percentage |
| OFF | Offensive rebounds Rebound (basketball) A rebound in basketball is the act of successfully gaining possession of the basketball after a missed field goal or free throw. Rebounds in basketball are a routine part in the game, as all possessions change after a shot is successfully made... per game |
DEF | Defensive rebounds per game | REB | Total rebounds per game |
| AST | Assists Assist (basketball) In basketball, an assist is attributed to a player who passes the ball to a teammate in a way that leads to a score by field goal, meaning that he or she was "assisting" in the basket. There is some judgment involved in deciding whether a passer should be credited with an assist... per game |
STL | Steals Steal (basketball) In basketball, a steal occurs when a defensive player legally causes a turnover by his positive, aggressive action. This can be done by deflecting and controlling, catching, or batting to a teammate a pass or dribble of an offensive player... per game |
BLK | Blocks Block (basketball) In basketball, a block , not to be confused with blocking, occurs when a defensive player legally deflects a field goal attempt from an offensive player. The defender must not touch the offensive player's hands or otherwise a foul is called. In order to be legal, the block must occur while the shot... per game |
| TOV | Turnovers per game | PF | Fouls per game | PTS | Points per game |
Averages
|-| align="left" |
| align="left" | Chicago
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois, playing in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1966. They play their home games at the United Center...
| 79 || 0 || 20.9 || .463 || .174 || .576 || 3.8 || 2.1 || 1.2 || 0.7 || 7.9
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Chicago
| 73 || 56 || 33.1 || .476 || .273 || .668 || 6.1 || 3.5 || 1.9 || 0.8 || 14.4
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Chicago
|bgcolor="CFECEC"| 82 ||bgcolor="CFECEC"| 82 || 38.4 || .489 || .250 || .675 || 6.7 || 5.4 || 2.6 || 1.2 || 16.5
|-
| align="left" style="background-color:#AFE6BA"| †
| align="left" | Chicago
|bgcolor="CFECEC"| 82 ||bgcolor="CFECEC"| 82 || 36.8 || .520 || .309 || .706 || 7.3 || 6.2 || 2.4 || 1.1 || 17.8
|-
| align="left" style="background-color:#AFE6BA"| †
| align="left" | Chicago
| 82 ||bgcolor="CFECEC"| 82 || 38.6 || .506 || .200 || .760 || 7.7 || 7.0 || 1.9 || 1.1 || 21.0
|-
| align="left" style="background-color:#AFE6BA"| †
| align="left" | Chicago
| 81 || 81 || 38.6 || .473 || .237 || .663 || 7.7 || 6.3 || 2.1 || 0.9 || 18.6
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Chicago
| 72 || 72 || 38.3 || .491 || .320 || .660 || 8.7 || 5.6 || 2.9 || 0.8 || 22.0
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Chicago
| 79 || 79 || 38.2 || .480 || .345 || .716 || 8.1 || 5.2 ||bgcolor="CFECEC"| 2.9 || 1.1 || 21.4
|-
| align="left" style="background-color:#AFE6BA"| †
| align="left" | Chicago
| 77 || 77 || 36.7 || .463 || .374 || .679 || 6.4 || 5.9 || 1.7 || 0.7 || 19.4
|-
| align="left" style="background-color:#AFE6BA"| †
| align="left" | Chicago
| 82 ||bgcolor="CFECEC"| 82 || 37.7 || .474 || .368 || .701 || 6.5 || 5.7 || 1.9 || 0.6 || 20.2
|-
| align="left" style="background-color:#AFE6BA"| †
| align="left" | Chicago
| 44 || 44 || 37.5 || .447 || .318 || .777 || 5.2 || 5.8 || 1.8 || 1.0 || 19.1
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Houston
Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston, Texas. The team plays in the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was established in 1967, and played in San Diego, California for four years, before being...
|bgcolor="CFECEC"| 50 ||bgcolor="CFECEC"| 50 || 40.2 || .432 || .340 || .721 || 6.5 || 5.9 || 2.0 || 0.7 || 14.5
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Portland
Portland Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers, commonly known as the Blazers, are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. They play in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . The Trail Blazers originally played their home games in the...
| 82 ||bgcolor="CFECEC"| 82 || 33.5 || .451 || .327 || .717 || 6.3 || 5.0 || 1.4 || 0.5 || 12.5
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Portland
| 64 || 60 || 33.3 || .451 || .344 || .739 || 5.2 || 4.6 || 1.5 || 0.6 || 11.3
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Portland
| 62 || 60 || 32.2 || .411 || .305 || .774 || 5.2 || 5.9 || 1.6 || 0.6 || 10.6
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Portland
| 64 || 58 || 29.9 || .444 || .286 || .818 || 4.3 || 4.5 || 1.6 || 0.4 || 10.8
|-
| align="left" |
| align="left" | Chicago
| 23 || 6 || 17.9 || .379 || .271 || .630 || 3.0 || 2.2 || 0.9 || 0.4 || 5.9
|-class="sortbottom"
| align="left" colspan=2| Career
| 1,178 || 1,053 || 34.9 || .473 || .326 || .704 || 6.4 || 5.2 || 2.0 || 0.8 || 16.1
|-class="sortbottom"
| align="left" colspan=2| All-Star
| 7 || 6 || 24.7 || .442 || .318 || .625 || 5.6 || 2.4 || 2.4 || 0.9 || 12.1
Career highs
| Stat | High | Opponent | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 47 | vs. Denver Nuggets | |
| Field goal percentage | 16-17 (.941) | vs. Charlotte Hornets | |
| Field goals made | 19 | vs. Denver Nuggets | |
| Field goal attempts (Playoffs) | 35 (3 OT) | vs. Phoenix Suns | |
| Free throws made, none missed | 10-10 | vs. Detroit Pistons | |
| Free throws made | 13 | at Los Angeles Clippers | |
| Free throw attempts | 21 | at Charlotte Hornets | |
| 3-point field goals made (Playoffs) | 7 | at Utah Jazz | |
| 3-point field goal attempts | 13 | at Toronto Raptors | |
| Rebounds | 18 | at New York Knicks | |
| Rebounds (Playoffs) | 18 | at Miami Heat | |
| Offensive rebounds (Playoffs) | 9 | vs. Los Angeles Lakers | |
| Defensive rebounds | 16 (OT) | vs. New York Knicks | |
| Assists | 15 | vs. Indiana Pacers | |
| Assists | 15 | vs. Washington Wizards | |
| Steals | 9 | vs. Atlanta Hawks | |
| Turnovers | 12 (OT) | at New Jersey Nets | |
| Turnovers | 12 | at Houston Rockets | |
| Minutes played (Playoffs) | 56 (3 OT) | vs. Phoenix Suns |
Achievements
21 career triple-doubles (17 regular season, 4 playoffs)Led the league in steals (232) and steals per game (2.94) in .
His 10 NBA All-Defensive honors and 8 NBA All-Defensive First Team honors are one shy of the NBA record
NBA records
This article lists all-time leading figures in the regular season achieved in the NBA in major statistical categories recognized by the league, including records set by teams and individuals in single games, seasons, and careers. NBA history also recognizes achievements from its original...
.
Member of the Olympic gold medal winning USA Men's National Basketball Teams in 1992 ("Dream Team 1", Barcelona, Spain) and 1996 ("Dream Team 2", Atlanta, USA)
Selected in 1996 as one of the "50 Greatest Players in NBA History"
Elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. The 1992 Olympic Basketball "Dream Team", of which he was a member, was also elected to the Hall of Fame in 2010.
Pippen is also the only NBA player known to have recorded 5 steals and 5 blocks in a playoff game, which he did against the Detroit Pistons on May 19, 1991.
Regular season
Assists by a forward, career: 6,135Steals by a forward, career: 2,307
Steals by a forward, season: 232
Highest average, steals per game, by a forward, season: 2.94 (232/79)
Set with Michael Jordan
Ninth pair of teammates in NBA history to score 40 or more points in the same game: Chicago Bulls (110) at Indiana Pacers (102),- Pippen: 40 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 5 steals in 44 minutes
- Jordan: 44 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks in 42 minutes
One of at least two pairs of teammates in NBA history to record triple-doubles in the same game: Chicago Bulls (126) vs. Los Angeles Clippers (121), (OT)
- Pippen: 15 points, 10 rebounds, 12 assists (and 2 steals) in 42 minutes
- Jordan: 41 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists (and 6 steals) in 47 minutes
- Jason KiddJason KiddJason Frederick Kidd is an American professional basketball point guard who plays for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association. Raised in Oakland, California, Kidd played college basketball at the University of California, Berkeley and was drafted second overall by the Dallas...
and Vince CarterVince CarterVincent Lamar "Vince" Carter is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns. He is a shooting guard who can also play small forward....
achieved this feat as well on
Playoffs
Steals, career: 395Steals, quarter: 4, third quarter, vs. Milwaukee Bucks,
- Tied with many other players
NBA Finals
Three-point field goals made, game: 7, at Utah Jazz,- Broken by Ray AllenRay AllenWalter Ray Allen is an American professional basketball player who is currently playing for the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association. He has played professionally for the Milwaukee Bucks, Seattle SuperSonics, and the Boston Celtics; and collegiately for the University of...
on
Three-point field goal attempts, 6-game series: 39, vs. Seattle SuperSonics, 1996 NBA Finals
1996 NBA Finals
The 1996 NBA Finals was the championship series of the 1995-96 NBA season of the National Basketball Association. The Seattle SuperSonics of the Western Conference took on the Chicago Bulls of the Eastern Conference, with the Bulls holding home court advantage...
- Broken by Reggie MillerReggie MillerReginald Wayne "Reggie" Miller is a retired American professional basketball player who played his entire 18-year National Basketball Association career with the Indiana Pacers...
in 20002000 NBA FinalsThe 2000 NBA Finals was the championship round of the 1999-2000 National Basketball Association season. The Los Angeles Lakers of the Western Conference took on the Indiana Pacers of the Eastern Conference for the title, with the Lakers holding home court advantage...
All-Star
Three-point field goal attempts, game: 9 (19941994 NBA All-Star Game
The 1994 NBA All-Star Game was the 44th edition of the All-Star Game. The event was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The East All-Stars won the game with the score of 127–118. Scottie Pippen of the Chicago Bulls was voted MVP of the game.-Eastern All-Stars:...
)
- Broken by Ray AllenRay AllenWalter Ray Allen is an American professional basketball player who is currently playing for the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association. He has played professionally for the Milwaukee Bucks, Seattle SuperSonics, and the Boston Celtics; and collegiately for the University of...
(20022002 NBA All-Star GameThe 2002 NBA All-Star Game was played on Sunday, February 10, 2002 at the First Union Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, home of the Philadelphia 76ers. The game was the 51st annual All-Star game. The Western All-Stars defeated the East 135-120. Kobe Bryant of the L.A. Lakers won the MVP award....
)
Three-point field goal attempts, half: 7 (1994)
- Tied by Ray Allen (20052005 NBA All-Star GameThe 2005 NBA All-Star Game was a major basketball game played on February 20, 2005 at Pepsi Center home of Denver Nuggets featuring the best players in the National Basketball Association as selected by fans and coaches....
) and Tracy McGradyTracy McGradyTracy Lamar McGrady, Jr., is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Detroit Pistons.Entering the league after graduating from high school, McGrady eventually became a seven-time All-Star. He led the league in scoring in 2003 and 2004. He has also played for the Toronto...
(20062006 NBA All-Star GameThe 2006 NBA All-Star Game was played on Sunday, February 19, 2006 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, home of the Houston Rockets. The game was the 55th annual All-Star game...
)
Regular season
Highest average, steals per game, by a forward, career: 1.96 (2,307/1,178)Finals
Three-point field goal attempts, game: 11, vs. Utah Jazz,Turnovers, 6-game series: 26, vs. Phoenix Suns, 1993 NBA Finals
1993 NBA Finals
The 1993 NBA Finals was the championship round of the 1992-93 NBA season, featuring the Chicago Bulls, led by Michael Jordan, and the Phoenix Suns, winners of 62 games and led by regular season MVP Charles Barkley...
Regular season
Highest field goal percentage, game (minimum 15 shots made): .941 (16-17), vs. Charlotte Hornets,- Only Wilt ChamberlainWilt ChamberlainWilton Norman "Wilt" Chamberlain was an American professional NBA basketball player for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers; he also played for the Harlem Globetrotters prior to playing in the NBA...
and George GervinGeorge GervinGeorge "The Iceman" Gervin is a retired American professional basketball player who played in both the American Basketball Association and National Basketball Association for the Virginia Squires, San Antonio Spurs, and Chicago Bulls...
had more efficient games.
Highest average, assists per game, by a forward, career: 5.21 (6,135/1,178)