Scottie Pippen

Basketball Player

• Born: September 25, 1965
• Birthplace: Hamburg, Arkansas

Basketball player

Pippen was a key member of the Chicago Bulls' six championship teams in the 1990s and was named one of the fifty best basketball players ever. His all-around game served as a perfect complement to Michael Jordan’s explosive scoring, making them one of the fiercest competitive duos in basketball history.

Area of achievement: Sports: basketball

Early Life

Scottie Maurice Pippen was born on September 25, 1965, in Hamburg, Arkansas. The youngest of twelve children born to Preston, a paper mill worker, and Ethel, a homemaker, Pippen was a quiet child. One of six boys, he grew up playing sports but was considered an unremarkable athlete. His father’s deteriorating health influenced his work ethic as he took on odd jobs to help out the family.

Of all the sports Pippen played, he loved basketball most. He often could be found at the Pine Street courts, where he played well into the night. However, his development as an athlete was slow, and he made the high school basketball team only as a senior. Seeking to get out of Hamburg, a town of roughly thirty-four hundred people, Pippen asked his basketball coach for help. His coach was able to get him a scholarship as the equipment manager at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA), a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

During Pippen’s first year at UCA, two players on the basketball team were injured, and the coach asked Pippen to join the team as its point guard. At the time, Pippen stood six feet, one inch tall. By the end of his freshman year, he had grown two inches. As a sophomore Pippen became a more vital contributor to the team, playing multiple positions. Because his growth spurt came later, his experience mostly was at the point guard position, and he thus learned to handle the ball well. As he learned to play other positions, his guard skills made him more difficult to defend. By the end of his junior season, Pippen stood six feet, six inches tall and was considered the best player on the team.

Life’s Work

Pippen played another excellent season as a senior in 1987 and even grew another inch. He was named an NAIA All-American for the second time and, more important, came to be considered a potential draft pick for the National Basketball Association (NBA). After three predraft workouts in which he showed he could play with other college stars, Pippen’s stock rose, and many observers thought he would be chosen in the first round. The Chicago Bulls made a deal with the Seattle SuperSonics (a franchise that later became the Oklahoma City Thunder) to secure Pippen. The SuperSonics chose him with the fifth selection and traded him to Chicago for Olden Polynice and a draft pick. Pippen became the first basketball player from the NAIA to join the NBA.

Although Pippen showed flashes of potential, his first professional season (1987–88) was disappointing overall. After the season, however, he underwent back surgery, and the next year his career took off. He helped Michael Jordan lead the Bulls to the Eastern Conference finals, where they lost in six games to the Detroit Pistons—notably, Pippen had to sit out the deciding game with a concussion. The next year, the Bulls again faced the Pistons in the play-offs. Pippen was sidelined by a migraine, and again the Pistons prevailed.

The next season, 1990–91, the Bulls reached the NBA Finals, where they beat the Los Angeles Lakers and their star Magic Johnson to win the first championship in team history. That year Pippen was named to the NBA All-Defensive team and the Eastern Conference All-Star Team. The Bulls repeated as NBA champions the next two years. In 1992 Pippen also joined Jordan and other NBA superstars as part of the so-called Dream Team that won a gold medal for the United States at the Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. After the Bulls' third straight title Jordan retired from basketball to pursue a baseball career, leaving Pippen as the team’s leader. Pippen played excellently that year, but the Bulls fell short of another championship.

Pippen and the US men's basketball team won another gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Jordan returned to the Bulls for the 1996–97 season, and the team won another three straight championships. Together, Pippen and Jordan formed one of the best duos in basketball history, winning six NBA titles together. After the 1998–99 season Pippen was traded to the Houston Rockets, a team on which he did not quite fit. After a down year for the perennial All-Star, Pippen again was traded, this time to the Portland Trail Blazers. Although he led his team to the playoffs, he was unable to recapture the magic of his seasons with the Bulls. For the 2003–04 season he returned to Chicago in a reserve role and serving mainly as a mentor and inspiration to younger players. Pippen officially retired in 2004. By that time, Pippen had been named to seven All-Star teams and ten All-Defensive teams, and had recorded career averages of 16.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 5.2 assists per game.

In 2005 the Bulls honored Pippen by retiring his jersey number 33. Pippen entertained notions of a comeback in the late 2000s, and even returned to professional basketball by playing in a European league in 2008, but ultimately decided against rejoining the NBA. He instead served served as a Bulls team ambassador and administrative adviser for much of the 2010s before becoming a sports analyst.

In 2020 Pippen characterized the ESPN documentary series The Last Dance, about the 1990s Bulls' championship run and his tenure alongside Jordan, as inaccurate. The following year he issued a rebuttal in the form of a tell-all memoir titled Unguarded.

Significance

After enrolling at a low-profile university on an equipment manager’s scholarship, Pippen relied on hard work, a late growth spurt, and determination to make his way to the NBA. He became an integral piece of some of the most successful teams in history, especially the 1992 and 1996 Chicago Bulls, and a highly respected all-around player. After a long and greatly successful career Pippen was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010, his first year of eligibility, and was named to the NBA Fiftieth-Anniversary All-Time Team. A significant influence on legions of players following him, Pippen is considered one of the best defenders to have ever played the game of basketball.

Bibliography

Araton, Harvey. “Stepping Out of Jordan's Shadow, Pippen to Enter Hall.” The New York Times, 12 Aug. 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/sports/basketball/13pippen.html. Accessed 15 July 2021.

“Legends Profile: Scottie Pippen.” NBA History, www.nba.com/history/legends/profiles/scottie-pippen. Accessed 15 July 2021. ‌

Montville, Leigh. “Out of the Shadow.” Sports Illustrated, vol. 76, no. 7, 24 Feb. 1992, pp. 74.

Price, S. L. “No Babe in the Woods.” Sports Illustrated, vol. 91, no. 23, 13 Dec. 1999, p. 80.

"Scottie Pippen." NBA Encyclopedia: Playoff Edition, NBA Media Ventures, 2016. Accessed 19 Apr. 2016.

"Scottie Pippen: Ultimate Defender." Scottie Pippen, 2014. Accessed 19 Apr. 2016.