Rodman, another former NBA great, to slam Lebron James!

I don't know. Battier was a good scorer in college too, and has never been doing that in the NBA. Are these players just unselfish and intentionally take a non-scoring role, or are they just incapable of being a good scorer on the pro level?

I tend to think that if a player can score, he will. Why do you want to hide a part of your game just because your teammates can do the same thing?

BTW, unlike Battier, Rodman didn't come across like an "unselfish" guy to me. Not all defensive specialist are unselfish.

 

Rodman didn't really 'wilt' in San Antonio, he quit on them because he had zero respect for David Robinson or Bob Hill. He was a complete psychotic piece of wacko. Great player though, very high BBall IQ, all-time great defensive player, one of the greatest rebounders who ever lived. Most importantly, he understood his role, never b****ed about shot attempts, and never tried to play outside of his strengths. But he needed a personality like Jordan or Isaiah to keep him in line, which is why he was completely out of control in SA. I still think he belongs in the Hall of Fame.

I've already shared my feelings on Pippen, so I'm just going to say that LeBron is definitely a more valuable player than Pip ever was.

 

Robert Horry is better than all those idiots

 

I know SP is NOT liked on CF, but he was one hell of a player....very versatile.
With that said, Rodman has problems, not because of the statement.
Just in life.

 

Lebron had more wins leading the Cavs than Pippen leading the Bulls (in 94 and 95, before Jordan came back)
In 93-94 lost in the 2nd round, with 55 wins in a season.
In 94-95, the bulls were 31-34 before Jordan entered the league again, and they still didnt reach the NBA finals.

So for leading a team, I definitely choose Lebron than Pippen.
So you build around Lebron not Pippen.

Pippen its like Gasol, he is a great 2nd player on his team, but he cant be the leader of the team.

 

I don't like where this thread is going. I'll argue about Rodman because it's an interesting question. Scottie Quitten? Not so much.

If Pippin was an old, rich, smart, white dude, he'd be Bud Adams. Screw him.

 

I thought fans were going to chant "Scottie Pippen" at the free throw line as the ultimate insult? So now half of the fans seem to think Pippen was better, yet are using him as an insult?

 

I just don't see it that way... You have guys such that want the lime light and want take a step back to help the team. Then you have guys such as Russell, Rodman and Battier that say I will do what it takes to help the team.

I don't think they are hiding their game... Their playing with the team aspect... If more players did that they may have more championships..

 

Ok. I'll be the one to state the unpopular opinion. I know how much Pippen is hated here, but the truth is that at this point he was better than LeBron is. People get enamored with LeBron and his freakish size and athleticism and that's understandable. But what, I think, Dennis is saying is that when it comes to "do it all" guys, Pippen probably is the GOAT. His defense was FAR superior to Le-Block-you-from-behind-but-I-can't-keep you-in-front-of-me's. His court vision was inferior to James', yet still posted impressive assist numbers. Same for rebounding. Scoring wise, Pippen proved to be more than adequate during MJ's suspension. Versatility wise, they are equal, as they both could play 4 positions. The main difference to this point? Scottie proved he could be the best Robin ever, as well. LeBron now has the same opportunity with Wade. Until he proves it, though, to the tune of multiple rings, he's ranked below Pippen alltime.

 

Because they have other aspects of their game that are more valued, so they focus on that and, eventually, lose that scoring confidence and capability. Lindsey Hunter and Kurt Thomas are two more great examples of that. They led the nation in scoring in college, but found out that their defense would keep them employed in the NBA longer.

 

I agree. It was pretty much impossible for a wing player to carry his team before the no-hand-check/zone defense era. Part of the reason why I feel extra respect for Jordan's dominance back then.

Yet these days, big men have pretty much been phased out of the game offensively. It's no coincidence that basically all the top players today are perimeter players. It's just much easier to dominate when you can take 4 steps into the lane without anyone putting a hand on you.

 

I still don't get it. If you can play both good defense and offense, why do you not want to do both? Why do your team not want you to do both? How does it help your team win by intentionally shelfing part of your game? Teams never get enough of 2-way players. It's not about the limelight. It's about winning too.

There are only two conditions when you don't want a guy to try to score:
1. He is an inefficient scorer (low percentage shooter). If that's the case, then he is really not a good scorer. Are you saying that guys like Rodman were inefficient scorers?

2. He is a play maker (the role of setting up his teammates). A lot of great PGs (Magic, Stockton, Isiah, Nash, etc.) could have scored more but they didn't because of their play making responsibilities. But none of these guys you mentioned are play makers.

Again, if you are a good, efficient scorer, why would you team not to look to you for scoring? This is the same question I asked people who say Russell could have been a great scorer if he wanted to, but his team had too many good scorers already. Well, if he could, why didn't his teammates (and more importantly, his coach) not look to him to score more? Were all his teammates too selfish to pass him the ball?

 

I'm pretty sure lebron can't carry a team by himself either...

 

Rodman is the reason I started watching NBA. That's when he joined the bulls. I have always been a bigger Rodman fan than a Jordan fan.

 

I wouldn't mess wh rodman if i was Lebron...

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cCvETqtGZEM?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cCvETqtGZEM?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

 

This is an overblown argument. Wilkens, Ellis, Kind, Mullin and Drexler were scoring as much as Lebron, Kobe & Wade are in recent years--and the last 3 are a class better. What did Pippen score when Jordan left, 25?, and Pippen was never the class of scorer of Lebron, Kobe & Wade.

Further, Chris Bosh scored 25PPG this year. Don't tell me Barkley or Malone in their prime couldn't get close to 30.

As for Pippen, he is a great player, but not in Lebron's class. Lebron got fodder to the NBA finals. Pippen had a stronger team who didn't get through the 2nd round if I recall.

 

I'm by no means defending Rodman and/or saying Pippen is better than LeBron, but Pippen did lead the Bulls to back to back 55-win teams and rather deep into the playoffs on his own.

He's in the same caliber of someone like Carmelo(top 8-10). So if you didn't watch him, or weren't old enough to know the NBA well enough back then think of him in that light. He was a fantastic player. Not saying he WAS like Melo, just similar caliber.

 

Pretty much agree. Pippen never got close to 25 ppg, btw. I really don't even know how he got the 20+ he averaged. If you really wanted to key in and stop Pippen, it wasn't that hard. For LBJ that's not the case. If you think Pippen was better than James, you're saying Pippen would be considered the best player in the league if he were playing today. I just don't see it. And I have no doubt that LBJ could be reasonably close in defensive impact to Pippen if he didn't have to see the defensive attention he currently gets and decided to really focus on defense. They are similar though in that they're both not reliable outside shooters especially at the line.

Pippen gets a lot of hype based on the one season without Jordan. However I think a lot of the success of that team was due to other teams underestimating them due to Jordan's absence, sort of like the Rockets taking 2 games from LA once Yao went down in the playoffs. Chicago was super motivated to prove they weren't just the Jordanaires, and the rest of the league thought they would have it easy with Mike not around. Just look at their record the next year before Jordan came back, when the Bulls/Pippen no longer had the chip on their shoulder and the rest of the league adjusted.

 

Here's the 89-90 Pistons Roster...
Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Mark Aguirre, David Greenwood, Bill Laimbeer, William Bedford, James Edwards, John Salley, Scott Hastings, Dennis Rodman, Ralph Lewis, Vinnie Johnson, Gerald Henderson

Rodman didn't need to score... There were enough scorers on that team, it's not about an efficient score it's about playing your role on a TEAM..

That's the problem with today's players they don't want to play a role to help the team... They want the spot light and the glory.