this is the way I see it. If your guy screws your sister really bad, you always back your sister up, you won't care if that guy is a great guy or not. For me the rockets-being a fan for more than 20 years- is that little sister that got really taken advantage off by Pipen. I can't forgive him. I have a right and believe an obligation to be biased agianst him. plus, i honestly believe he did not deserve to be in the 50 greatest, not ahead of Dominique. Rudy said it best, after Pipen complained about the system, Rudy said he had never changed the system for any one as much as he altered it for pipen's liking.
Yeah man, you said it. For most of us, no matter how great a player is, if he comes to the rockets, sucks it up and says a lot of crap about our players and organization, we are not going to see him as others see him. Of one might say that its just his "sincere basketball opinion," that he sucks or whatever, but you probly wont find many bulls fans with the same one.
Talk all you want about how great a player Pippen was, but the fact of the matter is that if it weren't for MJ, nobody would be asking Pippen for his opinion on anything these days. He'd be nothing more than another occasional All-Star who never won a ring. In 17 seasons, Pippen never led the league in any meaningful statistical category, except for ONCE in steals. Without Jordan, Pippen is a footnote. Without Jordan, we wouldn't even be having this discussion.
OK, I wasn't going to write on this forum, because I saw no need in talking about pippen, but screw it I want to put my two cents in. Pippen was a great role player for the Bulls. He fit their system perfect and was a perfect side kick to MJ. That is no lie. But none of the Bulls players were that great after MJ left for one reason. The reason why in my mind MJ was so great, he made everyone on the team better. Armstrong, kerr, there multiple centers, Pippen, Kukoch, and other players, never really performed up to their potential without MJ. As for Pipen being a leader, sure he might have been, ost of the bulls in interviews said he was a leader, though MJ was the ultimate leader on that team. There also have always been reports of it being hard to work with Pippen. I am sad to see Pippen say the things he did about the rockets, but hey i guess he is entitled to his oppion. He did have a great career ( no one can say after 6 rings, your career was bad), he was a great role player on a great team. After that team though, you would notice his production dropped off dramitaclly, though that does happen with 33 year olds, but also i know many great players were still great past 33.
Ok so let's flip it... MJ hasn't won anything without Pippen. What if MJ never had Pippen? We definetly wouldn't be talking about him being the greatest player ever or however you want to rank him. If MJ didn't have Pippen, he wouldn't have 6 rings...Hell he might not even have one. What would Jordan be remembered as? A guy that can play great but couldn't win in the playoffs and win rings? How important how big would he be today if that had happened? That's why they both needed eachother and that's why it worked
and what if sam cassell didn't play with hakeem. I mean, sam put up about 19 and 7 some years after Houston. and neither one of them won without each other.
but we WOULD still be talking about Jordan. But Pippen would be like Mike Jones.....WHO? Pippen Who the hell is that??? and he shouldn't make the Hall of Fame before Dominique!
Pippen's number is going to be retired tonight at half time b/w the Lakers and the bulls. For Pippen fans, check out the Bulls home page to see the highlights, stories, and interviews. His defense on Magic and Mark Jackson.....something you don't see in today's game For those who can't stand Pip, please ignore this..
Correction: no one will EVER defend like that again, nor has there ever been one to defend like that before him. If nothing else, his man-to-man defense was the greatest I've ever seen. You can debate other aspects of his game, but that's what won 6 rings for the Bulls: killer defense, and Pip was the anchor of that defense.
No argument from me. As I don't have the time and knowledge to debate with some of the people, I toned it down...
