Rockets History: Scottie Pippen

1. Olajuwon demanded to be traded at one point, and wasn't. The GM/ownership at the time refused to sell low, and they resolved their differences. No one holds that against Dream. Players demand trades all the time, and don't always get their way. Doesn't CD deserve blame for trading Pippen for such low value in return? Pippen was under contract at the time, and other than calling out his teammates (which he'd already done) he had little leverage. Dawson couldn't have gotten a better deal a few months down the road, when things had cooled off?

2. Pippen was still voted first-team all-NBA in defense that year, which is surprising if you insist he was valued so poorly leaguewide during his stay. Pippen put up quite respectable numbers (14.5/6.5/5.9/2 steals) for being an afterthought/third wheel in the offense. (When Francis averaged six & six Rockets considered him a conquering hero.) Pippen's field goal percentage dropped 15 points from what it had been the season before, but it jumped back up when he went to Portland (where on a talent-laden team he assumed a role as first or second among equals). Ergo, the Rockets system (him shooting long range jumpers) was largely at fault for Pippen's reduced play.

The Rockets did indeed get garbage back for Pippen. CD's fault, not Pippen's. They then resigned some of that garbage to incredibly overvalued contracts. CD's fault, not Pippen's. Worse, if memory serves they agreed with Portland to almost immediately cut Augmon & Shaw, who turned around and proved valuable as backups on playoff teams. (Augmon could still amoeba-defend with the best of them. Shaw wound up as an assistant, I think; he couldn't have taught Francis how to be a better point guard during his rookie year?)

Pippen had a down year with the Rockets in a system that was particularly ill-suited for his abilities. Yes, he dribbled the ball off his foot during the playoffs. That does not prevent a recognition that he is still one of the greatest players to ever pick up a basketball.

 

Come on. I remember those years. When Olajuwon or Barkley went out, they ran the same darned back-to-the-basket, pound the ball in post play nonsense for Othella Harrington. There wasn't any recognition of the talents of the players involved on the floor, very little cutting off the ball, no creativity.

Othella Harrington!

 

What point were you proving, exactly?

So it's CD's & Alexander's faults that they got so little in return? Okay, I accept that.

 

I wouldn't blame McGrady for ownership's/management's poor impulse control.

I doubt sincerely Alexander runs his business the way he runs his hobby/team.

 

The same HAKEEM THE DREAM THE LEGEND THE HERO that at one point demanded to be traded after ownership/management pissed him off?

Would you be carrying the same grudge years later for Olajuwon as you do for Pippen if management had foolishly agreed to trade him, and the Rockets wound up with Rony Seikaly and spare change and became similarly mired in mediocrity for years afterward?

 

Good find...if only he accepted his declining ability/athleticism better and CD recognized his declining ability/athleticism

 

Thanks Tin,

Barkley didn't run Pippen out of town.... Pippen left on his own, he quit on the Rockets and on Charles...

Charles has a lot of faults, but he never quit on his teammates.

 

You're whitewashing here.

1. All players that sign with a team proclaim they're there to help win a championship, and I'd venture to guess all of them mean it. It's a well-worn platitude.

2. Olajuwon didn't "consider" a trade; he demanded one publicly, calling out the owner & management. He was accused of malingering after the team doctor cleared him for an injury. (Malingering is something superstars do when they're upset with their current teams. It's something many here and, if memory serves, I believe you accused McGrady of doing last year. Outside of personal biases, evidence for McGrady faking last year is no better than evidence for Olajuwon faking the year he demanded a trade. On point, Pippen couldn't be accused of malingering, as he played in all games that season and led the team in minutes.)

So, answer the question. If the Rockets' then-management had fulfilled Olajuwon's demand to be traded during or after his off-year (He scored five more points, shot 2.7% better, rebounded and assisted an extra ball per game, and played through the entire 82 the next year, after the reconciliation.), a year in which Olajuwon was similarly dissatisfied, would you now blame Olajuwon for that trade?

Would you now blame Olajuwon, and not the owner/GM, if management had indeed traded Olajuwon for pennies on the dollar, (as the rumor goes) in this case for Seikaly, Willie Burton, and a younger Brian Shaw (who, I'm sure, they would have immediately cut so he could latch onto a playoff contender)? Would you blame Olajuwon if the Rockets subsequently resigned Seikaly to a $100 million dollar deal? Would you blame Olajuwon if managment's decisions to trade him and resign inferior players to outsized contracts inevitably led to team mediocrity for years to come (and not instead back-to-back titles)?

Or are you happy that cooler heads prevailed, management shifted/worked to allay Olajuwon's distrust (though ultimately it was repaired by a new owner), and Olajuwon fulfilled his promise as the greatest player in Houston history?

Don't you think it's imbecilic to blame a player not just for what he himself actually says or does on the floor or off it, but for the mistakes management makes in dealing with / dealing him? (You do seem to argue that Rockets brass can be in error, with Olajuwon.)

You can't blame Pippen just because he had an off-year, as so did Olajuwon in a similar case. You can't blame Pippen for publicly airing his grievances against management, as so did Olajuwon in a similar case. You can't blame Pippen because he got a DUI (later dismissed), as so did Tomjanovich in a similar case. You can't blame Pippen for demanding a trade, as so did Olajuwon in a similar case.

So what you're left with is what, you blame Pippen for calling Barkley fat & lazy while demanding that trade? Proper team / PR decorum aside, Barkley was fat & lazy! (And also one of, if not my, favorite all time players.) Barkley had indeed put on some extra weight by that point in his career; he was back to being a "Round Mound." And Pippen also mentioned Olajuwon's by-then-apparent decline, in his effort to be jettisoned? I don't think bad manners, pointing out the obvious, especially in the process of demanding a trade, is enough cause for ten years' worth of holding a grudge.

 

Imagine yourself five years older. Imagine that the internet also developed five years earlier, and that this site or a site such as this existed back in 1992 (and with it the ability for thousands of fans to spleen away after every close loss):

Ask your 1992 bizarro world self this: would you burn "Mad Dream" in effigy for ten years for him bailing on the team, had he successfully forced his way out? Wouldn't he have been just another player who "quit" on his team?

And in your scenario, how did he do that? McGrady underwent a career-altering/threatening knee surgery (from which only Stoudemire has returned even remotely close to his previous self), not out of need, but out of spite? He underwent a devastating knee surgery to stay in Houston for a half-season to a season-and-a-half, foregoing his next big contract and the possibility of even continuing his career, to screw over management over one trade deadline?

That was the thing, though. Pippen wasn't the #1 guy. He was paid #1 money, but when he got to the team he was the #3 guy in a two-deep offense. Either he was sold a bill of goods to convince him to come, or the Rockets really did sell him on the idea of being an afterthought on offense, a spot-up shooter from the line. Either way, one side (or both) made a serious miscalculation, for though he had never before shown aptitude in such a spot-up, tertiary role, that's the role he was given. Clearly, reading from your source above, he was not the player the Rockets imagined.

I would argue Pippen would have been happy had the Rockets truly made him #1, and designed the team around him. (I'm not sure the Rockets would have been better or worse in that scenario, that one season. Had they traded either Barkley or a declining Olajuwon to make room for Pippen's offensive slashing/creativity, and gotten market value in return, I can guarantee they would have been in better shape longterm. Olajuwon wound up in Toronto anyway, and I do remember in his last seasons Olajuwon talking in the papers about how much he'd like to end his career in Toronto. That wasn't another demand for a trade, but it was his professed longing.)

Why bring Horry into this? Past his rookie season, Horry never developed into the poor man's Pippen, as many projected. He had no handle. Horry maximized his talents and became one of the great spot-up shooters, out to three point range. He made his career as a complimentary player, off of catching passes out of the double team and jacking up 3s. That was his role. Horry may have been better suited than Pippen in that very limited role, on that team catching passes from Olajuwon & Barkley, but no one in his right mind thinks that makes Horry a better player than Pippen.

Pippen was always best as the initiator, as a cutter off the ball, able to intuitively react with the ball in or out of his hands. He's one of the best passers in the history of his position. He played worst in the Rockets offensive straitjacket, dumping the ball down low and being told to stand still for the (low) possibility of the return pass/shot. Pippen's strength wasn't as a catch-and-shoot player. I don't think this is controversial.

Wasn't class? Okay, sure. Not the first athlete, and certainly not the last, who lacked class. Many have been embraced here with open arms. (Cough, Artest, cough.)

Wasn't clutch. He was plenty clutch throughout his career. But you're right, if you're only counting the Lakers series. I'll give you that.

I think you're writing a skewed history of the era. I was living out of town, and discovered Clutch City before that year, as a way to keep up with my hometown. (I've been reading this site long enough to remember your writing when you posted infrequently, before you created your long-standing schtick. Long before you morphed into the self-appointed historian of the team / Mad Max apologist-in-residence, I remember your schtick began when out of the blue you began calling Horry Will Smith, and insisted that they were one and the same person. Ahem, years of hilarity ensued.)

As I recall, public/BBS opinion was decidedly mixed on Pippen, while he was here. He was about where McGrady was the season before last, or late-model Francis (the Superbowl season before the Orlando trade). After the initial euphoria over his signing died down: for the solid 30%+ who hated him, and the middle which vacillated based on his performance in the most recent game, there were just as many who'd go out of their ways to excuse his missteps, up to and including the playoffs. DUI? No big deal; he was having a rough time. Aloof to fans / the media? Don't sweat it; that's just his style; didja see how many steals he had? Even after the early exit from the playoffs, and his poor finishes to those games, he still had a lot of support on this site.

It was only after he demanded/forced a trade that the tide universally turned against him. Which, as a Rockets-centric site, is fair enough. But the notion that he was having a terrible year with the Rockets before that is a false one. Below expectations, fan and his, yes. An off-year adjusting to a new/diminished role, certainly. But just the same, Pippen's season was not the disaster you make it out to be. He had a bit below par regular season, and besides rebounding, a decidedly bad (especially shooting) postseason. But his reputation as "Quitten" in Rockets fans' hearts did not become canon until after he successfully forced his way out (as others had done and tried to do before him), and the Rockets agreed to take chumps (change) in return.

The following years only cemented that reputation, for the very fact that management agreed to receive so little for him in return, and year-after-year post-Pippen Rockets fans were stuck watching a mediocre on-court product, were reminded of him every time Cato bricked another entry pass off his hands or the Wizard put up another airball. Pippen represented the last gasp of the Rockets' championship years & aspirations. It was a failed experiment.

Quoting Tomajanovich,

A sound sentiment. Why not give up the Pippen hate, and follow it?