AP Article on Pippen/Barkely Overlooks Rogers Completely !

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets are headed in opposite directions so quickly that the
Scottie Pippen-Charles Barkley grudge match hardly seems like a fair fight now.
Portland plays visiting Houston on Friday, the first meeting between Pippen and Barkley since Pippen was traded to the Blazers on Oct. 2 following a very public lashing of Barkley and his supposed selfishness.

"I just wish he handled the situation differently," Barkley said this week. The 36-year-old Barkley has hardly played selfishly this season, averaging 14.3 points and 12.6 rebounds. But the Rockets have been a huge disappointment, starting 3-10 and showing virtually no chance of making
the playoffs in what Barkley has said will be his last season.

Pippen, meanwhile, is living the good life. The 34-year-old forward is making $14.8 million this season and his team is 11-2. The Blazers, whose only loss on their six-game road trip was to Cleveland on Tuesday night,
are so loaded with talent that Pippen is third on the team in scoring -- 13.3
points, which would be the lowest average since his rookie year in 1987-88.

But he has played terrific defense, and can have the worst of nights offensively and the Blazers still keep on winning. He missed his first nine shots at Minnesota on Wednesday night, then hit two 3-pointers to hold off
the Timberwolves and secure Portland's 88-81 victory.

When Barkley comes to town, there's no telling what he might do or say. If
he can flip a 330-pound Los Angeles Lakers center on his back, anything is possible. But Barkley seems more preoccupied with his team's struggles than any personal feud.

"It's not me against Scottie," he said. "We just need to win any game. I have no bad will toward Scottie."

The two ex-Dream Teammates have not spoken since Pippen's Sept. 29 interview on ESPN, in which he said he should have listened to MichaelJordan, who said Barkley would never win a championship because he lacked dedication.

Pippen went on to call Barkley "a very selfish guy" who "didn't show the desire to want to win."

Pippen was asked whether he should apologize to Barkley, who had criticized Pippen for wanting to be traded after only one 50-game season with the Rockets, with whom he had signed a five-year, $67.2 million deal.

"I wouldn't give Charles Barkley an apology at gunpoint," Pippen said in the interview. "He can never expect an apology from me. If anything, he owes me an apology for coming to play with his sorry fat butt."

If the tirade was designed to force a trade, it worked. Three days later,Pippen was sent to Portland for six players, only two of whom -- Walt Williams and Kelvin Cato -- are still with the Rockets.

While Pippen talks smack and smiles almost nightly, Barkley has come off like a bitter old man in recent days, blasting his younger teammates for their ubiquitous pagers and cellular phones, and for watching music videos before games instead of game videotape.

If the Rockets' slide continues, and Pippen goes on to win his seventh NBA title with the Blazers, he knows his ex-teammate's stinging criticism will be brought back up again.

"Sooner or later, I will get blamed," Barkley said. "I understand that. I accept that. Some people have to have a scapegoat. That's part of it."