Jordan Hakeem Ewing Stockton Malone D. Robinson Gary Payton Drexler How about.... Magic Johnson, Larry Bird lol
Kukoc was the 2nd best player on that team. That was the year Pippen refused to be in at the end of a playoff game because Jackson drew a play for Pippen to be a decoy and Kukoc to hit the game winner. Pippen quit and sulked, while Kukoc went on to hit the game winner. Pippen was a great player, but he was an ass in many ways, probably worse than the Chuckster, who was at least fun.
Pippen was THE small forward of the 90's... Grant Hill is probably second, and he didn't win anything or join the league until '94... But he is still one of the all-time biggest FA busts in the history of FA busts (right up there with Juwan Howard/Shawn Kemp), so if you're talking all-time top 10, you've got to be joking... Still, in his prime (92-98), he was definitely the best in the league at his position.
The statement mentioned heretofore is simply my personal opinion: Scottie Pippen is ONE OF MY TOP TEN FAVORITE PLAYERS OF ALL TIME. While we're at it, although Pippen is one of my favorites, he is not better than Drexler. Drexler was a great leader, in '92 Portland panicked, let Danny Ainge walk and traded Kevin Duckworth for Harvey Grant. Additionally, I come to Drexler's defense noting that although Pippen was great, he never as the star player, took a team to the finals once or twice as Drexler did. With the talent surrounding him on Portland, he should have done that. If Clyde Drexler had the talent that Pippen had surrounding him, HE WOULD HAVE WON A FEW TITLES. But I don't understand why Rocket fans still tear up Pippen. A lot of great players have demanded a trade (didn't Dream demand a trade?) But I still like Pippen, I have an authentic Portland Trailblazers Pippen jersey, will probably buy a few of his Bulls (authentic and throwback home and road jerseys) and see about locating a pinstripe '99 jersey, hopefully authentic. Further, I'll order a new authentic Rockets jersey from nba.com with Pippen's name and number in his honor. Scottie Pippen, what an outstanding player, remarkable athlete, masterful defender, one of my favorites. P.S. - How many titles did Michael claim without Scottie's help?
Top 10 Stars of the Late Dream Team Era 1. Jordan (No question) 2. Hakeem (No question) 3. Malone (Grudgingly...) 4. David Robinson (Yeah, yeah, little mermaid. Who'd you rather build a team around?) 5. Shaquille O'Neal (Even Shaq before he learned how to win was better than Pippen. Remember the Shaq that could run the floor?) 6. Charles Barkley (Who led his team further when they were, "the man"?) 7. Patrick Ewing (See above. Team went further with less talent.) 8. Clyde Drexler (Two Finals appearences as the leader of the Trailblazers. Numbers consistently on par, or better, than Pips. Keep in mind, before Game 1 of the 92 Playoffs, people were saying he was as good as Jordan. He wasn't, but the time, he was still better than Pippen. Obviously this is pre-Rockets Glide. No question for me here.) 9. Dominique Wilkins (He was TOO better. In Pippen's best year, when he averaged 22ppg, Nique put up 30. Arguable, but Nique was still awfully good.) 10. John Stockton (Certainly arguable. But Stockton was as good a PG as Pippen was a SF, in my opinion.) I said you could argue that Pippen wasn't a top ten player in his prime. I have presented my argument.
Pippen > Drexler I wouldn't down play some of the teams Drexler had with Porter and Robinson in their prime, and there were others I can't quite put my finger on right now. Pippen did pretty well the year Jordan left, that was his breakout year, they just narrowly got defeated by the Knicks and then he didn't really have anymore chances on his own. With the Blazers true they had it, still to this day I can't put my finger on what went wrong. And the years after that the Portland managment didn't do a good job and he didn't run point enough for the team to truly excel. When Drexler played he was never the greatest player, thats the advantage the Bulls had, they had the 2 best players in the league and Pippen was willing to do what it took to win.
Let's not get me started here. I've always felt Drexler was in Jordan's caliber, his equal as much as Bird was Magic's equal and Russell was Chamberlain's equal. Jordan and Drexler are the two best shooting guards of all time in my opinion. Kobe Bryant might be the most overrated shooting guard of all time, certainly the most overrated shooting guard of this era. T-Mac is at least Kobe's equal. Drexler is still one of the most underrated and underappreciated players in the history of basketball. And to clarify the arguments about Pippen, it is simply opinion -- Pippen, unfortunately is not one of the TOP TEN GREATEST PLAYERS OF ALL TIME. Although he could have been. My top ten favorite players have nothing to do with the rest of the fandom thinks. My top ten FAVORITE players of all time are: 1. Clyde Drexler 2. Hakeem Olajuwon 3. Bill Russell 4. Wilt Chamberlain 5. Scottie Pippen 6. Charles Barkley 7. Michael Jordan 8. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 9. Yao Ming 10. David Robinson
I disagree. Drexler, my all-time-favorite player, doesn't receive the props he deserves. The Bulls outplayed the Blazers, but that doesn't mean Jordan was better than Drexler. Let all the replies commence. Pippen better than Drexler...are you sure about that. I'll say this much...I'll consider Jordan Drexler's equal, but not better. It goes like this...if Drexler had beaten Jordan not ONCE, BUT FIVE TIMES in the finals, people would still say Jordan's better. It's all about marketing. Comparatively with the Bulls and Blazers, although they had some good players alongside Drexler, there wasn't another SUPERSTAR that properly complimented Drexler the same way Jordan had. Who's better the better SF = Pippen or Kersey? If Drexler had Charles Barkley or Hakeem Olajuwon on Portland (even before Dream's prime), they would have crushed the Bulls. Or if Drexler and Dream had played together sooner in Houston, the Rockets would have gone to the finals earlier, just in time to dominate Jordan's Bulls. The 90's could have gone 5-5 (Bulls 5 titles, Houston 5 titles) or 8-2 (Houston 8, Chicago 2). Even after all is said and done, they'd still say Jordan was the greatest player of all time. Bill Russell had more rings than Wilt Chamberlain, yet most have argued that Wilt was the better player simply because of scoring stats.
I wasn't comparing the Bulls team Pippen was on to the Blazers team of Drexler, we were dicussing Pippen in Portland and how u felt Drexler would have won with that supporting cast. I'd say those 2 teams were about even, it's not Bulls vs Blazers, it's Blazers vs Blazers.
Pippen better than Drexler? To me, yes. Jordan not better than Drexler is completely WRONG!. Forget the championships and the MVPs, Drexler was one of the most versatile players of all time but he still couldn't do anything better than Jordan. Jordan could obviously score better, defend better, rebound better, pass better, and he was the most competitive player of his time. You might as well start saying that Shaq was better than Wilt. I doubt it, but we'll never know since he never beat him. Most people are wrong about that, Bill Russell was the MAN.
Before this gets out of hand, please realize you just said Drexler is as good as Jordan... You may want to retract that statement before losing all credibility.
Drexler averaged .1 less rebounds for his career and .3 more assists. How was Jordan so superior in terms of rebounding and passing? Scoring and defense, I'll give you that easily. But Clyde was no slouch. I can't understand how you would consider a complementary player who never led his team to the Finals (and took part in one of the biggest CHOKE jobs in history in the 2000 WCFs) was better than the leader of two teams that made it to the Finals.
Numbers don't tell it all, if Jordan had to rebound more he would of done it, still .1 is at best calling it even. If he didn't shoot more than everyone else in the NBA he would of had more assists. Complementary player? No. I would consider him better because he was a much better defender to go along with one of the most versatile games in history and he has 6 rings.
Pippen didn't have as many opportunities as Drexler did to prove himself on his own. In this "choke job" the Blazers were a hell of lot closer to the title than the Blazers ever were to defeating the Bulls. I'd consider Drexler's losing to the Bulls 2 years in a row in the finals or losing in the finals period quite a choke job. Pippen may have not performed that one year, but he's got 6 other rings that say other wise. IMO Pippen and Jordan complimented each other perfectly which is clearly shown in that they only won together.
My Top 10 1. Jordan - Pippen 3. Hakeem 4. Kobe-Tmac 6. Shaq 7.Duncan 8. KG 10. Stockton/Malone they made each other, though I think Stockton would have made most pf's look great.
I don't get the love for Stockton, all he did was pass, didn't make plays, he made decisions with the ball and passed it. Stockton was the best at doing that, he was calm, was a GREAT passer and decision maker. However, every PG in Sloan's system looks pretty decent because all they have to do is make the pass, which is easy with above average passing skills. Malone was the one who was making things happen though, the one finishing at the other end. When Isiah and Payton were at their peaks would you take Stockton over either of them? Do I feel this way because he was John Stockton?
Unfortunately, as a Rockets fan, to see Glide blow his wad early in what could have been the last shot of '96 WCF game 6 and then to turn around and see Jordan milk the clock for the last shot of the '97 Finals game 1 left an indelible impression and told me all that I needed to know about the difference between Glide and Jordan.
