he is...at best...a great role player...he has never, ever, never been able to carry a team on his own. he has never been successful as the first option on a team... i'm not saying he sucks, because he doesn't...but he's not an elite player. he's not mchale to bird...he's not worthy to magic...he's not kobe to shaq. he's just not. he's not of that caliber. can one be a really great role player and carry that into the HOF?? probably so.
i don't necessarily agree...are you saying no other player could have stepped in Pip's spot and won 6 titles with MJ?? that's absurd...there are a ton of players in the history of the game who could have complimented MJ at least as well as Pip did.
for a guy that usually gets 19 points, 4 assists, 4 rebs, 2 steals per game during his chicago run, i'd say that's up there. and just like mchale, worthy, and kobe, pippen was needed to win those championships. i mean, he sucked as a rocket, but you got to give credit to where it's due. people say that you can put in any player to be jordan's sidekick, but who just any old regular player be a great defender like pippen?
When did McHale, Worthy or Kobe ever have to carry a team as the #1 option? My fault, Kobe was the main man for the Lakers at the beginning of last season, when they had that great 3-11 record (something like that). When were they ever assigned to check the #1 option on the other team night in and night out? Pip played on a Bulls team that just lost arguably the greatest player ever, replaced him with a foreign rookie, and he almost took them to the ECF. That year he led the Bulls in damn near every category. That's not impressive? Jordan won how many titles before Pip arrived? Did Jordan ever take the Bulls as far without Pip as Pip took the Bulls without him? Didn't Pip almost lead another team to the championship round IN A DIFFERENT CONFERENCE (Blazers)? If you don't think Pip is a lock for the hall, I challenge your mental condition (sorry....just saw Gothica tonight).
My mind says, "unfortunately, because of his rings that MJ won them (pippen didn't get one on his own), yes"... My heart voted correctly. And would say the same for "top 50."
If my calculations are correct, the Bulls were 40-32 the year before Pippen arrived, and 50-32 afterwards, and improvement of +10 games. After Jordan left, they won 2 fewer games, a decrease of -2. They never had a winning season before Pippen came, during Jordan's tenure, and never had a losing one when Jordan left, while Pippen was there.
gotcha. You made some good points. Adding Pippen definitely helped Jordan, but I think adding Horace Grant that same year helped Jordan as well. He was a consistent scorer (50% career FG) that made them tougher inside and on the boards. He also put up better numbers than Pippen that year. It wasn't all pippen.
It takes more than one HOFer to win a championship. Just MJ wouldn't have won 6 titles. Scottie Pippen was a really good player, good defender, great rebounder. If he retired a couple of years ago there'd be no discussion now. He's ruining his status by hanging on and playing on creaky knees.
I disagree with that, I feel that a lot of the greats played longer than most people would have liked for them to. I feel that Pippen playing is actually a good thing, he plays the amount of time that his knees can handle and he's still a pretty good player. Though for the most part it isn't showing on that confused Bulls team. Hopefully Skiles will come in and clean up that mess and they'll get back on the right track.
Can someone remind me how many championships Jerry West won without Wilt? How many did Oscar Robertson win w/out Lou? I think both players should be striken from the HOF. Clearly they were not the best player on the best year their teams ever had.
