Scottie Pippen is a Bust

Scottie Pippen is a bust. Or at least he will be when the Bulls unveil the bronze bust of him at the United Center in Chicago next month.

When a list is made of all-time great players, placement of Pippen’s name will vary more than any other player. He won six championships, was a seven-time all star, a ten-time all defensive player, a member of the Dream Team, and was a Top-50 player of all-time.

He also won all his championships alongside Number 23 and with Phil on the bench.

In his post-Bulls and post-Jordan days, Pippen did have success. His Trail Blazers gave him his best chance at a title in 2000, but the Shaq-led Lakers were on their way to a title via an alley-oop from Kobe.

Following his first three championships, all of which came next to Shaq, Kobe critics called him the “next Pippen.” Nobody out-shined Shaq on the Lakers, and naysayers said Kobe couldn’t win a championship as the biggest star on his team. They said Kobe wasn’t a good teammate and couldn’t lead despite his remarkable talent.

For a few years in the middle of the last decade, the criticisms of Kobe seemed legit. It seemed like he might be the next Pippen — a star who never was able to do it without a brighter star. A “Robin.”

Late in Pippen’s career, as his skills declined, his place was as a mentor for a young Portland team that became known as the “Jail Blazers.”

For Kobe, it was the opposite. While his skills and mentality are clearly better than Pippen’s ever were, Kobe also proved over the past few years that he can be “the man” on a championship team. Where Pippen couldn’t rise above the chaos, Kobe willed his way to dominance.

The Pippen-Kobe comparison, or “experiment,” isn’t a great one to begin with. Kobe’s organization has made great personnel decisions while the Jail Blazers have struggled through the past decade despite some decent talent.

While Kobe put the Pippen comparisons to rest, the point is this: anytime a player is seen as “needing” other players to win and not being able to win “all by themselves,” their image is tarnished in the public eye. Writers and pundits talk about players who are dominant personalities on the court, and that is truly where players like Jordan, Kobe, and Shaq separate themselves from players like Scottie Pippen.

With players like Kobe to compare to, it’s clear what Pippen was and what he wasn’t. He was a great defender. He was an amazing second-option offensively to a player who might have been the greatest ever. He was a small-college draft pick who made it big in the NBA, but who never seemed to have the personality to change teammates’ behavior—it was always Jordan who did that on the Bulls, and Pippen couldn’t change the crash-course the Blazers were on before that plane crashed into the mountain.

Pippen was physical grace embodied. Kobe is raw drive personified.  Pippen was a key puzzle piece on six championship teams. Kobe has grown and changed his game to win five titles. Pippen was a seven-time all-star and eight-time All Defensive First-Team selection. Kobe has been to 13 All-Star Games and is a ten-time All Defensive First-Team selection.

Really though, all you need to know about where Scottie Pippen will go down in history in relation to other players is this: when it’s all said and done, Scottie Pippen will have a bust placed somewhere in the United Center. Kobe will have a full statue outside of Staples Center next to Magic Johnson, Chick Hearn, Wayne Gretzky, and Oscar De La Hoya. Enough said.