Pippen

["Nunnally, John" <jnunnally@usatoday.com>]

I think James has a good point here. In Spike Lee's book about basketball 
(sorry, I read it in a moment of weakness), he and Jordan have some very 
candid, interesting conversations.

Jordan says that the reason the Bulls have been basically unbeatable for the 
last decade is because both Jordan and Pippen are so versatile, both in size 
and skills, both offensively and defensively, that no other team has an 
answer for them.  To guard them, you have to have that "tweener" size (6-7 
or so), strength and quickness.

A lot of teams have one guy who can handle them (someone like Joe Dumars) on 
the defensive end, but no team has two guys like that. That could be the 
reason that the Knicks of the mid-90s gave the Bulls as much trouble as 
anyone. They had both Mason and Starks. Both of those guys had the right 
blend of size, strength and quickness to guard Pippen and Jordan.

 -- John
 ----------
From: MH348
To: celtics
Subject: Re: Malone & $20mil
Date: Wednesday, August 26, 1998 12:52PM

Shawn,

I agree that some of the selections for the NBA at 50 list were jokes, but
Pippen was not one of them. Pippen has shown that he is capable of scoring 
at
will and everybody knows about his defense. And lets get straight to the
point. Jordan without Pippen = no championship. Pippen without Jordan = no
championship.


James