Re: PIPPIN

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

I see that Pippen broke out of his slump pretty nicely tonight.

The idea that Pippen "didn't win anything" without Jordan needs to
be clarified. He didn't win a championship but let's remember that
nobody else did except Olajuwon. If you want to infer that Pippen
is not as dominating a player as Olajuwon in his prime, that's 
absolutely true and obvious.

This doesn't mean that "Pippen sucks" or whatever people typically
infer from this. As many others have noted, Jordan never won a
championship without Pippen either. And the first year without
Jordan was a pretty impressive display of Pippen's skills, as he
led a less than impressive team (built around Jordan's skills, not
Pippen's) to the second round of the playoffs.

So if you are going to criticize Pippen for not winning a championship
in the two year opportunity he had to play without Jordan, without any
supporting star, then we should also look down upon such losers as
Grant Hill, Jason Kidd, Alonzo Mourning, and just about every player 
in the league other than a few that are "lesser losers" for making
the Finals, such as Karl Malone, Gary Payton, and Shaq. I don't know 
about you, but I wouldn't mind having a few of these losers.

I'm not saying that I'd propose a trade for Pippen right now because
as someone noted, we lucked into Pierce and don't have a need for a
small forward. But two years ago when we could have traded the picks
that became Mercer and Anderson, I certainly would have done it if
Walker and the '98 pick weren't involved. Pitino said at that time 
that "anyone who doesn't want Pippen doesn't know basketball" and
I'd completely agree.

Alex


> Pippin didn't win anything while Jordan was off trying baseball, did he?
> He's not playing well in Houston's game scheme because they don't use the
> triangle offence.  Or so I'm told.
> So, he's whining about it.  He's been whining about something his whole
> career.  Houston has already won championships, except for Barkley.
> Barkely's his own worst enemy and I don't care whether or not he ever wins a
> ring.  Pippin doesn't need one.  And the Celtics don't need Pippin.
> 
> Dorine
>