Vescey waxes Pippin

[Josh Ozersky <josh_ozersky@yahoo.com>]

I guess I was wrong.  Look at what Vescey says!  Some
of you will love this.  I have to admit to liking it
myself, and changing my stance.



NOTHING like packing for camp in an upbeat mood. Just
ask Scottie Pippen. Determined to ostracize himself
from the Rockets and force a trade to Phil Jackson's
Lakers (or at least to get closer to Vanessa
Williams), the paragon of unselfishness ripped and
unraveled teammate Charles Barkley. 

According to Pippen, he should have listened to
Michael Jordan when he said you can't win a
championship with Barkley. In Scottie's altruistic
opinion, Sir Charles has no desire or dedication to
win, other than, say, sacrificing millions of dollars
last season so the Rockets would have enough salary
room to sign Pippen to a five-year, $82M million
contract. 

This is the same guy, you'll recall, who stayed on the
bench for the final 1.8 seconds of a playoff game
against the Knicks rather than in-bound the ball to
Toni Kukoc. 

Naturally, a lot of what Pippen says about Barkley is
difficult to dispute. Talk about easy targets. He's
not exactly an exercise freak. His butt is big. His
pounding of the ball (along with Mark Jackson) has
prompted this season's five-second, back-to-the-basket
(above the circle) rule change. And he may care about
statistics a tad more than is healthy for the team's
own good. 

What's equally undebatable is that Jordan loves
Barkley and rarely has anything admirable to say off
the record about Pippen. There's no denying, Barkley
happens to be Jordan's most trusted friend in
basketball, whereas Pippen was another motivating
factor to retire prematurely. And here all this time
we were blaming Jerry Krause and Jerry Reinsdorf. 

Not only couldn't Jordan stand listening to Pippen
whine another minute, he continues to knock Scottie
every time a team's management (Suns and Lakers, to
name two) has asked for feedback. 

Not that the Suns weren't prepared to sign Pippen
despite Jordan's lack of endorsement. From what I'm
told, they would've taken a risk on Pippen's negative
personality and rickety back (two operations), and age
(33 at the time) when he was a free agent. Then again,
they weren't in position to gamble anywhere close to
$82M, some $68M that remains unpaid. 

For all of the above reasons, Laker owner Jerry Buss
is against acquiring Pippen, no matter how much
Jackson (if he wants to reunite with his ex-Bulls,
John Salley, Ron Harperand his staff are as intimate
as it's going to get) wants him to initiate his sacred
triangle offense. 

That leaves the Heat and Blazers, with the latter the
front-runner (money and apparently chemistry are
irrelevant to owner Paul Allen) for Pippen's tainted
services. Each can package a number of undesirables
whose salaries add up to within 15 percent of the $14M
owed Scottie this season. Allen, of course, is even
willing to eat the $3M league maximum allowed in such
deals. 

If the Rockets are angry enough at Pippen for his
sorry diatribe, the opportunity to send him to
Portland is certainly available - for Kelvin Cato,
Walt Williams, Stacey Augmon and Ed Gray. Or, if they
want him out of the western conference, the Heat are
offering Jamal Mashburn, Voshon Lenard, Duane Causwell
and Co. 

Given the above options, Rudy Tomjanovich may feel the
Rockets are better off keeping Pippen, In that case,
say sources, Scottie is prepared to come out in favor
of Kermit Washington. 


=====

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com