“You know, Scottie Pippen and I, we were just at Michael’s 50th birthday party, hanging out for a week, and we were talking. I’m going to tell you what Scottie said. I’m going to tell you what Scottie said. Scottie said that LeBron would’ve kicked MJ’s ass.”

After the expected cheering and applause, Mourning continued:

“I said, I said ‘Scottie, you’re right.'”

Following the laughter elicited by that comment, Mourning provided a little clarification:

“I said, ‘but because LeBron is my size.’ I mean, he’s 265, so when he’s playing point guard, it’s like a freight train coming. I couldn’t imagine doing the things he’s doing at my size.”

Nothing groundbreaking here. This is the standard response by people in the Pro-LeBron camp of this particular debate. Size and strength would be LeBron’s primary advantage in this theoretical one-on-one battle. But it’s all theoretical and not really worth digging into too deeply, even if people will never be able to stop taking about it.

Hey, I was a kid once, so I know action figure battles are crazy fun. When you have the toys, you want to see Hulk versus Superman. Snake Eyes versus Storm Shadow. Optimus Prime versus Megatron.

Past that, you sort of expect Mourning — who is considered one of the great players in Miami Heat history — to side with LeBron. That said, it was a little surprising that dragged Pippen into it, given that this was probably a private comment Scottie never intended to see in print. He’ll see it now.

Of course, Pippen did provide his own public commentary on this debate a couple years back:

“Michael Jordan is probably the greatest scorer to play the game. But I may go as far as to say LeBron James may be the greatest player to ever play the game because he is so potent offensively that not only can he score at will but he keeps everybody involved. You have to be on your P’s and Q’s on defense. No guy on the basketball court is a threat to score with LeBron James out there. Not only will LeBron dominate from the offensive end as well, but he’s also doing it on the defensive end, which really makes him the complete package. He’s able to get in those passing lanes, shoot those gaps and create transition opportunities where he is pretty much unstoppable.”

Naturally, the Pro-Jordan camp exploded at this seeming betrayal, and even former Bulls player Horace Grant (and good friend of Pippen) spoke up:

“Pip is my man, and we will always be close but I totally disagree. LeBron is going to be one of the top players to ever play the game. But Michael Jeffrey Jordan, who we bumped heads with at times, is I think in my era, the best who ever played the game. I’m kind of at a loss for words because Michael Jordan … when you win numerous MVPs and you’ve taken the team to six championships — and probably could have been eight if he didn’t retire those two years — and MVPs in the playoffs … and he made us better. Believe me, he made myself, Scottie, B.J. [Armstrong], even Bill Cartwright who I love, he made us better players. He gave us that confidence. But first we had to earn his trust. And once we earned his trust you saw championship after championship.”

Things got ugly enough that Pippen eventually defended himself with the following tweets:

“For all of you that don’t know, I played the game you keep watching and cheering.”

And:

“Don’t get me wrong, MJ was and is the greatest. But LeBron could by all means get to his level someday.”

None of what any of these men said is all that unreasonable. People have opinions and they’re free to express them. Personally, I think these “versus” debates do a disservice to NBA history and the players themselves, but they’re always fun talking points…even if in the end none of it really means anything.

But MJ was the best.

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Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan surprised his former teammate Scottie Pippen for Pippen’s 47th birthday party Monday night. Pippen’s wife, Larsa, planned the secret bash at Chicago hot spot Sunda. Bulls family, including team president Michael Reinsdorf and his wife, Nancy, NBA power broker William “World Wide Wes” Wesley, Antoine Walker, Ahmad Rashad, and new Bulls recruit and Chicago native Nazr Mohammed gathered to celebrate at the club with Pippen. Sources told us the fun night ended with a dance-off between Jordan and Pippen to the Trey Songz and Fabolous song, “Say Ahh.”

What? No word on who won the dance-off? My guess is Pippen got toasted. After all, Michael Jordan’s competitive nature and killer instinct are legendary. And remember those Hanes commercials he used to be in with Kevin Bacon? Bacon’s dancing skills speak for themselves…and I’d be willing to bet he taught MJ a move or two during breaks on their commercial shoots.

Or maybe not.

Also no word on whether Antoine Walker spent the party jacking up three-pointers. My gut tells me “yes.”

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“He’s going to be a bigger, better, stronger player. I think it’s great to have something like this happen if it’s going to happen at a young age (23). He’s going to heal fast, and he’s going to push himself now to be better than he probably would have ever been.”

This sort of keeps with Dr. Brian Cole’s assessment that Rose can potentially get back to 125% of where he was before. I have no doubt Rose will push himself. But the truth is: Nobody really knows how for sure well Rose will recover from his ACL tear. Not doctors. Not Pippen. Not Rose himself. Only time will tell.

And so Bulls fans watch. And wait. And wait some more.

Dwyane Wade on D-Rose’s injury (also via Comcast SportsNet Chicago):

“You just feel bad for [Rose]. We all deal with injuries and every time you deal with an injury, you hope it’s not the big one. You hope it won’t end your season. So to see a guy like D-Rose, who was battling injuries all year, minor injuries, and then it took its toll. And it was sad to see.

“We didn’t want to see it and we want to play the Bulls. We want to play the best teams. We want him and his family to be fine, so to hear he was in high spirits and doing well, outside looking in, as a fan of the game, I’m excited for him.”

Wade — who recently admitted his free agent visit to Chicago “messed me up” — also told ESPNChicago that Rose might eventually change his mind over his refusal to recruit other great players to join him on the Bulls:

“Derrick’s still young (23). When I came into the league (in 2003), when all of us came into the league, you never can tell me that this day would come where I play with guys like LeBron (James) and Chris (Bosh) because I wanted to be the young gun. I wanted to be the one who leads my team to a championship, I had that mentality.

“And then you get to a point where you understand, even with me winning a championship in my third year, it took Shaquille O’Neal, it took Gary Payton, Antoine Walker, James Posey, all these guys to make it possible. This league is very good and you’re not going to win it alone. So when you’ve had a very good team like Derrick has had, you don’t need to recruit, but when you’ve hit rough stages and injuries hit and all these things, and you have a year like we had where we won 15 games (in 2007-08), and now we’ve got to rebuild back, it becomes a little different. Hopefully, he doesn’t have to experience that, but things change.”

The whole “recruitment” thing hasn’t hurt the Heat or the Lakers. As much as I love Derrick’s humility, I wouldn’t mind him working a little more to bring some more star power to the Windy City. Management could probably use the help.

One last bonus quote from Wade, this time on the LeBron versus M.J. debate-that-shouldn’t-be-a-debate-yet, from the Chicago Sun-Times:

“Michael is the greatest player I’ve ever seen play. I think LeBron is in that conversation of one day becoming. It’s all speculation, in a sense. He has a long way to go. He knows that. He has one championship. Michael has six! There’s a lot to say about that. LeBron is a dominant player. .?.?.But Michael Jordan is the greatest of all time.”

Agreed. And that’s exactly where this “debate” should remain. For now.

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This is a very good call by the Bulls. With other teams embracing their legends, it was time (perhaps even past time) to show Scottie some love.

Pippen said (via statement): “Words really can’t express my feelings. It’s an unbelievable honor and truly amazing. It’s something you dream of as a kid growing up, but you can never foresee those childhood fantasies becoming reality. You see statues of individuals who have done great things and made their mark on history, but as a basketball player, you never really think about arriving at this point. It’s an amazing honor for the Chicago Bulls to do this for me.”

Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf added (also via statement): “Not only is Scottie Pippen one of the greatest players to ever wear a Bulls uniform, but he’s among the best players in the history of the league to play the game. He had a tremendous impact in bringing six world championships to Chicago and there is no better way to pay tribute to him than with a permanent bust that honors his inspirational career.”

I’m not sure why Pip isn’t getting a full statue like Jordan. Seriously, how cool would it be to see a statue of Scottie next to MJ’s statue? Especially if Bronze Pippen was dunking over a Bronze Ewing. You know, the whole “art imitating life” thing.

I don’t know. Maybe this was the organization’s way of saying, “Scottie, you were truly great, but let’s be honest, you were not as great as Mike, so we’re only bronzing part of your anatomy.”

If this continues, maybe we’ll see additional bronze partials of other players from the Jordan era, with each one based on that player’s level of contribution to the championship cause. We could have bronze replicas of Horace Grant’s feet, or John Paxson’s hands, maybe a thumb of Will Perdue or the bronze fingernail clippings of Stacey King.

Admit it. That would be awesome.

Update! From By The Horns reader Brad S: “I’d like to see Toni Kukoc’s sweet, sweet hair styling encased in bronze.”

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It’s just as well.

The Denver Nuggets were willing to trade Carmelo to the Bulls, but only if Joakim Noah was included in the deal. As ESPN’s Chris Broussard tweeted, the Bulls aren’t currently willing to part with their wacky-haired big man.

Thank God.

TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott wrote a pretty comprehensive list of the benefits and costs of flipping Noah (along with, most likely, Luol Deng) for Anthony.

For me, the key reason not to do it is this: You can wager big bucks  that new coach Tom Thibodeau wants to craft a finely tuned defensive squad. He can probably do that with Noah as the anchor, and Deng and Ronnie Brewer on the perimeter. But what could you expect from a core of ‘Melo, Derrick Rose and Carlos Boozer with Omer Asik clogging the paint?

I shudder to think.

And anyway, while I love Anthony’s scoring ability, I love Noah’s intangibles even more. But don’t take my word for it. Take Scottie Pippen’s:

“You don’t want to lose a guy like Joakim and have a guy like Carmelo come here. Hey, he might not like it here. Next year he may be wanting to get out of here and go play somewhere else. I think it would be a huge gamble for the Bulls. It could set them back or it could push them up. I like Joakim, so for personal reasons I would probably keep him.”

But wait, there’s more:

“I think you have to say that he is one of the top two players on the team as far as value,” Pippen said. “He brings a lot to the table. You can’t forget that this kid is a winner, who is coming off his college career [with] two championships [at Florida]. He still wants to win, and he plays very hard. He’s not the most attractive player in terms of [style] out on the basketball court. He gets the job done, and he plays at a very high level. You can call him a poor man’s Dennis Rodman. He’s a presence out on the basketball court.”

There you have it. If Scottie said it, what more do you want?

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Inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame? Check.

Bronze statue in the United Center? Soon to be check.

According to Adam Fluck of Bulls.com: “The Chicago Bulls have plans to unveil a bronze statue of Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen that will be displayed permanently in the United Center at some point towards the end of the 2010-11 season. … The statue will be crafted by Omri and Julie Rotblatt-Amrany of Highland Park, Ill., who also sculpted the famous Michael Jordan statue which was unveiled in January 1994 in conjunction with Jordan’s No. 23 jersey retirement.”

Said Pippen: “Words really can’t express my feelings. It’s an unbelievable honor and truly amazing. It’s something you dream of as a kid growing up, but you can never foresee those childhood fantasies becoming reality. You see statues of individuals who have done great things and made their mark on history, but as a basketball player, you never really think about arriving at this point. It’s an amazing honor for the Chicago Bulls to do this for me.

“I’m more excited now when I look back at what we were able to accomplish. My playing years went by so fast, but I’m happy I was able to make my mark on the game. It’s hard to take a deep breath and look back on it all. At the same time, you are always trying to get to the next level and accomplish something new. I’m at a point now where I can really appreciate what I did throughout my career. To enjoy those things and reap some of the benefits now is very special to experience.”

As honors go, this one is about as well-deserved as they get.

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Scottie Pippen will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame tonight. To say his induction will be well-deserved is putting it rather lightly, don’t you think?

Pippen logged 41,609 minutes in 1,178 career games, scoring 18,940 points, grabbing 7,494 rebounds and dishing out 6,135 assists. I guess you could say he had a nice, all-around game.

That assist total, by the way, ranks 26th all time…ahead of legends like Larry Bird (5,695), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (5,660) and Michael Jordan (5,633), not to mention scads of point guards and playmakers (such as Mookie Blaylock, Sam Cassell, Avery Johnson, Dennis Johnson, Doc Rivers, Mark Price, etc.). MJ gets most of the credit for leading the Bulls to six titles, but Pippen did his fair share of making teammates better.

As Sam Smith of Bulls.com wrote: “Steve Kerr used to recount times on the floor he’d go several minutes and not get a shot and become a bit wary. He said Pippen would run by him and say, ‘I know you haven’t gotten a shot. Don’t worry. Next time, I’ll get you one.’ Kerr said it was uncanny Pippen seemed to know what everyone on the court needed.”

On the subject of ranking high, Pippen is 13th all-time in steals per game (2.0) and 6th all-time in total steals (2,307), trailing only Maurice Cheeks (2,310), Jason Kidd (2,343), Gary Payton (2,445), Michael Jordan (2,514) and John Stockton (3,265). Maybe somebody should give him a black ski mask as a HoF induction gift.

You see, defense was Scottie’s bread and butter, which is why he made the All-NBA Defensive First Team eight straight times (1991-92 through 1998-99) and the All-NBA Defensive Second Team two other times (1990-91 and 1999-2000).

And if you enjoy advanced stats, it’s worth pointing out that Pippen finished in the top 10 in Defensive Rating five times (including a first place finish in 1994-95). He also finished with five top 10 finishes in Defensive Win Shares, a category in which he ranks 15th all-time. That rank puts him ahead of former teammates Jordan (19th) and Dennis Rodman (29th), both of whom are ranked among the NBA’s all-time great defensive forces.

Well, Pippen is right there with them. With anybody, really.

Here’s some wacky random for you. Do you even know how Scottie ended up on the Bulls? On November 12, 1986, the New York Knicks traded their 1987 1st round draft pick along with a 1990 2nd round draft pick (Steve Henson) to the Seattle Supersonics for Gerald Henderson and a 1987 1st round draft pick (Mark Jackson).

Then, on June 22, 1987, the Seattle Supersonics traded the draft pick they got from the Knicks (which would become Scottie) along with their 1989 1st round draft pick (Jeff Sanders) to the Chicago Bulls for Olden Polynice, a 1988 2nd round draft pick (Sylvester Gray) and a 1989 1st round draft pick (B.J. Armstrong, who was traded right back to the Bulls for Brad Sellers, whom Pippen made obsolete).

It was as “simple” as that.

No offense to Polynice and Gray, but the Bulls made out like friggin’ bandits in that deal. Even if there was no way they could have known that at the time. I mean, how can you predict a guy is going to make seven All-Star teams, seven All-NBA teams (first, second or third) and help guide your team to six championships?

I know it may seem like I’m reducing Pippen to stats, trivia and trophies. But I’m not. I’m really not. It’s just that I enjoy the perspective that Scottie’s accomplishments provide. The more subjective historical view will now and forever characterize Pippen as the Robin to Jordan’s Batman. ESPN’s J.A. Adande even described Pippen as the ultimate wingman.

The best second-best player ever. The meanest second fiddle that’s ever been played. The top second banana in league history. So on and so forth. This notion has been so ingrained in the consciousness of NBA fans that almost every time a team is searching for a compliment to an existing superstar, the would-be sidekick is usually described as a “Scottie Pippen type.”

I suppose some people would say that’s high praise. But personally, I think it detracts somewhat from Pippen’s greatness.

Yeah, I get that Scottie didn’t do the best job of ingratiating himself with an NBA fandom that never quite fully embraced him. There were problems. Like the migraine he got during one of the biggest games of his life. Or the 1.8-second boycott during one of the most important games of his life.

In January 1994, Pippen was arrested for possession of a firearm, although the charges were dropped after he accused the arresting officer of racism. Speaking of which, Pippen also accused Bulls fans of racism for not booing Tony Kukoc for stinking up the court.

During a 1995 game against the Spurs, he responded to his second technical foul (and the ensuing automatic ejection) by throwing a chair onto the court.

On top of all that, there were feuds with management, complaints about being underpaid, trade demands and even the threat that he might retire during Chicago’s final championship run in 1997-98.

Normally, these points are brought up to minimize Pippen’s place in history. I’m bringing them up because they didn’t matter. Not in terms of what Scottie accomplished on the court. Not in the big picture.

Forget the fact that he wasn’t as good as the greatest player of all time, who just so happened to be his teammate. Forget the distractions. Just look at what he did.  Pippen doesn’t need to make any apologies for not making the most of his talent. He was a defensive demon. He could control a game without taking a shot. And he won. And won. And won.

In the end, those are the things that define Scottie Pippen.

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At any rate, although Pippen provided some potent offense, we all know his surest skill was his defense. A few months ago, I described being defended by Pippen as being caught in his torture chamber. Well, watch this video and welcome to his chamber.

From Docksquad Sports (via TrueHoop):

The post Scottie Pippen’s torture chamber appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

In case you haven’t heard, Scottie Pippen — along with Karl Malone, Lakers owner Jerry Buss, Bob Hurley Sr., Cynthia Cooper, Dennis Johnson, Gus Johnson, and Maciel “Ubiratan” Pereira as well as the 1960 and 1992 U.S. Olympic teams — was selected for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s class of 2010.

Pippen’s selection wasn’t simply well-deserved, it was a no-brainer. After all, Scottie was the second-best player on six NBA championship teams over an eight-year period. And the best player on those teams happened to be the greatest ever. So although Pippen was and probably always will be best-known for playing second fiddle to Michael Jordan…that was still a pretty mean fiddle.

On the subject, it’s fitting that Pippen will become a Hall of Famer exactly one year after Jordan. Scottie spent most of his career as the Robin to Michael’s Batman. Not by choice. That was decided by fate, not to mention fans and a press corps that never fully appreciated what Pippen meant to the Chicago Bulls.

For sure, MJ was the foundation on which those six titles were built. But Scottie was like championship spackle. He filled all the holes. Scoring, rebounding, passing and especially defense. Pippen spent a full decade on the NBA All-Defensive First or Second Teams. But those are just numbers. The reality is, he was without question one of the best defensive players of his generation and probably of all-time.

Guarding Kevin McHale — who himself spent 12 seasons as Larry Bird’s second-in-command — was once described by then-Piston John Salley as “being in the man’s [torture] chamber.” Well, being defended by Scottie was like being in Pippen’s chamber. Just ask Magic Johnson, who got hounded almost to the point of distraction by Pippen in the 1991 NBA Finals. You could also ask Mark Jackson, who received 94 feet of pain from Scottie in the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals. When Pippen guarded you, it was like being locked in shackles, covered in crawling insects, and then set on fire.

In a word: Terrible.

Whenever Scottie comes up during conversation with my basketball buddies, I almost always harken back to one of my all-time favorite Chicago teams: The Pippen-led 1993-94 squad. That was the first year of Jordan’s first retirement, when Michael left the Bulls to play baseball (and, really, to escape the constant grind of pursuing NBA championships). Finally, Scottie got a chance to be the Batman.

All Pippen did was set career-highs in scoring (22.0 PPG), rebounding (8.7) and steals (2.9), not to mention Player Efficiency Rating (23.2). He also finished third (behind Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson) in MVP voting. But discussing stats, as impressive as they may seem, kind of undersells Pippen. He was a leader. He pumped up his teammates. Jordan led mostly by example and fear. But Bulls players, when they needed a pep talk or a little inspiration, went to Scottie. No less an expert than Phil Jackson said so.

At any rate, Scottie pushed the 1993-94 Bulls — who were forced to plug Pete Myers into the gaping hole left by Jordan — to 55 wins. That was only two fewer wins than the 1992-93 team, which featured an in-his-prime MJ and won a third straight championship. Think about that. The Bulls replaced Jordan with freaking Pete Myers and only dropped two more games. Who would have thought that was even possible?

Those 55 wins weren’t all Scottie. Due credit must be given to then-coach Phil Jackson and his amazing system, not to mention other players (most notably Horace Grant, B.J. Armstrong and Toni Kukoc) picking up their games. But Pippen was the foundation of that team, and he proved more than up to the task.

That squad could have won the title. I’m being completely serious. It could have happened. As it was, the 1993-94 Bulls lost a hard-fought seven-game series to the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. (Don’t even get me started about the officiating in that series, especially Game 5. I’m serious. Don’t get me started.) The Knicks went on lose their own hard-fought seven game series to the Houston Rockets in the 1994 Finals — thanks in no small part to an epic 2-for-18 shooting meltdown by John Starks — so it’s not a huge stretch to imagine the Bulls making it that far and prevailing.

Maybe they would have lost to the Rockets too. After all, Olajuwon destroyed Patrick Ewing in those Finals. What do you suppose he would have done to Chicago’s three-headed center monster of Bill Cartwright, Bill Wennington and Luc Longley? We’ll never know, but I’m guessing it would have been ugly.

That said, the 1993-94 Rockets didn’t have anybody who was going to stop Scottie Pippen. So…who knows? In the final analysis, the 1993-94 Bulls stand as a glowing example that Jordan — as great as he was — didn’t do it alone. A lot of people tend to overlook it, but Scottie almost led the Bulls to their fourth straight title without MJ. So, like I said, Pippen’s spot in the Hall of Fame is a no-brainer.

At any rate, I’m happy for Pip. He’s certainly earned a time to shine.

Note: Okay, it’s hard to bring up the 1993-94 Bulls and their playoff series against the Knicks without mentioning how Scottie refused to play the final 1.8 seconds of Game 3 because Jackson didn’t write up the game-winning play for him. That incident capped off a season in which Pippen spent way too much time complaining about his salary and even made a rude hand gesture to Bulls fans for booing him. (Pip then compounded that last faux pas by claiming fans were booing him because he was black.)

Living in Jordan’s shadow — and being underpaid in part because of that and in part because Jerry Reinsdorf is frighteningly cheap — bothered Pippen a lot. And all too often his mini-rebellions made him look like a bratty malcontent. Which, at times, he was. But, in my opinion, those things shouldn’t diminish his contributions to the Bulls. After all, Jordan punched out Steve Kerr in practice. Oh, MJ also punched out Will Perdue. Since indicents like that haven’t hurt Michael’s legacy, then Pippen’s occasional outburts shouldn’t tarnish his.

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Random thought: I wish Scottie would randomly show up at my job. That would sure break up the monotony of filling out all these TPS reports.

Hat tip: Ball Don’t Lie.

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