#33

by simplesinger on Sep 14, 2005 9:25 AM CDT Comment 5 comments

Today's Sun-Times. mentions how the Bulls are going to be retiring Scottie's number this season. Here's the actual note:

The Bulls will retire Scottie Pippen's No. 33 jersey at halftime of a Dec. 9 game against the Lakers.

I think that the Bulls are definitly making the right move with this gesture, but it got me thinking a little bit about Scottie's career. I've always felt that Scottie was the kind of player that was always being simultaneously overrated and underrated throughout his career. I'm curious what you guys think, so I figured I'd put up a poll. Anyways, thanks for moderating the site Matt, and hopefully these Bulls will have a great year.

Poll

How would you best describe Scottie Pippen's career?

Consistently underrated

25 votes

Consistently overrated

1 votes

Underrated deffensively but overrated offensively

6 votes

Overrated deffensively but undrrated offensively

0 votes

Simultaneously overrated and underrated

11 votes

43 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

More possible retirees

I always wondered during the dynasty days who beyond Jordan and Pippen would get this honor. I'll try and come up with candidates (and credentials) tonight possibly.

Interesting thoughts on the simultaneously overrated/underrated Pippen, I think maybe we overrated him here, but he was underrated nationally. Although it's hard to be considered underrated when named one of the NBA's 50 best all-time.

For those interested, here is my Pip farewell post back when he retired before last season.

by your friendly BullsBlogger on Sep 14, 2005 10:00 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Re: more possible retirees

I think it's unlikely that the Bulls will retire anyone else's number from that era. I'm sure you'll break this down a lot better than I will, but the next candidates would seem to be Rodman, Horace Grant, Toni Kukoc, and Bill Cartwright. I don't think any of them were with the Bulls long enough or were really good enough for their jerseys to be retired.

My sleeper pick would be John Paxson, but that would be for contributions as a player and as an executive. Obviously that's a long way down the road.

by Eddy Currys Broken Heart on Sep 14, 2005 11:52 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Scottie's rating

And to steer this back to where we started, I'll say Pippen was underrated as an all around player, but probably got the credit he was due defensively.

by Eddy Currys Broken Heart on Sep 14, 2005 11:55 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

re: Scottie's rating

I completely agree with what you wrote in that initial post, Matt. And I really liked Sports Guy's article about Pippen.

I think a lot of people here held that 1.8 seconds against him, and it really clouded their judgment of him. Look at the 1994 season; they were one bad call from going to the conference finals. I don't think anyone thought that was possible after MJ's retirement.

If anything, I'd say that MJ's defense was overrated (especially for the 2nd 3-peat) and Rodman's was underrated. But I think Pippen was the glue that kept that team together defensively.

by Moses Taylor on Sep 15, 2005 10:18 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Defense

I agree about his defense, mainly because without it, they don't win that first championship. Whenever he matched up against Magic in the finals he was able to play tight and physical because of his speed and size. It took Magic out of his game just enough, and I really think without it, the Bulls might have lost that series

The backboard is your friend.

by simplesinger on Sep 15, 2005 11:39 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs