Chicago remains a city of shadows for Pippen

Sporting News, The, Sept 5, 1994 by David Moore

Scottie Pippen has spent most of his career in Michael Jordan's shadow. He has no intention of assuming that role with Toni Kukoc.

For two months - since Sonics Owner Barry Ackerley aborted a deal for Pippen - his future with the Bulls has been in question. Publicly Pippen says he wants to return, but those close to him say he has told Bulls Vice President Jerry Krause that he wants to be traded.

The animosity between Pippen and his current employers makes it likely that he will be traded. Management has never embraced Pippen and his petulant ways. When he refused to enter the final 1.8 seconds of a playoff game against the Knicks, the rift increased.

Pippen maintains that he has been slighted by the organization. He feels underappreciated and underpaid and has been jealous of the attention the Bulls have showered on Kukoc. That hit home even harder this summer when the club showered a six-year, $25-million contract on Kukoc.

When the Bulls extended Pippen's contract during the team's first championship season, Owner Jerry Reinsdorf told Pippen he would never make more than Jordan. But Reinsdorf offered this as solace: Once Jordan was gone, no one would make more than Pippen. The Bulls had a structure, Reinsdorf promised, and that was to assure that the team's best player was also its highest-paid.

Pippen is undoubtedly a better player than Kukoc. Yet Pippen will make $10.45 million over the next four years. That average is well below Kukoc and is equal to point guard BJ. Armstrong.

If Pippen remains, he deserves to be the highest-paid player. But why should the club rework the contract of a player who has ripped management, implied that Bulls fans are racist and refused to enter the final seconds of a playoff game?

It won't. The Bulls can't afford to keep Pippen, from a monetary or emotional standpoint. Now that baseball, free agency and retirements have shattered the Bulls' championship nucleus, Pippen's chances of being traded have increased.

The Bullets have a standing offer of Calbert Cheaney, Don MacLean and the rights to rookie Juwan Howard. The Heat have proposed several packages with Rony Seikaly as the centerpiece. Any scenario must include Glen Rice or Steve Smith to make the deal work.

The Heat need a player of Pippen's caliber. Unlike their expansion brethren in Orlando and Charlotte, the Heat have not hit it big in the lottery.

Although Miami management has put together a good, young team, it is not one that can compete for a championship. Right now, the Heat can't even compete in Florida.

Acquiring Pippen would create a splash and give the Heat a chance to get off the .500 treadmill. It would also signal that the new ownership must be taken seriously.

Friends say Pippen would love to play for the Heat. Whatever happens, it has become painfully clear that there is no love lost between Pippen and the Bulls.

Hands-off policy

The NBA has begun to address the backlash to its low-scoring season and playoffs. In summer league competition, the league instructed officials to call a foul when a defender tried to hand-check his opponent.

The most famous practitioner of this art is Knicks guard Derek Harper.

"Derek Harper's name always comes up," says Darell Garretson, the NBA's officiating chief. "I don't see Derek Harper playing defense any differently now than he ever did. But if it behooves the officials to clean the hands up, I don't see a big problem doing that."

The first two games the officials took the hands away, Garretson says, there were 88 and 108 fouls called. But as the players became accustomed to the call, the number of fouls began to drop.

The hope is that more offensive movement will be created by eliminating hand-checking. But don't expect the league to go overboard in this regard.

"I don't think in our game that you could call every bit of contact," Garretson says. "I've seen enough to know that. You can't go to the no-touch. One summer, we went to the no-touch rule in the Los Angeles Summer League. It was disastrous. It lasted two days. That's just not the way the game is played."

A big line

And the final word comes from Rockets guard Kenny Smith on what winning the championship means to Houston.

"It's a basketball town now," he says. "It wasn't always like that. Growing up, when I heard Houston, I thought of those big linemen. All I could think of was Texas A&M. Now, when people think of Houston, they think of Hakeem (Olajuwon), (Vernon) Maxwell and Smith."

Well, one out of three - Olajuwon - isn't bad.