With all the buzz tonight surrounding the debut of the 30 for 30 docuseries, “The Last Dance,” profiling the Chicago Bulls dynasty, we figured it was time to revisit this piece from June 13, 2013. It’s an exclusive with the greatest so-called “second banana” in NBA history, Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen.
It’s from the ground-breaking ceremony on the Bulls’ practice facility, the Advocate Center. At the time of the interview Pippen was serving as Special Advisor to the President and COO for the team. He is probably the team’s number one ambassador these days, as everybody recognizes his game. The oldest nba players, youngest, tallest, fastest, strongest, didn’t matter- he could beat them all.
The exclusive with Scottie Pippen from seven years ago is below.
On being elected to the Hall of Fame:
Scottie Pippen: “It is a great, great class. Karl Malone, the ’92 team to be a part of that team, Cynthia Cooper- who I believe is the face of the WNBA, really put the game on the map and got women’s basketball going in the right direction and brought some excitement to it as well.”
Pippen is widely regarded as a top 25 all-time player in NBA history, and the second greatest Bull in franchise history. He’s one of just four post NBA-ABA merger players to ever lead his team (’94 Bulls) in points, rebounds, steals, assists and blocks in the same season. He had a storied career which included seven All-Star appearances.
I asked Pippen about being honored at halftime of one of the most exciting NCAA title games in college basketball history. In between halves of the 2010 National Title game, Duke vs. Butler, Pippen and rest of the class was honored at Lucas Oil Stadium.
“It was a great Final Four and a great place to be honored, to be a part of what I think was one of the greatest Final Fours, and final game I’ve ever seen- just made it that much sweeter,” he answered.
Also joining him on that stage was the legendary Larry Bird, and since the ceremony took place in Indianapolis, you know the crowd reception was especially warm.
“Larry has always been a guy I’ve admired my whole career and before, any time I’m in his presence it’s a great feeling,” Pippen said.
Scottie Pippen has done some media broadcasting work. He’s not working for any outlet now, but he hasn’t ruled it out.
“I did it a little bit, but I didn’t stay in it long. I’m not taking it off the table. It was fun, it’s exciting,” Pippen replied.
Pippen also believes the new facility will help the team in recruiting new players:
“I definitely think it will attract free agents now that it’s in the city. It’s a state of the art facility, and hopefully at that time we’ll be able to grab some of the top free agents in the market as well,” Pippen said.
I concluded by asking what was his favorite thing about working out at the Berto Center was-
“It was easy, I didn’t have to worry about the traffic. Everything was pretty much consistent,” he responded said.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link