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Lakers Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal sit on the bench with foul trouble against the Timberwolves in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals at Staples Center Monday. (Photo by Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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Lakers Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal sit on the bench with foul trouble against the Timberwolves in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals at Staples Center Monday. (Photo by Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
In 1998, when the Bulls were done and dismantled, Scottie Pippen had nowhere to call his home. Before that, he had played 11 seasons for the Bulls and still had 5+ years of NBA left in his aging body. That’s when a series of fateful or not-so-fateful things followed his professional career. And yes, this saga involves Kobe Bryant and his Lakers.
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Just as Scottie left the Bulls, he signed with the Houston Rockets. However, the Rockets traded the legend to the Portland Trail Blazers in return for six reserves. Amidst all this, in 1999, there was one more lucrative offer that was about to hit Scottie’s table; an offer from the then about-to-be-champion Lakers.
When Scottie Pippen almost joined Lakers’ Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal
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Legendary meeting on the occasion of Dirk Nowitzki’s last home game of his career. This is Scottie Pippen speaking to Dirk. Photo: Philipp Hülsmann/dpa (Photo by Philipp Hülsmann/picture alliance via Getty Images)
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The 6’8” small forward was still left with four years of his 5-year contract with the Rockets in 1999. The Bulls earlier traded him for reasons that had nothing much to do with his performance. So it was obvious that he was still a title-winning prospect.
Phil Jackson knew this better than anyone else. Back then, the owner of Lakers, Jerry Buss, was said, “Phil definitely felt that Scottie would be a big improvement for us in the next year or two. But he is aware that if you take somebody like Scottie with a long-term contract under the current rules, it would have been impossible to ever improve this team.”
In those days, the Lakers had last won an NBA title in 1988 during the Magic Johnson era. So they were desperate on building a team that could bring that winning momentum back. To achieve that, they had already acquired Kobe Bryant in 1996 drafts (from Hornets) and Shaquille O’Neal from the Orlando Magic. Now, all they needed were some dependable role players and not another star icon.
The contract numbers played the culprit
Jerry Buss knew that housing an elephant can prove beneficial in the short run, but not in the long term. So it was the Batman Pippen’s $67 million contract that kept Jerry from fulfilling Phil Jackson’s desire to hire Scottie.
Jerry had explained, “Scottie is just a great player and certainly for a year or two, it would’ve been the right thing to do. We would’ve probably done it had he not had a four-year contract.”
So this is how a substantial dream team never took shape. Just imagine, the 7-time NBA All-star could’ve completed his third triple-peat had he joined the Lakers. But the fact that the Lakers did it even without Scottie proved that Jerry made the right move.
Plus, Scottie ended his playing career with the Bulls and so it is only fair to assume that he too has no regrets of not making the cut.
