Portland Trailblazers tickets

"Our youngest players need to take advantage of the opportunity to be around Scottie."-Bulls coach Scott Skiles on Scottie Pippen's 2003-04 return to Chicago. Portland Trailblazers Facts Scottie Pippen has seen the highest peaks and lowest valleys of life as an NBA player. Once an unknown NAIA player at the University of Central Arkansas, the graceful and athletic forward surprised many by growing into an NBA star and six-time champion with the Chicago Bulls.

Portland Trailblazers Facts For all his accomplishments, however, there are some who still think of Scottie Stats only as Michael Jordan's sidekick. Those who do so ignore a mountain of evidence that confirms Pippen's place among the best all-around forwards to have played the game-not to mention the struggles of virtually everyone who has tried to defend him. "Guarding Scottie Pippen Stats is what us small forward like to call 'Mission Impossible'," Glen Rice once said. "If you guard him tight, he's going to break your ankles. If you guard him loose, he's going to drain 3 after 3 over you."

It wasn't Pippen's gaudy college numbers that attracted a handful of NBA scouts, but rather his success in the 1987 pre-draft camps. Though Seattle selected him fifth overall, it was the Bulls who were most enamored and worked out a trade for his services. Pippen made the first of seven trips to the All-Star Game in his third season. Far bigger honors were on the horizon. With Jordan beginning to master the team-oriented approach of coach Phil Jackson and Pippen having his way with opposing small forwards who could not handle his quick drives, improving jumper and tenacious defense, Chicago became the NBA's dominant team.

Chicago won three straight championships from 1991 to '93, with Scottie Stats notching a triple-double in Game 6 of the 1993 Finals, and three more titles from '96 to '98. Jordan was by no means a one-man show. In fact, after M.J.'s first retirement, Pippen's Bulls advanced to within one game of the 1994 Finals. The 1992 Olympic gold medalist made stops in Houston and Portland before returning to Chicago in 2003-04 to close out his career. Buy Portland Trailblazers Tickets.