Sam Smith

Perhaps there just should be some gentle, love song background music for the NBA. Call it NBAHarmony, like the dating service. Because the tale of Scottie Pippen, the former Chicago Bulls all-NBA player headed to the Basketball Hall of Fame, though with perhaps a new delay, sounds like one of those romance fictions.

Someone is always looking for what they remembered and believe what they want it to be rather than the reality.

It reminds me of the old Billy Crystal movie City Slickers.

The tough, crusty old cowboy character played by Jack Palance talks about this woman he loved but never met. The Crystal character wonders why and he says it would ruin the fantasy.

Pippen watches the NBA after three years away, no longer sore and tired, and sees himself as he once was. And perhaps so do the Cavaliers, the Nuggets, the Lakers and the Spurs, all of whom have inquired about Pippen. He's cheap, he's available. And maybe, just maybe …

Like those dating services: Fill out your requirements and there's someone who always believes they fit them.

Pippen was one of the most unique players in NBA history, much unappreciated, which is another reason he's on this quixotic quest. Pippen was a remarkable defender, so good that he was as much the reason as any that the Bulls won the 1991 championship the way he thwarted Magic Johnson. Never has a player Johnson's height been able to react so quickly to him and keep Johnson from seeing over the defense.

Pippen didn't make the big shots often, which is why he is as well known for that refusal to finish a game in the 1994 playoffs when he was having his best individual season — All-Star game MVP, career high scoring and rebounding averages while Michael Jordan retired for the first time — when the last play wasn't called for him. But he made plenty of shots, he defended, he ran the offense, handled the ball and, as he likes to say, has six championships and Jordan doesn't have any in the NBA without him.

Pippen is driven, like many former athletes, by an inability to let go of the game that defined him and gave him so much. It's hardly unusual, and better players, like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, played until an older age than Pippen, now 41. It is common among professional boxers, even the best as Muhammad Ali's condition certainly was exacerbated by continually returning to the boxing ring. Pippen gave a try to TV and it didn't work out. He talks about coaching, staying close to the game, which is no shame as basketball is heavily populated by former players who were among the best.

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Likewise, teams are always hoping for a boost from somewhere, a midseason deal like when Rasheed Wallace was that risky missing piece for the Pistons a few years back, when Dennis Rodman was toxic around the NBA but gold for the Bulls in 1995. Someone like Tim Thomas was for the Suns last season, maybe Eddie Jones for the Heat this season.

There's little risk, a low-money, short-term deal to the end of the season, and what if he has something?

I wouldn't be surprised if Pippen did. He was never the same player after his last back surgery in 1997, but still could run a half-court offense and understand the game as well as any. Players coming off the end of the bench these days can do a lot less. It seems a longshot after all this time off, but who knows?

And then there's the inner torment for Scottie.

It came out during All-Star weekend when Pippen was asked — what, again! — about how he felt being the supporting cast to Michael Jordan, about the lack of credit, the idea Jordan could have taken anyone to all those championships.

It's why Pippen likes to say Jordan never won without him, and why that 2000 Western Conference finals loss to the Lakers with a 15-point fourth quarter lead was so painful. That was No. 7, the separator.

Even when Jordan spoke at the retirement ceremony for Pippen's Bulls jersey a few years back in Chicago, the tone was of a helper, a little brother. Pippen smiled grimly through clenched teeth. Their relationship was always ambivalent, Pippen drawn to Jordan's greatness and aura and then driven away by his superiority.

They were a perfect tandem, though.

Pippen was the better defender, the facilitator to offset Jordan's dominance and scoring.

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But Pippen also had the issues: the walkout in 1994, a gun charge arrest that was dropped, feuds with management, near trades and equal demands. There was always something. It was Pippen's inner strength that steeled him. Lesser players wouldn't have been able to survive the media scrutiny and criticism.

Pippen is a unique, true Hall of Famer, six championship teams, voted one of the 50 greatest, two Olympic teams, multiple all-defense and all-pro teams.

But there's still that seventh ring out there somewhere and Pippen believes he could be more than a spare part.

So it led to some curious comments during All-Star weekend when Pippen again was asked about being Jordan's footman.

"I think people love me just as much as they love Michael," Pippen said. "The fans who understand the game, the GMs and coaches. I think they'd rather have a Scottie than a Michael. Because I'm an all-around player. Coaches would rather have a Scottie-type player than a Michael. I was an all-around player. I made people around me better."

They were stunning, mouth agape comments, though Pippen's point really was more generic. He doesn't always express himself perfectly, which is why he isn't on ESPN anymore even if he had interesting and strong opinions. He was trying to enhance his skills and note their importance, which is often overlooked.

Pippen is a proud man, proud of what he accomplished and who he was.

Now he wants one more chance to show it. He doesn’t believe he'll fall on his face. Though everyone will be watching to see if he does and say it's just the same old Scottie.

Perhaps it's best to walk away. But Scottie Pippen never did what everyone expected or wanted. He was a walk-on at Central Arkansas, the team manager handing out towels as a freshman. How do you go from there to the Hall of Fame? Perhaps no one ever has come farther. Maybe he can surprise us all again.

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