The 45 Most Important Players to the Chicago Bulls Dynasty - #2 Scottie Pippen

Scottie Pippen
Scottie Pippen is my favorite basketball player ever. I loved Scottie Pippen growing up, and watching old videos of him has only strengthened my love for him on the court. Part of the reason that I loved Pippen so much is that his story is incredible. He was nothing at basketball, to the point that he just wanted to be a team manager in college, a team manager for football. He ended up walking on to the basketball team at Central Arkansas, and then grew half a foot and became a dominant player at the NAIA level. He was so impressive that he ended up being the fifth pick of the 1987 NBA Draft by the Seattle SuperSonics, and then immediately traded to the Chicago Bulls for Olden Polynice and a few other picks going both ways.

Pippen's rookie year was nothing to write home about as he was stuck on the bench behind Brad Sellers. Still, he showed enough to take over the starting small forward position the following year. By year three, he was the Robin to Jordan's Batman, which is fitting but also totally undercuts how good of a player Pippen was.

During the 1990s, you could make a strong argument that he was one of the five best players in the NBA. Obviously you had Jordan as the best and probably Hakeem Olajuwon as the second best player, but after that? He is right on the level with guys like David Robinson, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, and Shaquille O'Neal (a guy I'd put ahead of Pippen but a lot of that was due to his work in the 2000s).

It wasn't that Pippen was going to lead the league in any category, as he only had one year where he led the league in steals as the only time he did so. But, on any given night, he could be the best at any one of the five statistical categories. One game it would be 30 points, another it would be 12 rebounds, or maybe it was 10 assists, or five steals, or possibly even three blocks. He was great everywhere, and he could fill in to whatever those Bulls teams needed.

The biggest knock on Pippen is that he was Jordan's number two, but thanks to MJ's baseball sabbatical, we got to see what Pippen was able to do as the top dog, and it was incredible. In the 1994-95 season, Pippen led the team in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks, something that has only been done four other times in NBA history.

And it's not like Pippen didn't have highlights. He had maybe the greatest dunk ever when he not only dunked on Patrick Ewing, but then stood over him like a conqueror taking a new land.


Pippen didn't waste his time dunking over nobodies as he also decided to destroy Kevin McHale.


But his greatest highlight was after his time with the Bulls. In fact it was after his time in teh NBA as he had to make a statement at the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game. Justin Bieber tried throwing a garbage shot from his chest and Scottie Pippen had the easiest block of his entire career.

Pippen punked out The Biebs.

Outside of the six championships he won with the Chicago Bulls, he also managed two gold medals, as he was a part of the 1992 Dream Team as well as the less catchy 1996 US Olympic Basketball team. He was on an All-NBA Team seven times, including three times on the first-team; he was an All-NBA Defensive first teamer on eight separate occasions, and he managed to make it into seven All-Star games, including being the All-Star MVP of 1994.

After the 1998 season, Pippen forced his way out and was traded to the Houston Rockets. After one year with the Rockets, he forced another trade to the Portland Trail Blazers. The team nearly made it to the NBA Finals in 2000 but surrendered a 15-point lead thanks to some tremendous play by the Los Angeles Lakers and some tremendous calls by the NBA referees that were bound and determined to see the Lakers succeed. He spent a couple more years with the Blazers before returning to the Chicago Bulls to mentor the Baby Bulls for one year before retiring in 2004.

But Pippen will always be remembered for his first stint with the Chicago Bulls. Him and Jordan were the only players to be there from start to finish, and their names will always be tied together. Because of the pairing with Jordan, Pippen will probably be eternally underrated, but he also has six rings because of it, so I would say that it all worked out for him. Also, he punked out Justin Bieber, and not even Michael Jordan can outshine him in that regard.

Previous Entries:

#45 - Jack Haley

#44 - Rory Sparrow

#43 - Chuck Nevitt

#42 - David Vaughn

#41 - Jo Jo English

#40 - Ricky Blanton

#39 - Matt Steigenga

#38 - Joe Courtney

#37 - Keith Booth

#36 - Mark Randall

#35 - Ed Nealy

#34 - Rusty LaRue

#33 - Corey Williams

#32 - Joe Kleine

#31 - John Salley

#30 - James Edwards

#29 - Robert Parish

#28 - Darrell Walker

#27 - Rodney McCray

#26 - Dennis Hopson

#25 - Trent Tucker

#24 - Dickey Simpkins

#23 - Bobby Hansen

#22 - Scott Burrell

#21 - Bison Dele

#20 - Craig Hodges

#19 - Jud Buechler

#18 - Randy Brown

#17 - Cliff Levingston

#16 - Stacey King

#15 - Jason Caffey

#14 - Bill Wennington

#13 - Will Perdue

#12 - Scott Williams

#11 - Steve Kerr

#10 - BJ Armstrong

#9 - Luc Longley

#8 - John Paxson 

#7 - Bill Cartwright

#6 - Toni Kukoc

#5 - Ron Harper

#4 - Dennis Rodman

#3 - Horace Grant 

The 45 Most Important Players to the Chicago Bulls Dynasty - #27 Rodney McCray

Rodney McCray
Rodney McCray was a fascinating prospect coming out of college. He won a National Title at Louisville but never put up any numbers that jumped out at you. He was invited to play for the USA in the 1980 Olympics, but the USA boycotted those Olympics so he never got to represent his country. Still, even without the stats, he showed enough to be the third overall pick in the NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets.

He put up good numbers every year in the league, the best being 1989-90 when he played for the Sacramento Kings, led the league in minutes while putting up 16.6 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game. He was great on both sides of the ball earning 2nd Team honors for the All-Defensive team in 1986-87 and earning 1st Team in 1987-88.

He played an important role in Houston, Sacramento, and Dallas before being during the 1992 offseason to play in a reduced role with the Chicago Bulls.And boy did that role reduce. He had less than half the minutes he had in any previous season as now he was nothing more than a forward coming off the bench to backup perennial All-Star, Scottie Pippen.

Now in his early 30s, McCray was not the player he had once been. He got a decent amount of playing time for a bench player, averaging 16 minutes per game, but his impact was rarely seen in the box score. He had a season high of 15 points and only reached double digits one other time. He played solid defense but with the diminished athleticism, he was not the shutdown defender he once was.

In the playoffs, the Bulls rotation shrank and McCray's role nearly disappeared. He played in just seven games for a total of 39 minutes and scoring two points. He played in just a single game in the NBA Finals. It was a rather forgettable playoffs for McCray. Still, it did get something that had long alluded McCray, and that is a NBA Championship Ring. Having reached the pinnacle of team accomplishments, McCray retired after the 1992-93 season.

There isn't much information on McCray after his career ended, so I would just like to point out that this video is of a different Rodney McCray.

Previous Entries:

#45 - Jack Haley

#44 - Rory Sparrow

#43 - Chuck Nevitt

#42 - David Vaughn

#41 - Jo Jo English

#40 - Ricky Blanton

#39 - Matt Steigenga

#38 - Joe Courtney

#37 - Keith Booth

#36 - Mark Randall

#35 - Ed Nealy

#34 - Rusty LaRue

#33 - Corey Williams

#32 - Joe Kleine

#31 - John Salley

#30 - James Edwards

#29 - Robert Parish

#28 - Darrell Walker

The 45 Most Important Players to the Chicago Bulls Dynasty - #43 Chuck Nevitt

I just read "The Jordan Rules," Sam Smith's story of the 1990-1991 Chicago Bulls season that primarily focuses on Michael Jordan, but through nearly 400 pages, everybody gets a fair amount of ink. It made me long for those Chicago Bulls glory days, so I am going to go back and rank every player's contribution to the Bulls six NBA Titles during the 1990s.

Chuck Nevitt
Chuck Nevitt is a man who maximized his time in the NBA. He never played in more than 43 games in a single season, his career high in points was just 3.8, and that was in only six games, but this man managed to play from 1982-1994. There were three years in there where he didn't play in the NBA spread out throughout that career, but a twelve year stretch of playing in the highest organization is pretty impressive.

How did he manage this? Um, long story short (no pun intended), he was tall as shit. Seven feet, five inches, but weighing just 217 pounds. Nevitt managed to make Shawn Bradley look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Also, the 1991-92 Chicago Bulls were not the first championship squad that he played on, as he also won a title with the 1985 Los Angeles Lakers, making him the tallest player to ever be on a NBA Championship roster.

He played the preseason in 1991 with the Bulls but was released before the season started. Then, a few weeks later, he was signed again and would last a month with the team. In four games with the Bulls, his greatest contribution may have been the nine minutes he provided. Yes, he did have an assist, a rebound, and two points, but even that was on three field goal attempts. But in those nine minutes, he also managed two fouls and three turnovers. I can't imagine he shared the court with Michael Jordan at all, as I think Jordan notoriously hated big men and may have murdered him on the court for his performance.

Chuck Nevitt may have not been the best player in Bulls history. Actually, I think we can definitively say he wasn't. But he was the tallest, and that counts for something.

Previous Entries:

#45 - Jack Haley

#44 - Rory Sparrow