<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">[imgl]http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/spo/med/2005/12/ipt/1134190791.jpg[/imgl] CHICAGO (AP) -- Scottie Pippen did his best to check his emotions. It didn't work. Surrounded by Michael Jordan and other former teammates and coaches, an emotional Pippen fought back tears as the Chicago Bulls retired his number 33 during halftime of Friday's game against the Los Angeles Lakers. "I want to let you know that you all have been a part of it," Pippen said during the ceremony. His number is the fourth to hang from the rafters, joining Jordan's 23, Bob Love's 10 and Jerry Sloan's 4. Phil Jackson and Jerry Krause, the coach and general manager during the championship years, also have banners hanging from the rafters. It was no coincidence the Bulls chose this night to honor Pippen, with Jackson and the Lakers in town. "He was a great student and a really fine leader on the basketball court," Jackson said before the game. "He directed a lot of what happened, he was very much one of the reasons why we were successful over those six championships." Teammates such as Horace Grant, Dennis Rodman and Toni Kukoc sat in a semicircle near midcourt, as did Jackson, former Bulls assistants and Pippen's high school and college coaches. One notable absentee was former teammate and current Bulls general manager John Paxson, who was on a scouting trip. highlights package aired during the ceremony, as did taped messages from Paxson, commissioner David Stern, former Bulls coach Doug Collins and Charles Barkley. Pippen received replicas of the championship trophy and a framed replica of his banner. Jackson jokingly recalled "memories of Scottie having migraines against Detroit" during his halftime speech. Jordan said of Pippen: "I knew I had someone watching my back." Pippen and Jordan led the Bulls to six NBA championships during the 1990s. Pippen was named one of the NBA's 50 greatest players in 1996, was on two teams that won Olympic gold medals and was a seven-time All-Star. </div> Source Scottie Pippen wore #33 in honor of Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Last night Kareem's father passed away, talk about freaky coincidences.
If anyone ever manages to get footage of this I would love to see it. He deserves to have his number retired and will go down as the second best Bulls player ever in my mind. Without him it would've been so much harder to win those 6 championships.
in all honesty, its about time. what exactly took them so long to honor the second best player to ever grace their franchise, and would be the best player in a lot of other franchises history
It's definitely well-deserved but there's something about Pippen's attitude that I just dont like...he seems unappreciative at times and he didnt strike me as sincere during his ceremony...
some people struggle to express themselves as well as others and sometimes sound different to what they want. I go through it a lot, I joke around but people think I am serious.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TheChosenOne23:</div><div class="quote_post">in all honesty, its about time. what exactly took them so long to honor the second best player to ever grace their franchise, and would be the best player in a lot of other franchises history</div> this is only his second year out of the league
