Scottie Pippen talks about how watching his father and his brother encounter debilitating health risks made him fear injuries as an athlete.
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Pippen comes from an exceedingly tough background and had to overcome impossible odds to make his sporting journey. He was born in an impoverished Arkansas family as the youngest of 12 kids.
He didn’t make the cut for the University of Central Arkansas as a player, but got a walk-on as the team’s equipment manager. Scottie paved a way for himself from there, making the NAIA Conference All-Star team as a senior.
During his playing days, Pippen was widely known as the league’s best perimeter defender. He was also a facilitator and the Bulls’ primary ballhandler during their championship run in the 1990s.
Scottie Pippen Defense
“If I’m a young player today… I would really focus on the defensive end of the floor & focus on Scottie Pippen. This guy was a genius. His ball pressure, playing passing lanes, blocking shots, taking charges — & he played with a passion.” – Kobe Bryant pic.twitter.com/zSBuiiZz5p
— Jaycob Ammerman (@Jammer2233) April 24, 2021
When Michael Jordan retired for the first time to play baseball, Scottie Pippen took up the mantle of the Bulls’ leader. Through his spectacular play, Pippen led them to 55 wins in 93-94 and a second-round playoff exit to the Knicks.
Pippen also won All-Star Game MVP in 1994 and finished 3rd in MVP voting that year. One of the travesties of his situation was that he was never voted as the Defensive Player of the Year.
On top of that, Pippen was also one of the most underpaid stars in basketball history. He signed a 7-year contract in 1991 for $18 million, tying him to the Bulls through 1998. However, due to a new TV deal, player salaries shot up and he was not even a top-100 earner in the NBA.
Scottie Pippen enunciates about his fears while growing up, talks about his paralyzed brother
Scottie Pippen was recently on a 5-member panel alongside Floyd Mayweather, among others, talking about his fears in a promotional event for the release of the movie Fear. He talked about his own fears thus:
“I grew up as the youngest of 12 kids in a small town in Arkansas. Sharing beds with some of my siblings and things growing up. But as a young kid, I saw my brother become paralyzed. And he’s still living today, but he’s been paralyzed now for 50+ years.”
“Later on, a few years after that, I witnessed my father have a stroke. So those were some of the things that I was afraid of, I think. Going through my life was losing what I felt that I could gain.”
“My brother was, at the time, I think, wrestling, which was very popular in those days. So he was playing in the gym for one day with his classmates. A kid fell on his back and my brother laid there, and they thought he was playing, but he was paralyzed.”
Pippen went on to detail how the doctor told his family that his brother Ronnie might die. He stated that Ronnie is having a productive life as far as a paralyzed person can, but it’s still debilitated his life.
