The Scottie Pippen European Tour
January 6, 2008 by Julien
The former Chicago Bull played 2 games for the Finnish powerhouse, Helsinki ToPo. 2 games, 2 wins but behind the accolades, Pip showed he was a true 42-year-old…
The AP reports do say that Scottie’s team won those 2 games, one against the 2nd best team in Finland, the Honka Playboys… A team starring Portland draftee Petteri Koponen. But it’s worth mentioning ToPo did not need any Top 50 NBA players of all-time to win the previous 17 games of Finnish League.
So Pippen averaged 10.5 pts and 8 boards in 26 minutes. Not bad for a guy who turned 42. But what’s funny is a closer look at the stat sheet. You’ll learn that during those 2 games, Number 33 took 16 three pointers, which honestly wasn’t his strength back in the days. Well some things never change. He made 2 of them all the way to a good-looking 12.5 % from outside the arc.
I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t make such a fuss about it if he hadn’t ripped Ben Gordon for taking bad shots…
Anyway it looks like Pippen’s name helped packing the arena and that the fans were delighted about his coming to Scandinavia. If my Finnish is correct…
[youtube PomzUQhXhW0 nolink]
The Scottie Pippen European Tour will come to an end next Friday after an ultimate game with the Swedish team of Sundvall. This time, Scottie, when you settle for a 3 pointer, how about bending your knees ?
[...] - Scottie Pippen isn’t a fan of Ben Gordon’s shot selection, but I wonder how his new/temporary Helsinki ToPo teammates felt about him jacking up 16 three-pointers in two games–and making just two of them. [...]
are you for real with this article?
oh the terrible hypocrisy of scottie pippen.
[...] The Scottie Pippen European Tour The former Chicago Bull played 2 games for the Finnish powerhouse, Helsinki ToPo. 2 games, 2 wins but behind the accolades, Pip showed he was a true 42-year-old… [...]
[...] like Scottie Pippen showing Ben Gordon how to work on his shot selection live from Finland. 2 for 16 from behind the arc. If you wanna see 1 of the only 2 outside shots he [...]
Scottie Pippen video highlights from Sweden and more on http://www.dragonmix.net.
He was much better in sweden than in finland!
Thank you Scottie for returning back and revitalising the game of Basketball.
[...] standing. The rise and fall of Pippen was so drastic that he was seen overseas playing 2 games for Finnish powerhouse, Helsinki ToPo to make a little cash. Besides the fact that players fork out all of this dough for houses, cars and cable bills you [...]
Pippen was good back in the day, but top 50 players to ever played the game, ja ja overated. His age has caught up with him. Michael jordan made the game eazy for him, when michael left, he didn’t do nothing, but threw a chair accross the arena. Scotty ( UGLY ) Pippen should start coaching ymca and let that be the end of the story.
Overated my a** the man helped jordan build a championship team. Jordan wasn’t even close to succeeding before he arrived. He has good right to talk trash about players who turned such a dominant franchise into the joke of the league. Hinrich is the overated one and all Gordan does is score, he brings nothing else to the team at all. Pippen was the leader in every statistic category while Jordan went walk about and had a MVP season, they may not of won a championship but nor did Jordan till he teamed with Pippen. Delicious, since you don’t know S**t you should keep your pointless opinions to yourself, Pippen should receive the respect that all the great players deserve.
I totally agree with Melville.. Everyone forgets that Pippen had an MVP season and how close they got to the finals without MJ!! How could this team without Jordan get so close to repeating…
Its hard to imagine that!!! Think what would happen to the Lakers if you took Kobe out?!! You think they could make it to the playoffs.. or a better example is Lebron, do you think if Lebron was out of the Cavs, that they could actually compete in games?!! Nothing to take away from the greatest player ever MJ.. you cant say he had a sub-par team.. I mean they almost made to the finals without Jordan.. thats incredible for a team playing without the best closer and player in the world… So Pippen deserves his respect.. Last time I checked nobody was taking shots at Barkley for ripping players.. Pippen’s just doing what the NBA does best.. take shots at stars that are not clutch or do not give as much heart as they did..
[...] Pippen…6-time NBA Champion, All-Star Game MVP, Top 50 NBA Player of All Time, and Scandinavian hoops phenom…is lucky that he made over $120 million while he was playing. Because he lost $32 million [...]
Pippen was a great complimentary player for MJ, but a top 50 player of all-time should be able to carry a franchise on his back. Pippen showed in his post-MJ days that he couldn’t. Very good player, just not top 50 ever.
Well Bob maybe you should look and see who the Top 50 Players actually are. There are quite a few that achieved alot less than Pippen and never got the taste of a Championship either but they still get the credit, I don’t see you ragging on them. Pippen seems to be and easy target I mean he played alongside the greatest of all time, but he left his own mark on the Game and he’s definately worthy of being mentioned among the Top 50.
Pippen facilitated so much for the Bulls. People must have forgot that he pioneered the point-forward position and that no other player has come close to playing that position as well as Pippen had. His MVP caliber season right after Jordan speaks volumes — he also lead the Bulls to 7 games in the Eastern Conference finals in which the Knicks won controversially. Pippen then played on several successful teams thereafter, making playoffs time and again. Jordan’s comeback to the Wizards could not muster the same success. Given, the Wizards did not have the same talent as Pippen’s teams, but the Eastern division is weak and given the public perception of MJ’s infinite greatness over Pippen, he should have made the Wizards more succesful then they were.
As far as shot selection goes, we should all admit Ben takes questionable shots. But that’s the risk you take by having that kind of player on your roster. When he’s on it’s great, when he’s off, he’s the worst player on the floor. Pippen going 2 for 16 from three point range does not speak about his shot selection. If they were open, they were good shots for him (they probably were open). Simple as that. Ben doesn’t care if he’s guarded by 2 or 3 people. Bad shot.