kflo

i'd say it's a far stretch to say pippen was better than bird. (pippen did lead the league in steals once).

Minstrel

I think Pippen is pretty clearly the best small forward of the '90s and pretty clearly not the best small forward ever. I'd rank him third ever, behind Bird and Elgin Baylor, who was a pretty ridiculously good scorer and rebounder.

Some will probably rank Julius Erving ahead of Pippen, but I think Pippen's better all-around game more than compensates for Erving's superiority as a scorer.

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dwade3

Wow u people forgot oh so quikly that Drexler was the second best guard behind Jordan, pretty much his whole 'prime' career, i mean dude, yes pippen was a major factor of the bulls 6 chip teams, but u also do forget that Clyde came and brought Portland back to prominency, he took them to the finals in 1990, lost in the WCF in 91' against the Showtime Lakers, and then took them back in 1992, HE WAS THE STAR PLAYER of portland, lead all guards in rebounds and SG's in assists in some points of his career.

Pippen without jordan had a great year, that 1 year, but would of never had become the player he was without a little help from the GOAT (as you do), but as a 1 on 1 comparison of the players skills and stats, there is no way pippen was a better player then Clyde....yes pippen was a great defender, but if u take that and clydes defense and the 2 players offensive ability, do some addition and subtraction, you would find Clyde clicks Pippen......to put it simply if u want to argue about this, If you put Pippen on a team, to be the star player, he would of never been able to do wat clyde did in his career (and it was proven after the bulls second 3 peat when pippen went to portland)......

Minstrel

Pippen was in the twilight of his career then. And was still immensely valuable to the Blazers, despite being much diminished from his prime level.

Pippen proved that he was very capable of being the franchise player in the year Jordan went to play baseball. That's the chance to see what Pippen could do in his prime as the main star. He took a team with no prior All-Stars (Armstrong and Grant made the All-Star team for the first time that year) to within a bad referee call of the Eastern Conference Finals.

So, I don't see any reason to believe that Pippen-led teams couldn't have achieved what Drexler-led teams did. Drexler had plenty of talent surrounding him in Portland's successful teams of that era. Pippen surrounded by as much talent would likely also have done extremely well.

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Jesus of CopyMat

Really? I wouldn't. I'd say Pippen was definitely better than Bird. Everything Bird did well, Pippen could do well, too (Oh, yeah... that's because he could do everything well.), but there were things Pippen did well that Bird simply didn't have in his game (like say, oh, I dunno... defense?). I can't see how anyone could make a case for Bird over Pippen. You can say it, like most people do, but there is no reason to say it. A lot of it is media brainwashing. Nobody wants to look at Bird's deficiencies, as "he and Magic saved the NBA."

Gilgamesh

Bird is the only player to retire with 20-10-5. His playoff exploits are legendary. Guy won 3 consecutive MVPs.

Pippen was a better defensive player but Bird was a superior offensive player. Even in the twightlight of his career with an aching back he managed to put up one of the greatest individual performances ever against Portland and basically willed the Celtics to victory. I forgot his exact numbers but he had a triple double while scoring 49 points.

Bird is one of the few players in history that can will his team to victory and the guy was huge in the clutch. One of the best ever. I have never seen a superstar of that caliber hustle as much as he did on the court. He was a living triple double. Bird had his deficiencies but every player does.

I respect your opinion but I disagree.

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PauloCatarino

Oh. My. God.
This is simply proposterous (sp?)...

Are you serious? You can't be...
Bird has a HUGE advantage on scoring, rebounding, passing, leadership, clutch play, intangibles, you name it.

Yes, Pippen was a better defender than Bird. So what?

Psst.. Here's a hint: Pippen was never a MVP. Bird was MVP three times in a row.

Kids nowadays...

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SlamJam

yea dude i hear u. im not saying pippen was better but its pretty close. bird was better on offense yea, but pippen was a TON better than bird on D.

Minstrel

I think Bird was better than Pippen.

However, there are some things to consider. The difference in their defense was likely greater than the difference in their offense. Pippen was one of the top few greatest defenders ever. Likewise, Bird was one of the top few greatest offensive players ever. However, Pippen was a very good offensive player, while Bird was an average at best defender (after combining individual and team defense).

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure individual offense is more important than individual defense. I say this based on the following, simple reasoning: A single player can make offensive possessions consistently successful by making individual plays. A single player cannot make defensive possessions consistently successful, because offenses can simply exploit weaker defensive players on the team. Steals and blocks are a way that an individual player can make a defensive possession successful, but even the greatest ballhawk/shot-blocker cannot consistently do that.

On the other other hand, even in baseball, where defense (fielding, as opposed to pitching) is less important compared to offense than it is in basketball, advanced defensive metrics these days often turn around appraisals of player comparisons that seemed clear based on offensive numbers. If that can happen in baseball where, as I said, defense is far less important than it is in basketball, then it's entirely possible that defensive value is not correctly valued in basketball and can make otherwise clear comparisons far closer than most would think.

My feeling is that Bird was better. But I wouldn't consider it shocking at all if the "truth" were that Pippen was actually more valuable when everything was factored in.

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