If Pippen can lead the team to win the championship by himself, then he will be the number one small forward in history

On May 19, Scottie Pippen, as one of the greatest second-in-command in basketball history, has always been intertwined with legendary and controversiality in his career. The "Bull Dynasty" Gemini, formed by him and Michael Jordan, created the six-crow myth, but it was this brilliant achievement that led later discussions on their historical status to a paradox - without Jordan, could Pippen reach the top as an absolute core? This hypothetical proposition just reveals the cruelty of the hard standard of "leading the team to win the championship" in the NBA historical evaluation system.

From a technical perspective, Pippen possesses almost all the qualities required by a top small forward. He is 2.03 meters tall but has a point guard-like passing vision. His career average of 16.1 points, 6.4 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game, showing a rare comprehensiveness on both ends of the offense and defense. During Jordan's first retirement season in 1994-95, Pippen led the team with a single core averaged 22 points, 8.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 2.9 steals per game. He was selected for the Double First Team and led the team to 55 wins, proving that he has the carrying capacity of a core player. But when the Eastern Conference semi-finals were against the Knicks, coach Phil Jackson arranged for Kukoc to perform the last shot, revealing Pippen's psychological shortcomings as the leader - he refused to play in the last 1.8 seconds on the spot. This retreat at a critical moment became an important point reduction for his ability to lead the team.

Compared with the recognized top small forward in history, Pippen's shortcomings lies in the lack of "single-core championship" hard currency. Larry Bird won the championship with Maxville, who averaged 13 points per game in 1981, and established the Celtics as an absolute core in 1984 and 1986; LeBron James led the Cavaliers to complete an epic reversal in 2016, and was 35 years old when he led the Lakers to the championship in 2020; even though Durant was controversial, he also won the FMVP twice in 2017-2018 to prove his ability to lead the team. In contrast, Pippen was the best chance to prove the 1993-94 season, but lost to the Knicks 2-4 in the second round. G3 scored only 13 points in the key battle, and G6 made consecutive mistakes at the last moment to ruin the game. This high-end game performance is weak, which makes it impossible for it to get rid of the label of "perfect deputy". The deeper problem lies in the evaluation logic of basketball culture. In the NBA's historical status judgment, "leading ability" is a watershed that distinguishes superstars from super giants. Jabbar has the "Tian Gou" skill, but it was only when he won the championship with the O's in 1971 and created the showtime era with the magician after 1980, which established his historical status; Kobe experienced a trough after O'Neal left the team, but he completely got rid of the doubts of "the second leader" in two consecutive championships in 2009-10. Pippen’s dilemma is that he lacks the ultimate proof of leading the team independently, and also misses the window during Jordan’s first retirement. In the 1994 playoffs, facing Ewing's Knicks, he failed to show his Jordan-style "killer instinct". This lack of spiritual attributes is more difficult to make up for than technical shortcomings.

Interestingly, data analysis of modern basketball gives us a new perspective on re-examining Pippen. His career victory contribution value (WS) is as high as 125.1, ranking 25th in history, even higher than Nowitzki (123.8), who is known for his team-leading ability. In the 1992 Finals against the Trail Blazers, he scored a record 7 three-pointers in the first half; in the 1991 Finals, he averaged 20.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game against the Lakers, all of which proved that he had top combat power. But the problem is that these highlights often occur under the shade of Jordan's system, just like in the 1997 Finals G6, where Jordan gave a legendary performance of "Flu Battle". Although Pippen contributed 17 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists with injuries, he will always become a supporting role in the background narrative.

From the perspective of team building, Pippen's value may be seriously underestimated. Modern basketball emphasizes the importance of "organizing strikers", and Pippen is actually the originator of this concept. He is both the starting point of the offensive and the core of the outside defense in the Bulls system. This versatility allows Jordan to focus on scoring. Imagine that if the current space basketball environment existed in the 1990s, Pippen's ball-holding ability might be released even more. But history has no assumptions. In the 1990s, when emphasizing personal heroism, Pippen's team-based playing style became a shackle to his historical status.

Compared with the stars of the same generation, Pippen's situation is more embarrassing. Stockton, who is also the second in command, has been respected for his historical assist and steals, and has won the hard data of his uncrowned superstars such as Barkley and Malone at least have MVPs. Pippen's honors of 7 All-Stars, 3 One-Strikes, and 8 One-Strikes are dazzling, but the lack of top individual awards such as MVP or FMVP makes him always lag behind Bird, James, Durant and others in the historical small forward rankings. Even with more defensive ability - the area where Pippen is most proud of, Leonard won two DPOYs and won FMVP in different teams, which also formed a cross-era suppression.

Looking back at Pippen's career trajectory, his experience after leaving the Bulls in 1998 is even more tragic. The Rockets formed the three senior giants with Barkley and Olajuwon, but stopped in the first round due to internal strife. After turning to the Trail Blazers, G7 led the team to fight with the Lakers until the last moment in the 2000 Western Conference Finals, but missed the opportunity to the finals due to the team's collective missed accuracy in the fourth quarter (13 points in a single quarter). These key nodes that could have redefined their careers and eventually became evidence that "Pippen cannot lead the team to win the championship alone". Ironically, when he returned to the Bulls in 2003 to try to coach young players, the team was at a trough of reconstruction. This cycle seemed to suggest that without Jordan Pippen, he would never escape the fate of the system players.

In the contemporary basketball discourse system, we should perhaps redefine the dimension of "great". Pippen's value is just like the "thick momentum" in Go. His defensive coverage, pass support, fast break propulsion, etc. cannot be fully reflected in the contributions in the data column, and constructed the underlying logic of the Bulls dynasty. But the cruelty of competitive sports lies in that history only remembers the king standing at the top of the pyramid.. As Green said to Durant when the Warriors won the championship in 2017: "We can win without you, but we can't win the Cavaliers without you" - Pippen is always in the shadow of this dialectical relationship to the Bulls. He was great enough to be the cornerstone of the dynasty, but he never proved that he could be the jewel of the crown. This vague positioning between "super second leader" and "qualified leader" ultimately made the crown of "the first small forward in history" stay in the hypothetical field forever.