How the Rockets finally gave Scottie Pippen the contract he deserved

Although NBA legend Scottie Pippen went largely underpaid and undervalued throughout his time in Chicago, the Houston Rockets helped Pippen finally get paid what he was worth.

The wait is over; the basketball world has finally gotten what we’ve all been waiting for. Sure, The Last Dance documentary isn’t the same as having live NBA games, but it’s something we’ve been waiting for since December of 2018. The NBA has been on a lengthy break and the Houston Rockets‘ break has been even longer, as they played their last game before the hiatus was even announced. So frankly, we don’t have any other basketball to watch.

All in all, the ESPN special will be showing two parts each week, until all 10 parts have concluded. The main theme of the second episode centered around Hall of Fame forward Scottie Pippen‘s displeasure with his contract, which he had every reason to be unhappy about. By the 1997-98 season, Pippen had made seven All-Star teams, seven All-Defensive teams, and six All-NBA teams, yet was the 122nd highest-paid player in the league.

Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf had a policy regarding players signing contracts, which was that once the deal had been inked, he wasn’t going to entertain anything else on that front, through the entirety of the contract. Pippen had signed a seven-year contract worth $18 million in 1991, which was a deal that was crafted in such a way that it allowed the Bulls to sign Toni Kukoc.

With Reinsdorf’s stance on not re-negotiating deals and general manager Jerry Krause being hell-bent on hitting the reset button, Pippen wasn’t going to get a new deal, and had been shopped around the league prior to his last season in the Windy City. Pippen finished out his contract with the Bulls, and the Houston Rockets made a run at the six-time NBA champion.

Next: Pippen in Houston