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DK as bad of a GM as Bergevin tbh
In Jonathan Abrams' book "Boys Among Men," it was revealed that Tracy McGrady was nearly traded to the Chicago Bulls for Scottie Pippen on draft night in 1997, but Michael Jordan vetoed it. On Thursday on ESPN's "The Jump," McGrady confirmed that story.
It's a shocking revelation that could have drastically altered the entirety of NBA history. If Pippen is traded, the Bulls likely don't win the 1998 le, as Michael Jordan would finish with five rings and the Raptors might have wound up with a future Hall of Famer in his prime. McGrady with the Bulls might have also changed things dramatically as McGrady would learn under Jordan, but how McGrady would handle the pressure of being traded for Pippen and Jordan's reaction to that might have been rough.
McGrady went on to be an All-Star player whose career was cruelly cut short by injury, but if things had worked for the Bulls, who knows? Maybe Jordan comes back for an extra year and they win even more les. Maybe McGrady winds up thriving and carrying the Bulls forward, avoiding the entire Baby Bulls era, which means that Tyson Chandler never winds up in New Orleans, which vaults Chris Paul to supers om and eventually results in Chandler winding up on the Mavericks and helping them to secure a le. If McGrady isn't there, how does the Vince Carter era go in Toronto? Does he never wind up on the Nets?
All of NBA history shifts if that trade goes through.
But in the end, the only word that mattered was "No," from the lips of Michael Jordan. And that's that.
DK as bad of a GM as Bergevin tbh
Someone just wants to be in the news. This was never gonna happen.
??? Vetoing the trade gave him another ring before he retired the second time.
Jordan will destroy McGrady like he did kwame. Pippen doesn't hurt his back and will remain productive.
That's impossible
It actually wouldn't have been a bad trade for the Bulls. Pippen was a free agent the next year and he was no longer in his prime. His last prime year was '95. He had a ton of mileage and wear and tear on his body making deep playoff runs every year for nearly his entire career. From the '96 season and beyond he was playing with an assortment of injuries in the playoffs. If they trade him they most likely don't win the championship in '98 but McGrady maybe gets one year with Jordan and Phil Jackson...maybe more if '98 was successful enough. Jordan was at that age where he wasn't interested in being a babysitter coaching a rookie in the triangle. He was all about championships so it's not surprising he nixed the deal.
And that's a terrible trade for Toronto if it was straight up. Pippen walks as a free agent after a year in Toronto and that's that lol. That trade doesn't make sense.
Long term versus short term. I agree with the idea of keeping Pippen, why change what worked for an unproven commodity? Why fix what isn't broken? McGrady didn't even come into his own until the latter part of his Raptors stint. With Pippen, they know another le is almost certain.
I remember the bulls almost trading Pippen on draft night in '97 for the Celtics 3rd and 6th pick. Then there was the time in the summer of '94 in which they almost got Kemp for Pippen. It's amazing how many times Pippen was on the verge of getting traded but the trades didn't go down at the last minute.
I remember the trade for Kemp almost going down. A Pippen/Payton defensive tandem would have been something else
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