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Does it really matter?
I have heard numerous people say that if the Bulls/Jazz 98 finals reached a 7th game, that there was no way Pippen would have been able to play in it. Now I remember Pipped hurt his back but was able to come back in. How serious was that back injury?
Does it really matter?
Yes it matters to me. I just want to know why he wouldn't have been able to play. How bad was that back? It is a question that has had me wondering for weeks and I need closure on it.Does it really matter?
Why don't you ask Pip?
Did you see the way he moved in that game 6? He literally looked like he was 70. No way I could see him playing through that again, even in a game 7. I have no idea why Utah didn't try to force Pippen to beat them instead of letting Jordan take over that game. Jerry Sloan still has to have nightmares about that stupid coaching mistake.
I do remember seeing him on the bench grimacing in pain and agony. I just didn't know how severe it was.
I would take that with a grain of salt. Didn't Paul Pierce leave a game like a little and then come back to win the series?
This thread isn't about Paul Pierce. There was nothing to imply I was talking about Pierce. Leave your hating at the door...hater.
Big difference there. You could see Pippen in extreme pain the entire game. He was nothing more than a decoy in the offense, and if he was faking, then give him an Oscar because I don't think DeNiro could have pulled off a more convincing act.
faking no, but overexagerating? all I'm saying is lot of players exagerate injuries for some reason.
Jordan was a beast it didn't matter at that point if they tried to force Pippen to beat them. He would have just went 1 on 5 and busted everyone's ass.
Pippen had surgery during the offseason to repair two herniated discs in his back after the Finals. He wasn't over-exaggerating anything. He paid the price for taking those charges on Malone.
come on. As if Jordan needed Pippen to beat the Jazz
Yeah, Jordan could've beaten the Jazz by himself, 1 on 5. Why even have teammates?
So that's what it was that caused it. I remember him taking those charges in game 3.
Sucks that Pippen never seemed to be the player he was in Chicago after that. No one's ever the same after back injuries. Pippen stopped being a high flyer. David Robinson lost that quick face-up game that defined his career up until the point of hurting his back in the 96 Olympics. Larry Bird lost all lateral mobility and any ability whatsoever to play defense.
He actually talked about that in an interview once....
http://20secondtimeout.blogspot.com/...e-pippens.html
Q: “How did your workout and fitness regimen evolve over time? You came into the league as a lean player. Later you developed some muscle mass. Also, how did your two back injuries alter your routine?”
Pippen: “I think that the best thing--not to say that I would go back in life and have it happen again—but probably the best thing that happened to me was that I hurt my back after my first year in the league, because it really put me in a position to focus on the physical aspect of how to survive in this game and how I would survive as a player with a bad back. It was a big challenge for me. I feel like I met that challenge, surviving 16 years of hard playing. Right now I am not as consistent as I would like to be, but those things that I dealt with early on in my career definitely prepared me for learning and getting better. I have to give credit to a lot of veteran players that I played with, too, that toughened me up early, like Charles Oakley. Having the opportunity to play with a guy like Sedale Threatt, who is the epitome of the gym rat. A lot of their habits rubbed off on me, even bad habits too, but you try to hold those down. Those were things that really helped develop me as a player.”
Q: “When you had the back problem in the ’98 Finals I was actually going through the exact same thing at that time in terms of a bulging L5-S1 disk and the radiculopathy, the pain going down the leg. That type of injury makes it so that you can barely move—“
Pippen: “It was something, I won’t say that it was career threatening, but it challenged me a lot. It challenged me to understand how to play with pain.”
Q: “Was that the worst pain you ever had?”
Pippen: “Oh, no question. I knew I didn’t want to go to a game seven. I knew that my team needed me. I didn’t think that they could win without me, maybe that’s just personal.”
Q: “You gutted it out in that game. If you look at the box score, it might not show everything you did, but you played the point guard—“
Pippen: “I was productive. I could have been more productive, could have done a lot more if I had been healthy.”
Q: “You were having a fantastic series before that point.”
Pippen: “Right. That injury really set me back.”
Q: “Do you feel that the back surgery you had in that off-season took away some of your athleticism?”
Pippen: “No question. I was 11 years in my career, had already had five or six surgeries at that point, two on my back, both ankles.”
Q: “Did they do a complete discectomy?”
Pippen: “No, no. They just took the herniated part away from the nerve to relieve the pressure.”
Q: “In ’98 it was two disks, right?”
Pippen: “Yeah, two disks.”
Q: “A lot of people don’t take things like that into account when they look at your time in Portland or try to assess what you have done without Michael.”
Pippen: “I was an older player by that time. You look at any player once they get over 10, 11 years in this league, especially a guy like me—I mean by the time I had 11 years in the league my body was probably facing 14 years because of the playoffs and the Olympics. So I had started to slow down a little bit, but I still had a pretty strong game. I understood the game well enough to be very effective. I could be effective in a game without scoring; I could affect a game that much.”
No Pippen = no le for the Bulls in either of the Finals against the Jazz. There was nobody in the league that gave Stockton more fits than Pippen. His length was a HUGE factor in both the Finals series. Simple entry passes that Stockton made thousands of times became very difficult due to Pippen's length. Stockton had to put more arc on his shot as well.
No doubt Jordan was the MVP of both Finals, but there's also no doubt that Pippen was the most important player on the Bulls for both Finals.
I watched game 6. I have the championship series DVD. The first basket of the game, he dunked the ball and had a grimace on his face. He was taken out quickly to stretch his back and then he looked slow as after half-time. In pain most of the time, definitely would not be able to play a game 7. Couldn't get enough lift on his jump hooks and all of that. Let's not forget Stockton was not at full strength either. And the Jazz should have forced a game 7. Ron Harper's shot was not supposed to be counted and the other 3 by a Jazz player should have counted. That is a 5 point swing.
That Jazz team was sick. They would have dominated any East team other than Chicago in either the 1997 or '98 Finals, although I guess you could argue that the Pacers could have put up a fight against them. The West was already considerably better than the East in those years and Utah just rolled right through that conference.
Jazz had a 3 point lead with 41 seconds left. The biggest play IMO was when they allowed MJ to score within 4 seconds after that timeout. That changed everything. Then MJ got the steal and made the game winning shot. Those calls while bad, you can't say that is why Utah lost. They didn't execute in crunch time and they forced MJ to beat them.
Good ...someone please delete this thread. Why do I keep checking it? The last 3 posts just made me depressed as .
Pacers gave the Bulls the biggest scare that season. They fought tooth and nail with them and came so close to winning that series. The 97 Jazz gave the Bulls a much scarier fight than the 98 Jazz did. In 1997 with the series 2-2 and Utah having a 16 point lead and MJ sick with the flu, that series could have gone either way.
Even if the Bulls had stayed together for the 99 season, I just couldn't see them 4 peating. They were on their last legs during that 98 season.
Sorry. I wasn't trying to open up old wounds.
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