After undergoing invasive surgery by team physician John Hefferon on his right ankle to repair chronic tendon problems Aug. 31, Pippen has now elected to seek a second opinion. He will travel to Birmingham, Ala., to be examined by Dr. James Andrews, who performed Bo Jackson's hip-replacement surgery.
"Obviously, Scottie doesn't feel comfortable playing on it now, and that's the most important thing," said Bulls General Manager Jerry Krause. "In the last five years, Scottie Pippen has not missed a game due to injury. He's played with all the little hurts and he's been tremendous. And if he tells me he's not feeling right on that ankle, we're not going to take any chances."
Of Pippen seeking a second opinion, Krause said: "It may be a reassurance thing, I don't know. Hefferon thinks it's a matter of time and he'll be fine. We hoped he'd have time to recover and apparently he just didn't."
Pippen first injured the ankle when he sprained it against the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference semifinals in 1992. Playing in the Olympics that summer, the ankle never fully recuperated and turned it into chronic tendinitis, which plagued him throughout last season.