Age, Biography, and Wiki
Scottie Pippen was born on September 25, 1965. He is best known for his 17-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he played predominantly for the Chicago Bulls. Pippen is acknowledged as one of the greatest small forwards in NBA history, having won six championships with the Bulls. His wiki page provides a comprehensive overview of his achievements and career milestones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottie_Pippen.
Occupation | Basketball Players |
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Date of Birth | 25 September 1965 |
Age | 59 Years |
Birth Place | Hamburg, Arkansas, U.S. |
Horoscope | Libra |
Country | U.S |
Height, Weight, and Measurements
- Height: Scottie Pippen stands at 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 m).
- Weight: He weighs approximately 210 lb (95 kg). Although exact body measurements beyond height and weight are not widely documented, Pippen's athletic build and agility were key factors in his success during his playing career.
Pippen scored a career high of 47 points in a 134–123 win over the Denver Nuggets on February 18, going 19–27 from the field and adding 4 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals in 41 minutes of play. On February 23 Pippen was voted "Player of The Week" for the week of February 17, his fifth and final time to receive that honor. As the league entered its final weeks the Bulls lost several of their key players, including Bill Wennington (ruptured tendon in his foot), Dennis Rodman (injured knee), and Toni Kukoč (inflamed sole on his foot). Pippen and Jordan were forced to shoulder a greater load while keeping the team headed towards a playoff appearance. Even with this challenge Chicago finished a league-best 69–13 record. In the final game of the regular season, Pippen missed a game-winning 3-pointer, leaving the Bulls just short of having an NBA record-setting back-to-back 70-win seasons. For his efforts in the 1996–97 NBA season, Pippen earned NBA All-Defensive First Team honors for the seventh consecutive time as well as All-NBA Second Team honors.
In the 2000–01 NBA season, Pippen played 64 games, starting in 60 of them. He was forced to miss 18 games due to tendinitis in his right elbow, which was his shooting arm. Pippen started being bothered by minor injuries during December but still managed to play. His right arm stiffened after a game with the Boston Celtics on January 8. He missed the next six games, and after a two-point performance in a loss to the Sacramento Kings on January 20, the injury again became too painful for him. He had the elbow examined by several doctors before going into surgery. After undergoing a procedure to remove a bone fragment in his right elbow, he made his return on February 22 against the Utah Jazz and played for the remainder of the season. Pippen finished the season with averages of 11.3 points per game, 4.6 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game. The Trail Blazers finished the season with a 50–32 record, fourth in the Pacific Division and seventh in the Western Conference. They were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the returning and eventual repeat champions, the Los Angeles Lakers.
Height | 6 feet 7 inches |
Weight | 95 kg |
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Dating & Relationship Status
Scottie Pippen was married to Larsa Pippen from 1997 to 2021. The couple had four children together: Scottie Jr., Preston, Justin, and Sophia. Since their divorce, Pippen has been focused on his personal and professional life, including business ventures and public appearances.
He has 11 older siblings. His mother was 6 ft tall and his father was 6 ft, and all of their children were tall, with Scottie Pippen being the tallest. His parents could not afford to send their other children to college.
Pippen's second-oldest brother became paralyzed after an injury in a high school PE class. Six years later, his father suffered a stroke that paralyzed his right side, prevented him from walking, and affected his speech. Playing point guard at Hamburg High School, Pippen led his team to the state playoffs and earned all-conference honors as a senior, but was not offered any college scholarships.
* In 2011, he guest starred alongside his then-wife, Larsa Pippen, who appeared as an original main cast member on the Bravo reality series, The Real Housewives of Miami. Departing the show after its first season, Larsa rejoined the series in 2021 for the rebooted fourth season.
Pippen fathered twin daughters, Taylor and Tyler Roby, with his former girlfriend, Sonya Roby. The twins were born in 1994. Tyler Roby died nine days after birth.
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Net Worth and Salary
Scottie Pippen's net worth is estimated to be around $20 million as of 2025. Despite earning nearly $109 million in salary during his NBA career, his net worth has been impacted by financial mismanagement and personal expenses. He earned significant amounts from endorsements but faced financial setbacks, including a significant loss due to a fraudulent financial advisor.
The season began amid speculation that it would be the last in Chicago for Pippen, Jordan, and Jackson. Pippen had purposefully delayed off-season surgery so that his summer off-season would not be complicated by rehab, pushing his unavailability well into the regular season. In addition to this increasing the load on Jordan to drive the team towards a potential final championship together, it stirred an active effort by Bulls general manager Jerry Krause to trade Pippen, who responded in turn with his own trade demand and rancorous sit-out that extended well beyond his return to playing condition. In spite of this, Pippen ultimately rejoined the team, without any contract renegotiation to pay him what he was worth relative to the then league pay scale, and joined Jordan in another Bulls run to the 1998 NBA Finals, where they again bested the Jazz to win their second three-peat.
After eleven seasons with the Chicago Bulls, Pippen, the franchise's second-place leader in points, assists, and steals, was traded in January 1999 in a sign-and-trade deal to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Roy Rogers and a second round pick in the 2000 NBA draft (Jake Voskuhl). Pippen's trade to Houston for the lockout-shortened season received much publicity, including his only solo cover of Sports Illustrated. In order for the Rockets to create enough salary-cap room to acquire Pippen, Charles Barkley said that he sacrificed greatly as he signed a five-year $67.2 million contract before the previous season. Pippen's salary was $11 million, almost four times what it had been the previous season with the Chicago Bulls.
On April 16, 2020, Pippen stated that he had been dismissed as a public relations ambassador for the Bulls in February. According to NBC Sports Chicago, he and the Bulls could not come to an agreement on compensation and allowing him to keep his role of making regular TV appearances on ESPN's The Jump. He quipped, "I didn't really want it to be out in the public but I'm no longer employed by the Bulls. Probably is a good thing, right? I like to associate myself with winning."
Shortly after retiring, Pippen learned that his financial adviser Robert Lunn, who he claimed had been recommended by the Bulls, was under investigation for bank fraud. Pippen had invested over $20 million through Lunn, who was sentenced to three years in prison in March 2016 on multiple fraud counts; Lunn was found to have forged Pippen's signature on a $1.4 million loan that Lunn used to pay off personal debts.
Career, Business, and Investments
Pippen played 17 seasons in the NBA, with 12 seasons with the Chicago Bulls, one with the Houston Rockets, and four with the Portland Trail Blazers. He is a six-time NBA champion and was named to the NBA All-Star team seven times. After retirement, Pippen has been involved in various business ventures and public appearances. He has also been involved in projects like the Ball Token blockchain initiative and is working on a documentary about the 1991 Bulls championship.
Pippen is a two-time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, once for his individual career and once as a member of the "Dream Team", having been simultaneously inducted for both on August 13, 2010. The Bulls retired his number 33 on December 8, 2005. The University of Central Arkansas retired his number 33 on January 21, 2010.
Pippen began his college playing career at the University of Central Arkansas after being discovered by the school's head basketball coach, Don Dyer, as a walk-on. He did not receive much media coverage because Central Arkansas played in the NAIA, while the media focused on the more prestigious NCAA. Pippen stood only 6ft 1in tall when he graduated from high school, but experienced a growth spurt while at Central Arkansas and grew to 6ft 8in. As a senior, his per game averages of 23.6 points, 10 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and near 60 percent field goal shooting earned him consensus NAIA All-American honors in 1986 and 1987, making him a dominant player in the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference, drawing the attention of NBA scouts.
With teammate Michael Jordan as a motivational and instructional mentor, Pippen refined his skills and slowly developed many new ones over his career. Jordan and Pippen frequently played one-on-one outside of team practices, simply to hone each other's skills on offense and defense. Pippen claimed the starting small forward position during the 1988 NBA Playoffs, helping the Jordan-led Bulls to reach the conference semifinals for the first time in over a decade. Pippen emerged as one of the league's premier young forwards at the turn of the decade, recording then-career highs in points (16.5 points per game), rebounds (6.7 rebounds per game), and field goal shooting (48.9%), as well as finishing third in the league in steals with 211 during the 1989–1990 season. These feats earned Pippen his debut NBA All-Star selection in 1990.
Michael Jordan retired before the 1993–94 season and in his absence Pippen emerged from Jordan's shadow. That year, he earned All-Star Game MVP honors and led the Bulls in scoring, assists, and blocks, and was second in the NBA in steals per game, averaging 22.0 points, 8.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 2.9 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game, while shooting 49.1% from the field and a career-best 32% from the 3-point line. For his efforts, he earned the first of three straight All-NBA First Team selections, and he finished third in MVP voting. The Bulls (with key additions of Toni Kukoč, Steve Kerr and Luc Longley) finished the season with 55 wins, only two fewer than the year before.
A key play occurred in Game 5 which changed the outcome of the series. With 2.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the Knicks' Hubert Davis attempted a 23 ft shot which was defended by Pippen, who was called for a personal foul by referee Hue Hollins, who determined that Pippen made contact with Davis. Television replays indicated that contact was made after Davis had released the ball. Davis successfully made both free throw attempts to assist in the Knicks victory, 87–86, and gave the Knicks a three games to two advantage in the series. The resulting incident was described as the most controversial moment of Hollins' career by Referee magazine. Hollins defended the call after the game saying, "I saw Scottie make contact with his shooting motion. I'm positive there was contact on the shot." Darell Garretson, the league's supervisor of officials and who also officiated in the league, agreed with Hollins and issued a statement, "The perception is that referees should put their whistles in their pockets in the last minutes. But it all comes down to what is sufficient contact. There's an old, old adage that refs don't make those calls in the last seconds. Obviously, you hope you don't make a call that will decide a game. But the call was within the context of how we had been calling them all game." Garretson later changed his stance of the call the next season. Speaking to a Chicago Tribune reporter, Garretson described Hollins' call as "terrible". Chicago head coach Phil Jackson, upset over the outcome of the game, was fined $10,000 for comparing the loss to the gold medal game controversy at the 1972 Summer Olympics. In Game 6, Pippen made the signature play of his career. Midway in the third quarter, Pippen received the ball during a Bulls fast break, charging toward the basket. As center Patrick Ewing jumped up to defend the shot, Pippen fully extended the ball out, absorbing body contact and a foul from Ewing, and slammed the ball through the hoop with Ewing's hand in his face. Pippen landed several feet away from the basket along the baseline, incidentally walking over a fallen Ewing. He then made taunting remarks to both Ewing and then Spike Lee, who was standing courtside supporting the Knicks, thus receiving a technical foul. This extended the Bulls' lead to 17; they won 93–79.
Trade rumors involving Pippen escalated during the 1994 off-season. Jerry Krause, the Bulls' general manager, was reportedly looking to ship Pippen off to the Seattle SuperSonics in exchange for all-star forward Shawn Kemp, moving Toni Kukoč into Pippen's position as starting small forward with Kemp filling in the vacant starting power forward position in place of Horace Grant, a free agent who left the Bulls for the up-and-coming Orlando Magic during the off-season. In January, when asked by Craig Sager as to whether he thought that he would be traded, Pippen replied, "I hope I am". However, Pippen would remain a Bull and those rumors were put to rest once it was announced that Michael Jordan would be returning to the Bulls, late in the season. Badly lacking interior defense and rebounding due to Grant's departure, the Pippen-led Bulls did not play as well in the 1994 season as they had in the season before. For the first time in years, they were in danger of missing the playoffs. The Bulls were just 34–31, prior to Jordan's return for the final 17 games, and Jordan led them to a 13–4 record to close the regular season. Still, Pippen finished the 1994 season leading the Bulls in every major statistical category—points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks—joining Dave Cowens as the only players in NBA history to accomplish the feat; Kevin Garnett, LeBron James , Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokić have since matched it.
Despite injuring his foot in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat, Pippen helped the Bulls to an 84–82 victory over the Utah Jazz in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, which was decided by Jordan's game-winning buzzer beating jumper. One of the highlights of the game was when Jazz star Karl Malone was fouled by Dennis Rodman with 9.2 seconds left and had a chance to give Utah the lead and Pippen famously psyched Malone out, before he stepped up to the line, by saying: "Just remember, the mailman doesn't deliver on Sundays." He missed both free throws. Jordan got the rebound and quickly called a time-out with 7.5 seconds left. With play resumed, Jordan dribbled out most of the clock, then launched a 20 ft shot that went in at the buzzer to give Chicago a 1–0 series lead. In Game 3 of the series, Pippen tied a then finals record of seven 3-pointers, but Chicago still lost 104–93. In Game 5, Jordan was battling illness but still managed to dominate the game, with the Bulls winning 90–88. With only seconds remaining and the outcome safely in Chicago's favor; Jordan collapsed into Pippen's arms, creating an iconic image of the pair that has come to symbolize "The Flu Game". During Game 6, Pippen made one of the greatest plays of his career. Trailing by two, after Steve Kerr's jump shot with 5 seconds remaining, the Jazz looked for a final shot to stay alive, but Pippen knocked away Bryon Russell's inbound pass intended for Shandon Anderson and rolled the ball over to Toni Kukoč, who dunked to give the Bulls a 90–86 lead, clinching their fifth championship. Afterwards, Jordan was named Finals MVP for the fifth time.
Alongside Barkley, his former Olympic teammate and future NBA Hall of Famer, Pippen joined Hakeem Olajuwon, but on-court chemistry problems emerged, especially with Barkley. Pippen had his first triple-double in a 93–87 loss against the Atlanta Hawks as he had 15 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in addition to 1 steal in 46 minutes of play. On April 22, 1999, Pippen was detained by police on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. The charges were later dropped due to insufficient evidence. Pippen had his second triple-double of the season in a 106–101 loss against the Los Angeles Clippers, posting 23 points, 10 assists, and 10 rebounds in addition to 6 steals in 45 minutes of play. Despite averaging a career-high in minutes per game with 40.2 and finishing 4th in the NBA in minutes played, Pippen's scoring was down to 14.5 points per game, his lowest since his rookie year, and he made a career-low 43.2 percent of his shots. However, he also averaged his exceptional combination for a small forward of 6.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game, and was named to the NBA All-Defensive first team for the 8th time. The Rockets finished the season with a 31–19 record, third in the Midwest Division and fifth in the Western Conference. They faced the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. In game 3 of the series, Pippen scored 37 points and had 13 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 block in staving off elimination. The Lakers went on to win the series the following game, defeating Houston 98–88.
Pippen claimed the starting small forward position with the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1999–2000 NBA season. Playing alongside new stars such as Rasheed Wallace and Steve Smith, Pippen continued to demonstrate his defensive capabilities. On January 3, when the Trail Blazers faced the Bulls, Pippen was honored with a video tribute highlighting his best moments in his 11-year career with the Bulls. Pippen later commented on the tribute by saying, "It was very emotional for me, but I tried to handle it as well as possible realizing I had a game to play. It was something that brought back a lot of memories for me, a lot of things I miss about this city, playing in this arena." Under head coach Mike Dunleavy, the Trail Blazers posted a 59–23 record and clinched the second spot in the Pacific Division and the third spot in the Western Conference. Pippen started in all 82 games that season, averaging 12.5 points per game, 5 assists and 6.3 rebounds per game. In the first round of the 2000 NBA Playoffs, Portland defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 3 games to 1. Their opponents in the second round were the Utah Jazz. In game 5, with Portland trailing by 2 points, Pippen hit a three pointer with 7.3 seconds remaining. The Jazz fouled Pippen on the next play, and he made one of two free throws to give the Blazers an 81–79 lead. The Trail Blazers won the series 4–1 and advanced to the Western Conference Finals. There, they faced the Los Angeles Lakers, coached by Phil Jackson, Pippen's former coach in Chicago. The series stretched to a deciding game 7, in which the Trail Blazers held a 15-point lead in the 4th quarter. However, led by the All-Star duo of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, the Lakers managed to erase Portland's lead and win the game 89–84 and with that also the series. In the game Pippen struggled, shooting only 30% from the field and totaling 12 points and 10 rebounds. The Lakers proceeded to the 2000 NBA Finals where they faced the Indiana Pacers and were eventually crowned the NBA Champions.
After the season, Pippen left Portland to sign with the Chicago Bulls, where he had begun his NBA career and won six championships. The Bulls' general manager John Paxson pursued Pippen to return to his old team, which had had little success following the breakup of the Bulls dynasty in 1998. The deal was made official on July 20, 2003, as Pippen signed a two-year, $10 million contract with the franchise. Pippen assumed a veteran role on the team in order to guide the young Bulls team, but was faced with numerous injuries throughout the season and was only able to play 23 games, averaging 5.9 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. He played the final game of his NBA career against the Seattle SuperSonics on February 2, 2004, scoring two points, with one rebound and three assists in eight minutes of play in a 109–97 loss. The Bulls compiled a 23–59 record, failing to qualify for the playoffs. This marked the first time in Pippen's career that his team did not reach the playoffs. Pippen had been a constant presence in the NBA playoffs prior to this season, reaching the playoffs in 16 straight years (11 with Chicago, 1 with Houston, 4 with Portland). He is second in the NBA in career playoff steals with 395 (LeBron James leads with 445). On October 5, 2004, Pippen announced his retirement.
Pippen was famed for his defensive abilities, having made the NBA All Defensive Team ten consecutive years during his career and leading the league in steals in. Jackson once described him as a "one-man wrecking crew", capable of guarding anyone from the point guard to the center position. Pippen is one of three players in NBA history (along with Jordan and Olajuwon) to record 200 steals and 100 blocks in a season, and he has the record for second-most career steals in the playoffs (395) behind James. He was skilled at staying in front of his man on defense, and particularly effective as a help defender, with his long arms in traps. He was also capable of chasing down an opposing player in transition to block shots from behind.
On offense, Pippen relied primarily on his athleticism to gain an advantage over his defender; he slashed towards the basket for higher percentage shots. Early in his career, Pippen was not an adept jump shooter; he struggled when shooting directly on a line to the basket. He favored shooting his jump shots—mid-range and three-pointers—on an angle. He could regularly bank the ball off the backboard into the basket. He honed his jump shot over the course of his career and became more effective at scoring from distance later in his career.
Pippen's unusually long arms (with a 88 in wingspan) and jumping agility helped him clog the passing lanes on defense, block shots from behind on players that had managed to pass him by, grab seemingly out-of-reach rebounds, make unusual plays in mid-air, and make passes around defenders that most players are physically unable to make. He often led the Bulls in assists and blocks as a result. He was also known as a selfless player, and his team-focused approach to the game was a key component in the Bulls' championship wins. His career assists total of 6,135 (5.2 per game), which was 23rd all-time among all players when he retired, is a testament to that approach.
Social Network
While specific details about Pippen's social media presence are not extensively documented, he remains a figure of interest in basketball circles and often appears in public events and interviews related to his career and personal life.
Pippen was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team eight consecutive times and the All-NBA First Team three times. He was a seven-time NBA All-Star and was the NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1994. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History during the season, and is one of four players to have his jersey retired by the Chicago Bulls (the others being Jerry Sloan, Bob Love, and Michael Jordan). He played a main role on both the 1992 Chicago Bulls Championship team and the 1996 Chicago Bulls Championship team, which were selected as two of the Top 10 Teams in NBA History. His biography on the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame's website states that "the multidimensional Pippen ran the court like a point guard, attacked the boards like a power forward, and swished the nets like a shooting guard." During his 17-year career, he played 12 seasons with the Bulls, one with the Houston Rockets and four with the Portland Trail Blazers, making the postseason 16 consecutive times. In October 2021, Pippen was again honored as one of the league's greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.
However, one of the most controversial moments of Pippen's career came in his first year without Jordan. In the 1994 NBA Playoffs, the Eastern Conference Semifinals pitted the Bulls against the New York Knicks, whom the Bulls had dispatched en route to a championship each of the previous three seasons. On May 13, 1994, down 2–0 in the series in Game 3, Bulls coach Phil Jackson needed a big play from his team to have any chance of going on to the conference finals. With 1.8 seconds left and the score tied at 102, Jackson designed the last play for Toni Kukoč, with Pippen instructed to inbound the basketball. Pippen, who had been the Bulls' leader all season long in Jordan's absence, was so angered by Jackson's decision to not let him take the potential game-winner that he refused to leave the bench and re-enter the game when the timeout was over. Although Kukoč did hit the game-winner, a 23 ft fadeaway jumper at the buzzer, there was little celebrating by the Bulls, as television cameras caught an unsmiling Phil Jackson storming off the court. "Scottie asked out of the play," Jackson told reporters moments later in the post-game interview.
In 2007, Pippen had attempted to make an NBA comeback as he expressed that he would like to play for a championship contender in hopes of getting his 7th Championship ring. Pippen had spent the winter working out in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and announced that he was hoping for a late-season return to the league. Dwyane Wade, who was the Finals MVP of the 2006 NBA Finals and the captain of the returning champions, the Miami Heat, liked the idea of Pippen making a comeback and expressed his views on it: "I'm already playing with Payton and Shaq, two guys I used to play with on video games. To add Scottie Pippen to the mix, that would be crazy."
Pippen is remembered as one of the greatest basketball defenders of all time as well as one of the most versatile and agile players overall. In 2022, to commemorate the NBA's 75th Anniversary The Athletic ranked their top 75 players of all time and named Pippen as the 32nd greatest player in NBA history. Much like fellow Bulls teammate Michael Jordan, he provided tenacious on-the-ball perimeter defense, tough interior defense, and significant talent as a help defender. Gifted with extraordinary athleticism, even when compared with other professional athletes, Pippen demonstrated substantial skill in multiple areas well-suited for basketball.
Pippen's intense work ethic and athletic physique gave him the ability to consistently make highlight-reel plays, such as applying defensive intensity, forcing a turnover, stealing the ball, and starting a one-man fast break that he would finish with a thunderous slam dunk. As he himself has attested, he and Jordan would compete to see who could force more turnovers and produce more offense from defense in each game (fast-break points). During the 1990 Slam Dunk Contest, Pippen exhibited his leaping ability with a dunk from the free-throw line. He was an athletic finisher at the rim, both with slam dunks and a skillful finger roll that he added to his skill set over time. He was also a prolific perimeter shooter for the time, taking about 3,000 and making almost 1,000 three-pointers in his career.
Education
Scottie Pippen attended Hamburg High School in Hamburg, Arkansas, and later played college basketball at the University of Central Arkansas. He was drafted into the NBA in 1987 by the Seattle SuperSonics but was traded to the Chicago Bulls on draft night, where he began his illustrious career.
Pippen married Larsa Pippen, who later became a Real Housewives of Miami star, in 1997. The couple had four children: Scotty Jr., Preston, Justin, and Sophia. Though Pippen filed for divorce in 2016, he later withdrew his divorce petition. Larsa Pippen filed for divorce in 2018, and the divorce became final in late 2021. Scotty Pippen Jr. currently plays for the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA, and Sophia Pippen appeared on the first season of Dancing with the Stars: Juniors. Justin Pippen is also a basketball player, currently committed to play College Basketball at Michigan.