Scottie Pippen

Scottie Maurice Pippen (born September 25, 1965) is a retired American professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is most remembered for his time with the Chicago Bulls, with whom he was instrumental in six NBA Championships and their record 1995–96 season of 72 wins. Pippen, along with Michael Jordan, played an important role in transforming the Bulls team into a vehicle for popularizing the NBA around the world during the 1990s. Considered one of the best small forwards of all time, Pippen was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team eight times (all consecutive) 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 1996–97 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). During his seventeen-year career, he played twelve seasons with the Chicago Bulls, one with the Houston Rockets and four with the Portland Trail Blazers, making the postseason sixteen straight times. He is third on the list of most postseason games played, behind Robert Horry and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Pippen is also the only person to have twice won both an NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal in the same year. Pippen was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on August 13, 2010.