Photo: KEYSTONE/AP NY/SUSAN RAGAN

Former All-Star Explains Why Scottie Pippen Was The Most Important Player On The Dream Team, Over Jordan, Magic & The Others

When Michael Jordan retired for the first time, it was Scottie Pippen’s time to shine during the 1993-94 season, the first season as ‘the man’ in Chicago.

And Robin did become Batman. As everyone knew, while on the team, Michael Jordan was the leader—he took all the big shots, dominated the court and media, and was at the forefront of all six championships—and Pippen accepted it.

But in that first season without MJ, Pippen was up against Houston Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon and San Antonio Spurs big-man David Robinson in the MVP voting, but eventually fell short to Olajuwon for the award. Pippen ranked eighth in scoring (22.0), 23rd in rebounding (8.7), 19th in assists (5.6) second in steals (2.9), and averaged 0.8 blocks per game while shooting an impressive 49% from the field.

Pippen carried the team on his back during Jordan’s absence and gained newfound respect in the NBA world that he could win and be a superstar on his own.

This was the first time people fully realized how good of a player Pippen actually was. With him taking a backseat again after Michael’s comeback, that one season was the only full season we’ve got with prime Pippen as a team’s superstar, which likely also makes him the most underrated NBA superstar of all-time.

But as good as Pippen was with the Bulls, he was even better with the 1992 Team USA. To this day, the Dream Team is the best basketball team that has ever been assembled and it features some of the NBA’s biggest names in history.

But even though the team was incredibly loaded, Pippen was the most important player. That’s at least the opinion of former NBA All-Star, Gilbert Arenas, who talked about the importance of Scottie on the Fubo Sports podcast.

“People didn’t realize on the USA team, he led the team in assists. Wasn’t Magic, Wasn’t John Stockton, it wasn’t the two best point guards in the world. It was Scottie Pippen. You know he was the most valuable because he’s the one that’s getting the ball from out of Jordan’s hand to a Barkley, from Barkley to a Mullin, from Mullin to a David Robinson.

So he’s the one that’s making sure all these guys and he sacrificed himself, but he’s the most valuable on the team.”