This is why Pippen's polarizing: He is a fantastic player but his skillset was Taylor-made to be a supplementary option. He also played along the greatest offensive force the league has seen. You'll think of 1994, without thinking of 1995 as a gut-reaction, but keep reading to understand.
Pippen is overrated because Jordan often had to carry the Bulls on his back, and underrated because he still contributed so much to the team's success. Still, there are so many false agenda-driven narratives regarding Pippen's actual dominance of the game.
Anyone who watched the finals and remembers them knows how often Jordan had to carry the load. In 1996 and 1998 finals, Pippen averaged 15.7 points per game in series where the Bulls badly needed buckets. That was Pippen's weakness. The polarizing aspect is that Pippen was still a top 8-10 player in the league, an excellent all-around player (all-star) and contributed in multiple ways to the team's success.
Agenda Example:
Fans adhering to the idea that Pippen served as Jordan’s peer often cite aggregate finals stats, arguing that during the Bulls two three-peats, Pippen led the Bulls in assists, rebounds, steals and blocks.
Wrong. Despite being inaccurate– Jordan collected two more assists than Pippen across the Bulls’ six finals appearances and also outscored his All-Star teammate by 510 points, almost doubling Pippen’s scoring output.
Why is Pippen sometimes overlooked?Important sentence - No one in the history of the league has had to carry the scoring load like Michael Jordan (playoffs/finals tournament). The stats confirm this, the eye-test confirms this. You guys witnessed Durant with a couple of excellent carrying games and how exciting that is. Well, that's a taste of what Jordan had to consistently do quite often, with Scottie alongside him, STRICTLY on the offensive end (Scottie's a great dynamic offensive player and phenomenal defender, but not an automatic bucket). That's why Scottie is so polarizing and sometimes downplayed, even by players like Magic, Isiah, Barkley, etc at the time. Jordan was the feared one. Scottie was 2nd fiddle, like Stockton, and damned good at it. At age 32-34, when Jordan was winning all sorts of accolades, Pippen in his career regressed to an afterthought. He was a 2nd option player, period.
NOW, this doesn't mean that Pippen wasn't a huge contributor to the game. It doesn't mean that he's not a top 50 player of all time. But top 5 player like some people act? Nope. He never was. So Pippen is, in a sense, underrated due to Jordan's dominance, but also overrated by revisionist posters who like to act that he somehow was capable of consistently carrying a team (No one talks about 95 when the Pip-led Bulls were barely over 500, the year after 94?).
There's the debate to Scottie being underrated or overrated. It's polarizing, understandably.
As time goes on, people tend to overrate him more and more. Scottie's one of the best 2nd options of all time, and not a 1st option. He's an excellent, dynamic player who could do everything, but not an automatic scorer, which was so vital, especially in the 90s when defense clamped down. You know who else has these attributes? John Stockton. He wasn't a batman, but is a top 50 player of all time and instrumental to the Jazz's success. Neither were considered top 5-7 players in the league, ever, really.
I know what you're thinking. What about 1994? OK... what about 1995 though? A pip-led Bulls were barely over .500, at 34-30, then finished with .800 as soon as rusty Jordan was added for the last 18 games. And then 1996 when the Bulls with Jordan revived went 72-10. Is it not possible that Pippen needed Jordan as well?
With Jordan added, they went from 34-30 to 86-16
Supporting this stance is the fact that the Bulls differently in 1994 wasn't nearly as great as their record, showing that they had overachieved in a lot of close 2-3 point games.
Pippen is overlooked because to win championships, teams need ceiling raisers. These are your Larry Birds, your peak Steph's, Jordans, etc. 2015 Steph was unbelievable and Golden State finished 73-10. He had plenty of support, but no way does Golden have that type of consistency without Steph's consistent dominance. Same is said of Jordan - goat level offense and consistency equals goat-level win consistency. As for Pippen? He never had scoring consistency, which was his one fault, and it's an important one.
These 7 guys were better and considered so every single year-
Jordan
Hakeem
Robinson
Shaq
Barkley
Malone
Ewing
Then you have guys who were either slightly more dynamic
Stockton
Penny
Hill
or unstoppable down to the wire
Miller
Which puts Pippen at somewhere around the 10th best in the league range, around Miller/Penny, which is about right. No Pippen, no championships.
By most accounts, Scottie was an excellent player but players like Chuck, Isiah, Magic, Malone etc. have stated very much that Scottie was a second option or have even made statements like "When you're talking about the Bulls, you're only really talking about Michael Jordan. That's why we think our team would win" (Magic and Isiah speaking during 93 finals). That gives you an idea of how much Jordan actually carried the Bulls' offensive load... yet people act like Pippen was some sort of savant on that end... which he was not. In 1999, when Pippen was on the Rockets, he was clear 3rd fiddle to Hakeem and Chuck, who entered the league earlier.
Imagine seeing Durant more consistently putting up those 40-50 point games. Jordan had to do that frequently. That's why Jordan has 7 of the top 10 playoff series scoring averages of all time. When the Bulls went dry, they needed that from him. He has 5 40+ point series averages, which is insane. This is why Pippen is underrated, and also overrated. He was never dominant like Jordan to winning the unwinnable, but his contributions on both ends of the court were valuable.
I'm sure that a couple posters here will debate a few of those names listed above as being somehow worse than Pippen, but that would be revisionist history because at the time, it was common knowledge among players and coaches in the league. No, Pippen was never considered better than the offensive force that was Chuck. No, he wasn't nearly the two-way player that Hakeem, Robinson, or even Ewing were. Those guys all had a higher ceiling-raising potential and needed supporting casts for it.
Point blank - Scottie was never discussed as a top five player unless it was his MVP'ish season (please link me if he was... I haven't seen it once). Yes, he had a nice MVP run and an excellent peak season. But that does not happen consistently. Once again, why doesn't anyone talk about the next season, when the Bulls were barely over .500 with Pippen 64 games into the season? Rusty Jordan came back and the Bulls record hovers around .800 over the last 18 games. Next season, they go 72-10. No one mentions this. Why? Simply because of the stance that they are taking. If Pippen consistently did that, then it would be another story altogether.
OK, how about DEFENSE?Pippen's one of the best defensive players ever, period.....but people on realm (with obvious agendas) like to pretend that he's on a different caliber than Jordan. Contemporary players (Magic, Barkley, Shaq, Hakeem) would tell you how foolish that is and many players stated that Jordan was the best player on both ends (I disagree and believe Hakeem was better). Regardless, it is re-writing history at it's finest. Don't believe me?
Jordan finished higher on the DPOY list nearly every year, and had a much higher peak in 88 (out-blocking half of the starting centers, setting records for blocks/steals, etc, basically Kawhi on crack).... BUT Pippen was better in the stretch of the 97 and 98 seasons, when Jordan's athleticism had started to diminish. So both are excellent defenders, and very close. But Pippen's never had a year like Jordan of 88, where he actually rivaled the impact of some of the best defensive center seasons in the league. So in terms of defense? Pippen has definitely been overrated. You take what fans say compared to what players who actually played in the league say, and it's night and day on Jordan's defending abilities in particular. Pippen? Has been glorified on that end, since. Reality- Jordan, Pippen and Rodman are three of the best defensive player of all time.
Of course Jordan needed Scottie for six championships. Who doesn't need a second star or a ridiculous defensive supporting cast? Can you imagine what Scottie's legacy would be, had he played for a garbage team like Mitch Richmond? Jordan would be talked about no matter what.
Addressing an earlier comment - Though they have different strengths, Scottie's competitiveness and defensive play style is unusually similar to Jordan's.... way too similar for Jordan to not have helped to mold him. Scottie himself stated that it did defensively in interviews and that guarding Jordan in practice improved his defensive abilities immensely. Why wouldn't guarding the most unstoppable scorer help you? That wouldn't make sense.
TLDR: Scottie is a top 50 player, dynamic, one of the best 2nd options of all time, but not an elite scorer, or a batman who could take over games. He was rarely considered a top 8 player in the league, but was consistently around 10. He was a John Stockton type of player. Scottie will continue to be salty due to the Last Dance and his remaining in the shadow of Jordan, but it’s pretty damned accurate. Watch your choice of literally any of the six Bulls finals and you’ll see this.
