Vanderbilt's Pippen Jr. Sharing Spotlight with Famous Father
Scotty Pippen Jr. has grown up in the considerable shadow of his famous father, Scottie Pippen Sr., who starred alongside Michael Jordan as a member of the Chicago Bulls basketball dynasty in the 1990s as the tandem claimed six NBA titles in the decade.
For the younger Pippen, who recently completed his freshman season as a member of the Vanderbilt Commodores basketball team where he averaged 12.0 ppg along with 2.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists as a true freshman starting as the point guard in the SEC, it is his time in the spotlight.
However, when you have a famous father who excelled at the highest level in the same sport, dad is never far from the spotlight even though he retired from the NBA in 2004 after 17 seasons in the league.
A new documentary series titled "The Last Dance" recently released by Netflix chronicles the 1997-98 Bulls, lead by Jordan and Pippen as the team finished the season with 62 wins and only 20 losses en route to their sixth league title.
The documentary shared the contract details of the Bulls roster, where at one point, Pippen Sr., who was one of the best players in the entire NBA, was just the fourth highest-paid player behind Jordan and two other teammates, Ron Harper and Toni Kukoc.
During that time, there was no doubt the Bulls were Jordan's team, but it was Pippen who turned the team into a winner, as before his addition in 1987, Jordan's Bulls squads failed to break the .500 mark in any season before Pippen's arrival.
The legend of Pippen Sr. is well documented, and he is fully deserving of every accolade he has received.
Pippen Sr. was a regular attendee at Commodores games last season and should continue to be as his son's career moves forward.
Here's to hoping Scotty Jr's. career comes close to that of his father, though the younger Pippen is a bit shorter than his father, but has many of the same characteristics to his game.
The Last Dance documentary is currently available on Netflix and is an entertaining look at the Bulls, which for those of us who lived through it, was a fun time in the NBA.
