Pippen was an awesome player, no doubt about it. I think you are taking the Shawn Marion comp as an insult but Marion was a great player too. A stud in his prime and maybe the third best player on a championship team in his later years. If Marion in his prime had been second fiddle to MJ who knows what his numbers would've looked like.
We will never know, but I think if he had been on another team, Pippen "only" would have been something like what Marion was to his generation. You GTFO with the surgery excuse. Pippen played 40 minutes in a full season for the Rockets, he was just fine. He played all 82 games the following season for Portland. He just didn't have MJ.
Eff Harden, and I will buy that Harden might never be as valuable to a championship team or a championship culture as Pippen was but still, you've got to acknowledge Pippen is nowhere near the basketball talent harden is.
We will never know, but I think if he had been on another team, Pippen "only" would have been something like what Marion was to his generation. You GTFO with the surgery excuse. Pippen played 40 minutes in a full season for the Rockets, he was just fine. He played all 82 games the following season for Portland. He just didn't have MJ.
Eff Harden, and I will buy that Harden might never be as valuable to a championship team or a championship culture as Pippen was but still, you've got to acknowledge Pippen is nowhere near the basketball talent harden is.