The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT August 14, 2010
It doesn’t matter how good you are in the NBA — if you’re going to be successful and wins a few championships, it is a lot easier to have someone that is right by your side.
Most NBA champions in recent years, whether it has been the Boston Celtics or Los Angeles Lakers, have had more than one All-Star in the lineup when they’ve claimed their title.
Two of those players, Scottie Pippen and Karl Malone, were among those inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame Friday night in Springfield, Mass.
WHEN IT comes to the biggest difference in the two, Pippen benefited from playing alongside one of the best scoring guards in the history of the NBA.
As Michael Jordan began to improve, Pippen played for years in his shadow, until Jordan opted to retire and play baseball for two years.
During that two-year absence, Pippen attempted to keep the Bulls in championship contention, but was never able to win a title without Jordan in the mix.
In their first full season together after Jordan’s comeback, Chicago broke the NBA record with 72 wins and went on to defeat the Seattle Sonics in six games.
Chicago went on to win two more titles in a row, with Jordan and Pippen winning their final game as teammates in a nail-biter at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City to win Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals.
Pippen played for Portland and Houston before eventually retiring after the 2004 season, only reaching the Western Conference finals once with the Trail Blazers in 2000.
THE STORY was the same for Malone, who played for years with former Gonzaga standout and Spokane native John Stockton.
Between the two, neither won an NBA title, but both had careers that were Hall of Fame worthy.
Utah finally broke through in the 1997 season after Stockton hit a game-winner against the two-time defending champion Houston Rockets to put them in the Finals. Unfortunately, that was also a year after the Bulls had run through the rest of the NBA and Utah was the final step on the way toward Chicago’s second of three straight titles.
But as long as both Stockton and Malone remained healthy, the Jazz were arguably the most consistent team in the playoffs while both were in their prime.
AS BOTH Malone and Pippen continued their careers in different cities as their fellow Hall of Fame teammates retired, only Malone had a chance at another title with the Los Angeles Lakers, before they were upset by the Detroit Pistons.
It’s difficult for me to imagine either Pippen or Malone without their famous counterparts.
Whether it was the “Stockton to Malone” scoring plays or Jordan catching a pass from Pippen on the way for one of his many highlight dunks, the best highlights came when they shared the floor.
It’s kind of fitting also that after the battle in the finals, both were enshrined at the same time, because they are the last of those players that kept me watching the sport as a young adult.
In the age of multi-million dollar contracts and jumping teams, it was nice that Pippen and Malone played the majority of their career with the team that got them where they found themselves on Friday.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via e-mail at jelliott@cdapress.com.