Back in the day, Scottie Pippen was very close to joining the Los Angeles Lakers, but Jerry Buss made a decision that was more beneficial than harmful for his team. At the end of the prior century, the Lakers were interested in Pippen’s services and the player could have joined the team if it wasn’t for his contract.
Scottie Pippen’s problems with contracts were well documented during the Chicago Bulls’ docu-series ‘The Last Dance’ and that prevented him from having more benefits during his career; that happened with the Bulls and it would happen again later in his career when he had the chance to create another superteam.
Back in 1999, one year after the Bulls were dismantled following their sixth NBA championship in eight years, Scottie found himself looking for a new team. He had joined the Houston Rockets on a 5-year contract. At the time he had four years left on his deal, Pippen was shipped to the Portland Trail Blazers, where he played a couple of years. In the case the Blazers didn’t pull the trigger for Scottie, the Lakers were reportedly ready to land the talented player.
Jerry Buss told a group of reporters in 1999 that Scottie had everything to be a good addition to the Lakers but after two years, the team wouldn’t have any space to improve the roster.
“Phil definitely felt that Scottie would be a big improvement for us in the next year or two,” Buss said, via ESPN.
“But he is aware that if you take somebody like Scottie with a long-term contract under the current rules, it would have been impossible to ever improve this team.”
Buss made it clear that if it wasn’t for his hefty contract, Pippen would’ve made it to the Lakers.
“Scottie is just a great player and certainly for a year or two it would’ve been the right thing to do,” he said. “We would’ve probably done it had he not had a four-year contract.”
“When you take him, you’re basically saying this is our personnel for the next four years,” he said. “Right now we have a lot more leeway than that and I think we should maintain that leeway.”
Nobody knows what would have happened with the Lakers if they landed Pippen at that time. Fortunately for them, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant led them to the promised land three times in a row, making them the last team to three-peat in the association. That doesn’t seem too bad knowing that they missed out on Scottie Pippen.
