WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — The comparison of Andre Iguodala and Scottie Pippen is an enticing one, to be fair: defensive stopper, produce on both ends of the floor, unselfish, ball-mover, long and athletic, no reveling in statistics, winner.
However, on the last point, Pippen’s 17-year list of accomplishments includes six NBA championships (both three-peats, mind you) alongside the greatest player of all-time, and seven All-Star Game appearances. He’s been inducted into the Pro Basketball Hall Of Fame and in 1997 was named one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players.
Grantland’s Jonathan Abrams wrote a brilliant long-form piece headlined by that very argument, called “The New Pippen”. Our Maggie Pilloton broke down the article for Golden State Warriors fans recently in “The Selfless Sidekick”.
To make things even more eerie for Warriors fans, Abrams revealed that Iguodala once studied how Pippen defended Mark Jackson in a playoff series between the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers, Jackson’s team at the time:
…Iguodala studied how Pippen defended Indiana’s point guard, Mark Jackson, in the 1998 conference finals. Guarding the shorter Jackson, Pippen almost single-handedly denied ball movement on his side of the court. (Michael) Jordan and Pippen went on to capture their sixth championship together, defeating the Utah Jazz.
On Wednesday after Warriors practice, Jackson commented on the Iguodala-Pippen comparison when I asked him about it.
“Scottie’s an all-time great basketball player and I can speak first-hand all-time great grabber and holder in playoff basketball,” Jackson jokingly quipped, “Naw, he’s a Hall Of Fame basketball player and I think Andre is still working on his resume to even be put in that class, so I don’t want to do Scottie a disservice.”
It should be noted that Iguodala, who grew up a three-hour drive from Chicago, came to Pippen’s “defense” (no pun intended).
“Yeah I was biased as a Bulls fan, so I thought it was just great defense,” the Springfield, Illinois native said.
So far, the resume for Iguodala is, in short, not bad. Not bad at all. In fact, the basics are strikingly similar to Pippen’s:
| Player | Yrs | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scottie Pippen | 17 | 16.1 | 6.4 | 5.2 | 2.0 | 0.8 |
| Andre Iguodala | 10 | 15.0 | 5.7 | 4.9 | 1.7 | 0.5 |
Source: Basketball-Reference.com, as of 12/19/2013
Of course, the above will only get #DubNation perhaps irrationally excited. For example:
@poormanscommish @andre @scottiepippen That's Y the article on the two was amazing by grantland btw wouldn't that make Curry defacto Jordan?
— Aloysius Alphonso (@AAlphonso) December 18, 2013
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If we’re going down that path, it’s worth noting that Pippen arrived (along with, at the time, fellow rookie power forward Horace Grant) during Jordan’s fourth year, one year removed from acquiring Bill Cartwright.
The four cornerstones of the first Bulls championship run would, during that journey, be slayed from the playoffs by the Detroit Pistons for three consecutive years — two with Cartwright — before finally reaching the promised land.
Comparatively, the ten-year veteran Iguodala has arrived in Stephen Curry‘s fifth season.
So, if anything, if there’s context for the Iguodala-Pippen comparisons, we have the reverse happening. In a “bizarro” parallel universe, Scottie Pippen would have to be the established veteran arriving to help calm things for the rising superstar in Jordan. It’d be an older Robin joining forces with Batman.
Oh, and if you’re keeping score, Andre wore the number “9” for Team USA, which was the same number as Jordan’s.
Of course, the results might still be great for Warriors fans, time will only tell.
And if you’re an even-keeled Mark Jackson, who earlier this season told a reporter (not this one, if you’re curious) that there’s no rivalry between the Warriors and Sacramento Kings because, “Neither of us have done anything yet…Red Sox/Yankees, Ali/Frazier, those are rivalries,” the buck stops there and it’s time to talk about something else.
Jackson said as the interview ended yesterday, “I’m thrilled to have Andre and the things he does on the basketball floor to put you in a position to win. I love him as a player. You can see the similarities, but let’s wait until he fills up the resume like Scottie has.”
Warriors fans are hoping for exactly that to happen.
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