By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Scottie Pippen was asked to compare the NBA from his era to today’s game, including putting Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic in comparisons.
“I don’t know,” he said during an interview with Marca, answering a question on whether the Slovenian and Serbian superstars would be equally dominant in the 1980s and 1990s, “We used to press all over the court. Could Jokic bring the ball up against such pressure? I don’t know. Sure, he can see the court and pass very well. But I don’t know if he would be comfortable bringing the ball up with that pressure.”
“Basketball is a team sport,” he shared his opinion on winning conditions way beyond one single superstar, “I don’t care what great individual you go and get. That doesn’t win a championship. It has to be a great team.”
The six-time NBA champion went into more variations with the current NBA era.
“It’s just a different game, in terms of how the game is promoted, how the game is refereed. And the players are different. They’re bigger, stronger, faster,” he pointed out.
“I don’t want to say it’s even more physical,” he added, “Basketball in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s was about as physical as you can get. I don’t see today’s game as physical as it was back then, just because of the hard fouls that you were allowed to give. Teams played with a different mindset.”
Pippen also went into a potential matchup between the 1996 Chicago Bulls and the 2016 Golden State Warriors, arguably the most successful teams of both eras behind the best W-L records in league history.
“It depends on the rules,” he said, “In the ‘90s rules, Steph Curry is not the same player. But for us to play in their era, it would be like breaking out of jail. You got freedom, nobody is holding on, nobody is knocking you to the floor, so they would probably win in that sense. They got Steph and Klay [Thompson], probably two of the best shooters, shooting three-ball. That just wasn’t our expertise.”
Photo Credit: Getty Images