After spending most of the early parts of his career playing in the massive shadow of his more famous teammate, Michael Jordan, the Chicago Bulls ' 1993-94 campaign was supposed to be Scottie Pippen 's breakout party.
And for the most part, it was as the versatile and defensive maestro averaged 22.0 points on 49.1 percent shooting, 8.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 2.9 steals to lead the Bulls to a 55-27 record and the third-seed in the Eastern Conference.
With MJ out at the diamonds, trying to prove his worthiness as a professional slugger, Pip established himself as a clear-cut NBA superstar, finishing third in the MVP race and earning berths on the All-Star, All-Defensive and All-NBA teams.
For all accounts and purposes, he had more than earned the lofty stature that he was enjoying at that time and expected to be leaned on by his team when the tough got going, much like how they did with Jordan when he was still around. However, a weird thing happened in Game 3 of the 1994 Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Knicks .
With the game tied at 102-all with 1.8 seconds remaining, Bulls head coach Phil Jackson diagrammed a play, but it wasn't for Pippen. Instead, he wanted Toni Kukoc, their rookie forward from Croatia, to take the shot.
Pippen met Jackson's call with both shock and disdain, like being slapped in the face in front of thousands of people. The rest is deeply entrenched in the Bulls' lore. Kukoc delivered the game-winner jumper and Pippen had to live with his decision to sit out the final play for the rest of his life.
Pippen, in his controversial book "Unguarded," said that he felt mortified at being made second fiddle once again. It was bad enough that he had to defer to Jordan all those years and be content with whatever was left of the spotlight; he now had to defer to a rookie who had yet to prove himself in the NBA?
Moreover, Pippen recoiled at the thought of being made the inbounder. In that scenario, with only 1.8 seconds remaining, all he could do was pass the ball and just watch the play unfold — a role he felt was better served by a role player, not a superstar.
"The most humiliating part was Phil telling me I would throw the ball inbounds," Pip mentioned in his book.
"At least when you're on the floor, you can be a decoy. The Knicks would have put two defenders on me. Someone would have gotten a good look," he added.
While the Bulls whooped it up in celebration of Kukoc's heroic shot, the vibe inside their locker room was far from jovial. In fact, it was the complete opposite. Tensions were high because the players felt the captain had bailed on the ship when it encountered rough seas.
According to Bulls guard B.J. Armstrong, veteran center Bill Cartwright felt so disappointed with what Pippen did that all he could do was shed tears . However, what he said afterward helped steer the team in the right direction.
"He was in tears about what happened because we cared about Scottie; we cared about our group," Armstrong said . "We had come too far and done so many things and experienced too many things to allow anything on the outside to disrupt this group."
Fortunately, Pippen came to his senses and profusely apologized to the team. In a way, the incident galvanized the Bulls, who dragged the Knicks to a seventh game before losing in controversial fashion.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Apr 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
