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From Vanderbilt to rival NBA teams, Scotty Pippen Jr. and Jerry Stackhouse remain connected
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- From Vanderbilt to rival NBA teams, Scotty Pippen Jr. and Jerry Stackhouse remain connected
Scotty Pippen Jr. didn't know what was next.
A month before Pippen was prepping to sign with Vanderbilt basketball, coach Bryce Drew was fired. Pippen had just committed to Vanderbilt four months earlier, in January 2019.
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He didn't have a long offer list to fall back on. He was worried that the next Vanderbilt coach wouldn't want him.
Two weeks later, Vanderbilt announced it had hired former NBA star Jerry Stackhouse. At that moment, Pippen was put at ease by his hall of fame father and former Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen.
"That's my boy. You good," he recalled his father telling him.
Stackhouse would soon call and even though it was short and sweet, there was a clear message.
"He didn't really give me an option to leave," Pippen told The Commercial Appeal. "He was just saying he's happy to be my new coach."
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Stackhouse didn't know much about Pippen's game at the time. He then watched some film and the aggressiveness Pippen played with caught Stackhouse's attention.
Pippen went on to have a storied career at Vanderbilt under Stackhouse. Six years later, the two are still connected, but at the pro level.
Stackhouse is now an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors , and Pippen has established himself in a backup point guard role with the Memphis Grizzlies.
"To see it all come full circle and him being on an NBA team, it's definitely a gratifying feeling for me, but I'm more happy for him because I know this is what he wants," Stackhouse told The Commercial Appeal.
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Preparing for the pros
The journey started with Pippen as a skinny 6-foot-1 freshman looking to make a name for himself in Nashville. It didn't take Stackhouse long to realize Pippen's potential, so he made a bold decision.
On a team with future NBA guard Saben Lee , Stackhouse decided to put Pippen in charge of the offense. Lee, a junior, initially wasn't pleased with the move.
Lee pressured Pippen relentlessly at the next practice, picking him up full court on defense. And if Lee wasn't giving Pippen a hard time, junior guard Maxwell Evans was also applying the pressure and causing the freshman to make mistakes.
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"After some of those practices, I was like (expletive), I'm going to have to redshirt," Pippen said. "I didn't think I was ready to play."
"I was like man, 'How is kid going to respond?' " Stackhouse recalled.
Pippen responded. In the right way.
"It was like, OK, it ain't going to be like that," Stackhouse said. "That justified it for me that this kid has a chance to be special."
Pippen averaged 12 points and 3.6 assists per game as a freshman. He followed it with two consecutive seasons of 20 or more points per game and became a two-time All-SEC selection before turning pro after his junior year.
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And Pippen hasn't forgotten on how got there.
"I grew so much as a player around him," Pippen said. "So much as a person. I give him a lot of credit for my career."
Generational relationship between Jerry Stackhouse and both Pippens
Stackhouse joined the NBA as a player in 1995 when Pippen's father was already a three-time NBA champion. Through the NBA's fraternity, the two established a bond that became generational.
Stackhouse refers to the older Pippen as his "OG." He later became the OG to the son.
"He had a relationship with my dad, so I knew I could trust him, Pippen said. "I feel like I could trust him with my career."
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When Pippen went undrafted in 2022, Stackhouse was puzzled. The book on Pippen was a tough guard who could play on the ball, off the ball and took on a heavy load in his last two seasons at Vanderbilt.
Pippen himself has often talked about this part of his journey, too. Whether it was high school, college or eventually the NBA G League, Pippen often put up big numbers that didn't always translate to the most attention.
Three years now into his NBA career, Pippen has an organization that believes in him after the Grizzlies signed him to a long-term contract before the 2024-25 season.
Stackhouse believes the edge is still there in part because of his last name.
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"You can see it," Stackhouse said. "He plays with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. Whatever comes his way, he wants to be able to say it was done on his own merit."
Keeping tabs
Around the holidays or after big performances, Pippen can still expect to hear from Stackhouse. Even when he was in the G League with the South Bay Lakers, Instagram messages would come from Stackhouse, who wanted Pippen to know he was proudly supporting him along the way.
The two are now intertwined in one of the NBA's most competitive matchups between the Warriors and Grizzlies, but the pathway to this point remains a key cog in their relationship.
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"He took me as someone that wasn't a high prospect," Pippen said. "Not too many people were speaking highly of me."
Damichael Cole is the Memphis Grizzlies beat writer for The Commercial Appeal. Contact Damichael at damichael.cole@commercialappeal.com . Follow Damichael on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DamichaelC.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Grizzlies' Scotty Pippen Jr. grateful for Jerry Stackhouse's impact
