A professional athlete may have all the talent in the world, but if they have a me-first instead of a team-first attitude, fans and teammates quickly lose respect for them.
PIPPEN POUTS: In the 1994 NBA Eastern Conference semi-finals, the Knicks went on the road for Game 3 following two close wins to open the series. The Bulls held an 89-70 lead through the first three quarters, but the Knicks charged back in the fourth. With 5.5 seconds remaining in regulation and Chicago ahead by two points, Patrick Ewing hit a hook shot over Bill Cartwright to tie the game with 1.8 seconds left on the clock.
Bulls coach Phil Jackson elected to give Toni Kukoc the final shot. The “Croatian Sensation,” a 25-year-old rookie at the time, had hit multiple game-winners in his first NBA season. When Jackson asked Scottie Pippen to inbound the ball, Pippen decided he wasn’t going to take the court and sat down on the bench.
As The New York Times summed it up, “Andrea Kramer, an ESPN reporter, who was beside the Bulls’ bench at this time with a cameraman, quoted Pippen as issuing an expletive and then saying, ‘I’m tired of this.’ And Pippen then sat down. Some of the other players said, ‘Pip, come on, get up, what are you doing?’ He refused to come back in the game. Because the Bulls were only sending four men on the court, Jackson had to call a second timeout.”
Jackson stacked up four players — Kukoc, B.J. Armstrong, Horace Grant, and Steve Kerr — at the foul line and had Pete Myers inbound the ball. Grant looped around toward the basket while Armstrong and Kerr split off in opposite directions. Kukoc took a few steps back and received the lob from Myers. Kukoc then created enough separation from Anthony Mason to launch a jumper that hit nothing but net and won the game for the Bulls.
The Bulls had used this exact play earlier in the season against the Indiana Pacers, with Pippen throwing the pass to Kukoc for a 3-pointer for a one-point victory at the buzzer. But this time, Pippen was pouting on the bench as his team won the game.
Scottie Pippen to GQ: I don’t think it’s a mystery, you need to read between the fine lines. It was my first year playing without Michael Jordan, so why wouldn’t I take that last shot? I’ve been through all the ups and downs, the battles with the Pistons, and now you’re gonna insult me and tell me to take it out? I thought it was a pretty low blow. I felt like it was an opportunity to give [Kukoc] a rise. It was a racially motivated move to give him a raise. After all I’ve been through with this organization, now you’re gonna tell me to take the ball out and throw it to Toni Kukoc? You’re insulting me. That’s how I felt.
So Pippen pulled the race card. Additionally, it was from the individual who once accused Kevin Durant of not knowing how to play team basketball.
Durant responded at the time with this tweet: “Didn’t the great Scottie Pippen refuse to go in the game for the last-second shot because he was in his feelings his coach drew up the play for a better shooter??” Precisely right, KD.
On the one hand, Pippen charged KD with being selfish for taking all the shots down the stretch in a playoff game. But on the other hand, Pippen couldn’t handle it when Phil Jackson wanted someone other than him to take the final shot.
Selfishness can show up in other ways.
PUIG JOGS: In a 2019 game against the Minnesota Twins, the Cleveland Indians’ Yasiel Puig hit a grounder directly back to pitcher Jake Odorizzi. Puig immediately turned and headed for the dugout instead of running out the play. A confused Odorizzi opted to jog the ball over to first base after noticing his opponent heading off. Even though Puig was out, the Minnesota home fans, understanding that players are supposed to hustle, gave him a well-deserved booing.
Puig was met in the dugout by Carlos Santana, who appeared frustrated with his teammate’s behavior. “Santana was giving me advice that I need to run out every play, and I’m 100 percent with him and said sorry to him and said sorry to (manager) Tito (Francona),” Puig explained after the Indians’ 5-3 loss, according to MLB.com’s Mandy Bell. “I’m supposed to run on that play. I don’t know what happened in my mind.”
LETT’S LAPSE: With the Dallas Cowboys well on their way to a 52-17 victory over the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVII, Dallas’s Leon Lett scooped up a fumble at his 36-yard line and headed toward the end zone. Just before he reached the goal line, he decided to do some showboating, slowing down and holding the ball out to his side. Buffalo’s fastest player, Don Beebe, chased him down and knocked the ball loose. The ball bounced out of the end zone for a touchback. Instead of a 64-yard touchdown for Dallas, Buffalo got the ball back on the 20-yard line. Enduring embarrassment for Lett and a highlight reel that youth sports coaches continue to use as an example of Beebe’s never-give-up hustle.
LINDSEY CELEBRATES: Similarly, at the 2006 Turin Olympics, showboating cost Team USA’s Lindsey Jacobellis a gold medal. She was clear of the pack in the women’s snowboard cross final when she grabbed her board on one of the final jumps to add some flair to her victory. The grab caused Jacobellis to fall, giving her opponent just enough time to pass her up for the gold. Jacobellis took home silver.
As the book of Proverbs in the Bible puts it, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Sometimes, as with Jacobellis, that axiom is literally fulfilled.
