The fallout from Scottie Pippen’s recent comments criticizing Bulls management for not doing enough to improve the team was minimal. No closed door meetings with General Manager Jerry Krause (that honor was reserved for coach Phil Jackson). But no regrets, either. Pippen’s opinions are as strong as ever.
“I don’t regret saying it at all,” said the All-Star forward-guard, who added he would not feel comfortable going into the playoffs with the present team. “I think the players on this team kind of look up to me and if I don’t say anything, then everybody thinks we’re having fun and feeling good about our chances.
“We have to go out there and win again. We have to think we can defend our title. But we have to get better to beat a team like New York. Teams play better during the playoffs, and not that I don’t think we’re going to play better, but it will be very hard if we don’t bring someone in.
“New York loses their point guard and within two, three weeks, they get a solid replacement. We lose the best player of all time and three months later, we’ve done nothing.”
Pippen further criticized Krause for traveling with the team on road trips, a knock that the general manager has heard before. His defense is that he travels no more than other GMs and that as the season wears on, he will go to college games more and Bulls games less.
Nerves often are frayed when he is around, and that was in evidence in Orlando Wednesday night, when Krause was barred from the training room where coaches were meeting after the game.
Said Pippen: “We need him on the phone, not in the locker room.”
Krause said he would not respond publicly to any players’ comments.
“I have no problems,” he said.
Private tour: Steve Kerr treated Toni Kukoc, Bulls equipment manager John Ligmanowski and SportsChannel broadcaster Tom Dore to a private tour of the White House by his brother Andrew Thursday night.
Andrew Kerr works for the National Security Council and was able to show the group the Oval Office and Situation Room and the room where President Clinton has his Cabinet meetings, among other stops.
“It was really neat,” Kerr said. “During the Gulf War, the Situation Room is where President Bush spent all of his time.”
But perhaps the biggest kick Kerr got out of the experience was seeing how Kukoc responded.
“Toni loved it,” Kerr said. “The thing with him, is that he probably couldn’t imagine doing that in another culture. I mean, we stood inside the Oval Office for probably 10 minutes. Could you imagine going into say, the Kremlin, and doing that? It was a pretty good culture lesson.”
Kukoc heartily agreed.
“It was a very interesting place,” he said. “There were a lot of things to see and learn about American history. I would never have had an occasion to see this place.”
His favorite stop was the Cabinet Room, where he tried out President Clinton’s chair for size.
“Knowing the situation now in my country,” Kukoc said of the war in Croatia, “I was joking that I should have left a note on the President’s chair. But I’m a sportsman, not a politician.”
But what would he have written if given the chance? Said Kukoc somberly: “I’d ask him to save all the kids who aren’t guilty for this war.”
1-2 punch: As B.J. Armstrong and Kerr continue to prove, they have become a lethal one-two offensive punch in the backcourt when they’re in the game at the same time.
“I think Steve and B.J. are two of the best shooters in the league,” said Kukoc, and indeed, they are among the tops in three-point and foul shooting. “They might have a night like Steve had in Orlando (1 of 8 from the floor) but in 80 percent of the games, they’re going to hit 65 to 70 percent of their shots and it’s a big help for the team. It really opens the game inside.”
Against Washington Friday night, Kerr was 7 of 10 and Armstrong was 9 of 15.