Two Chicago Bull legends will be reunited at this year's NBA Hall of Fame induction, as Michael Jordan is set to introduce his longtime teammate Scottie Pippen, who will join the Hall this year.
"I can't think of a better person to do it," Pippen told the Bulls' website, which first reported the news on Monday. "Michael is someone I shared my career with, accomplishing most of what I have accomplished thus far. He was a great teammate, teacher and admirer. I'm excited to have an opportunity to be the first person that he has presented into the Hall of Fame. I figure if anyone deserves to be on the stage with me, it's him."
"I'm looking forward to it all," Pippen told Bulls.com. "To be around my teammates, who were always so supportive, will mean a lot. I can't wait for that moment when I'm up on the stage. It's a very exciting week for me, and I'm ready to embrace it all. It signifies closing the book on my playing career, so I want to take a deep breath, cherish it, and be thankful."
The team's official site has pulled together tons of Hall of Fame coverage, including thoughts from the architect of the team's 1990s dynasty, chairman Jerry Reinsdorf.
"Six championships that wouldn't have been won without Scottie," Reinsdorf said when asked what comes to mind when he recalls Pippen's career. "Michael couldn't have done it by himself. The rest of the players and Michael would not have been enough. It took Scottie to put us over the top those six times."
"A lot of people liked to talk about Scottie as being Batman's Robin or the Lone Ranger's Tonto," said Reinsdorf during a recent interview at the Berto Center. "I never thought that was the case and I liked to think of them as 1 and 1A. They were very, very close."
Jordan was inducted last year and gave a memorably abrasive speech, in which he settled scores with some old rivals.