Great Scott!

For those who cared to watch it, I hope you enjoyed episodes 1 & 2 of The Last Dance on ESPN. I thought it was great. Not only did I enjoy seeing the old footage of Michael Jordan and co., but there was a lot I just didn't remember. I was actually surprised by how little I did recall!

While I followed the NBA heavily in 1997-98 (I would have been in 8th grade), there was so much I just didn't remember. I don't remember Scottie Pippen's drama with ownership, and him deciding right before the season to have foot surgery. I don't remember the Bulls sluggish start that year. I don't remember the vitriol geared at Jerry Krause.

I'm sure I knew about it at the time, but 23 years ago (ha! 23!) was a long time ago. A lot has happened since then to my cloud my brain.

As for Pippen, he definitely deserved to be paid more. On one hand, he dug his own grave by signing a long-term contract in order for security - 7 years and $18mil. On the other, toward the end of the deal, he was grossly underpaid as league revenue - and player salaries - soared.

I have a fairly lot of Pippen cards in my remaining stack of basketball cards I saved. Nothing fancy, but a nice assortment. As I mentioned in my last post, most of my basketball collecting was while Jordan was out, so naturally I ended up with a lot of Pippens.

My favorite is probably the SkyBox Air Raid, which seems a bit like a knock off of Upper Deck's Skylights. It kind of looks more like a Nike shoe ad.

A pretty sweet Provisions card from Fleer, although I'm not so sure of the background. Are those bullet holes?

SkyBox Z-Force is the equivalent of Circa Thunder, I think. I could be wrong. Still, a neat card in a '90s kind of way.

These two inserts from Fleer Ultra would have come from the box I got for Christmas in 1995.

This Hoops Block Party is a really fun card, although not sure I'd say Pippen was known for his shot-blocking. Still, he could do it all, so I get it.

Here's the rest of my Pippen stash:

The next 8 episodes can't come soon enough!