Many basketball fans love to compare players from different eras. However, former Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen doesn’t think one can compare fairly when pitting two different generations.
According to Pippen, the game has totally changed in the last 15 to 20 years. Today, it is positionless. And if teams play per position, there are no more pure centers, with big men playing on the outside and most taking a lot of 3-pointers, just like everybody else. Because of this, Bulls legend says it’s impossible to compare eras.
Advertisement
“Maybe at one time it was possible, but nowadays it’s a completely different game,” explained Pippen during a recent interview with Spanish newspaper Marca. “Today’s game is more open, less physical. It’s played at a faster pace, and that’s changed and improved the game in some ways. Colleges and schools follow the lead of the NBA. The style now is to shoot threes and score as much as possible. That’s what the data and statistics say.”
The 3-point revolution
The NBA introduced the 3-point shot during the 1979-80 season as an option to promote offense. Today, every team in the league has weaponized the 3-point shot after the Golden State Warriors won the 2015 NBA championship and set the regular-season record for most wins with 73 in 2015-16.
Advertisement
That 73-9 Golden State team has often been compared to the 1995-96 Bulls led by Michael Jordan and Pippen, who held the previous record at 72-10. But when Scottie was asked which team he thought was better, he said it’s hard to tell because they played in different eras.
“If you play by today’s rules, it would be one thing. But with the rules of the 90s, Curry would not be the same,” added Pippen. “If we played in his era, it would be like playing in freedom: nobody grabs you, nobody stops you. I don’t know who would win.”
Dubs would beat the Bulls in the 3-point era
When the Bulls won 72 games in 1995-96, they played at a pace of just 91.1 possessions. Meanwhile, that pace was 99.3 when the Dubs had 73 wins in 2015-16. Chicago was a very good 3-point shooting team at 6.6 makes out of 16.5 attempts per game or 40.3 percent.
Advertisement
Twenty years later, Golden State knocked down 13.1 3-pointers per game on 31.6 tries per contest or 41.6 percent. Pip says 3-point shooting would most likely be the difference if they matched up in today’s era.
“We weren’t made to shoot 25-50 three-pointers a game. They would probably win in that sense, because they have two of the best shooters, like Steph and Klay. But we played physical, we defended hard. We made the teams score only 75-80 points. Today, that is almost impossible,” he added.
But while the 2016 Dubs would have probably beaten the 1996 Bulls in today’s 3-point era, Chicago’s 72-win team would have dominated the 73-9 Warriors if they played in the 90s. That’s just the reality of it.
Advertisement
Maybe this is also how everyone should look at the GOAT debate. Just like you can’t compare two teams that played in different eras, it’s impossible to say which player is better if they belong to different generations.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 26, 2025, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.