“Had I known my teammates better, I would have been a better leader in that situation” – Scottie Pippen wished he were more assertive in Game 7 of the 2000 WCF originally appeared on Basketball Network.
The 1999-2000 Portland Trail Blazers were 10 minutes away from an NBA Finals appearance.
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Early in the fourth quarter of Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals, the Blazers had a 15-point lead against the fancied Los Angeles Lakers. With how the game was going, it seemed like Scottie Pippen was headed to his seventh championship appearance. That would have meant a shot at a 7th championship ring, which would have given him one more than Michael Jordan.
But in a sudden twist of fate, the Lakers closed out the game on a 29-9 run in one of the most scintillating playoff comebacks ever. The Lakers ended up winning Game 7, 89-84, to advance to the 2000 NBA Finals. Pippen lamented that his team was too unselfish.
“It was our first year and everything was new,” Scottie explained on “The Jump.” “We were new to each other and just somehow down the stretch of that game, our chemistry fell apart and we were always an unselfish team and willing to pass the ball and be so giving. I think it just kind of hurt us at a moment when we didn’t want to have to deal with it. We started to want each other to have success and it kind of hurt us in that moment.”
The Blazers were nine-deep
That 1999-2000 Portland team was a balanced squad whose starters all averaged in double digits, with no one scoring more than 16.4 points per game. They also had four bench players who averaged at least six points per game. With that kind of depth, they were an unselfish team with no clear-cut hierarchy regarding their offensive options.
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They also had three new pieces with Pippen, Steve Smith, and Detlef Schrempf playing in their first season in Portland. Personally, “Pip” felt that he could have done more in Game 7 by being more assertive on offense, but that team was not built and did not play that way.
“Had I known that and had I known my teammates better, I would have been a different leader in that situation,” added Pippen. “But I don’t have any regrets. I love all these guys that I played with, wholeheartedly. They were great teammates. But I do regret that we didn’t beat the Lakers.”
Pippen took only 10 shots in Game 7
That season, Scottie averaged only 12.5 points per game on 10.5 shot attempts per contest. He ranked just fourth on the team in both statistical categories, even if he was the most decorated member of the team and was only 34 years old that season. In that WCF, Pip ranked third behind Sheed and Smitty in points and field goal attempts.
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During that fateful Game 7, Scottie took only 10 shots and scored only 12 points. In that decisive fourth-quarter run by the Lakers where the Blazers missed 13 consecutive shots, Pippen took only three field goal attempts, with the majority of the misses coming from Wallace.
That turned out to be Scottie’s last shot at an NBA championship. He would play four more seasons before he called it a career, including three with the Blazers. However, Pippen was never that close again to winning it all.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jun 9, 2025, where it first appeared.