long time guy wrote:
Starting to remember some of this stuff now. Pippen's first contract was renegotiated. They tore it and extended so that he could make more money on the final 2 years of it. As part of the extension 5 additional years were added to it. At the time Reinsdorf told Pippen that he shouldn't take it because if he did then the deal wasn't going to be renegotiated again.
By 1995 Pippen's contract couldn't be renegotiated anyway. The players and owners signed a new collective bargaining agreement which forbade the renegotiation of contracts.
There is little that Reinsdorf could be blamed for in this. Pippen signed a bad deal. That's on him. Jordan was the most underpaid basketball player in the history of the league. He never publicly complained nor did he ever ask for his contract to be renegotiated. His deal was much worse than Pippen's yet he sucked it up and played. Except for the nearly 2 years that he sat out for baseball. If I remember it correctly Reinsdorf still paid him his Bulls salary while he was in retirement. Could be wrong but that was how I remember it.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.htmlQuote:
Under one of the provisions of the new six-year plan, which NBA players also have approved, Pippen can't have his contract renegotiated. Pippen has three years left on his current contract and will be paid $3 million this season.
When a guy's franchise's value goes up 250 times his original investment and revenues are over $200 million a year, is there a time for thanks? Say, for example, just in a small way, let the boys defend their dynasty? Let the fans who paid the freight, see the boys defend their dynasty? Or should everybody eat shit and have to listen to "Players don't win championships, organizations do"?
They were done and everyone knew it before the season. Phil was definitely leaving and they would have had to pay both Jordan and Pippen Max Money. Pippen was never the same after that. Jordan was getting old. Lot of tread on the tires. There would not have been much left for the supporting cast after they got their money.
When Jordan hit the shot on Russell everyone knew that was it. There was even an overriding thought that would not have won had it gone to a game 7.
If you look at what occurred after that season for the players on the team there wasn't much. Rodman was 37 and out of the league shortly after that season.