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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Pressure Just Too Much For Pippen

From Wire Reports

B.J. Armstrong was the first to grab Scottie Pippen, who threw his smaller teammate aside like a rag doll.

Luc Longley, the Chicago Bulls’ 7-foot-2, 265-pound center, was next, and somehow managed to steer Pippen clear of referee Joe Crawford’s throat.

Pippen, however, wasn’t finished.

He stomped down the sideline looking for some way - any way - to vent his anger. Will Perdue tried to intervene, but Pippen eluded the 7-footer’s tackle and Perdue crashed to the floor in front of the Bulls’ bench.

“I saw guys trying to calm him down,” another teammate, Bill Wennington, said. “Then I saw the chair flying through the air and said, ‘Uh-oh.’ I knew that couldn’t be a good thing.”

The chair landed clear across the United Center court. The crowd gasped. Pippen stormed off the floor and into the dressing room, where he could be heard screaming for several minutes. About an hour before Tuesday’s game ended - a 104-102 overtime loss to the San Antonio Spurs - Pippen left the building.

He wouldn’t talk to reporters about the incident, which began with him getting one technical foul for badgering Crawford to call a 3-second violation against the Spurs and continued with him getting a second technical - and automatic ejection - for going after Crawford.

“It’s obvious,” Bulls coach Phil Jackson said, “that Scottie’s been under a lot of pressure.”

Pippen still wasn’t talking Wednesday, as he waited for the NBA to levy a fine, suspension or both. Indeed, it has been one thing after another for Pippen, who since Michael Jordan retired almost 16 months ago has been the lightning rod of one of pro sports’ most-watched organizations.

There was the loaded gun found in his illegally parked car. There was him calling Chicago fans racist.

There was his refusal to take the court for the final 1.8 seconds of a playoff game when a play wasn’t called for him.

There was him calling general manager Jerry Krause a liar for denying that the Bulls had tried to trade him.

There was his stormy relationship with referees, resulting in 12 technical fouls so far this season.

And Tuesday, almost exactly 10 years after Indiana coach Bob Knight threw a chair to protest an official’s call, there Pippen was doing the same thing in front of a sellout crowd and national television audience.