It's not common for your best player to also be your most unselfish player.
I went through ups and downs as a young player dealing with criticism and things of that nature. To finally win that first NBA championship, it was definitely a relief of a lot of pressure and frustration we dealt with as a team. It was great to bring a championship to the city of Chicago.
Coach Dyer was a great mentor for me and a great teacher.
I've come a long way from my first commercials.
I went to a small school, so I had to be a jack of all trades and master a few.
To be named as one of the finalists for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's Class of 2010 on Friday was a special moment for me. As a player, it's something that you dream about. It's an honor that you have to earn based on your career and the respect from your peers around you.
The key about playing internationally is the confidence that you gain. Not only do you train with some of the best players in the NBA, but you compete against some of the best players in the world.
I never wanted to be Michael Jordan, although I would like to trade bank accounts.
As a young player, I always thought I was doing everything I could. But the longer you play, the more you learn, and the better you're prepared for what this game throws at you.
I worked at a place called Virco. They build school desks.
When I look back at my first few seasons in the NBA, we didn't dominate as a team. There were a lot of nights where we took a beating and got whacked across the head. But we got better along the way, and we started to taste the success. With that came the pressure and expectations to be successful.
I always dreamed of playing the NBA, but along the way, the road got a little cloudy.
If I could have written a script of how I wanted my career to be, I couldn't have done it any better.
My mentality when guarding a point guard was always to try and disrupt him and take them out of the offense.
I loved playing against the Pacers and Reggie Miller. Reggie was a great competitor, and I enjoyed playing against competitors.
No matter how well you do in the regular season, it has to be capped off with a championship to really mark your legacy in the game.
Chemistry is a very important element for any team that wants to be serious about winning.
Defense is something I take a lot of pride in.
When you suffer a few losses in the playoffs, it forces you back into the gym early on.
Michael Jordan is probably the greatest scorer to play the game.
While I dealt with my share of injuries throughout my career, I was fortunate to have been healthy for the majority of our run in the 1990s. The same can be said about Michael Jordan.
Fatherhood is great.
I remember the night in December 2005 when the Bulls retired my number and will never, ever forget it.
I wouldn't give Charles Barkley an apology at gunpoint. He can never expect an apology from me... If anything, he owes me an apology for coming to play with his sorry, fat butt.
When you endure an 82-game season, you have a great opportunity to build a lot of confidence and cohesiveness with your teammates and coaches.
I may go so far as saying LeBron James may be the greatest player to ever play the game. Because he is so potent offensively that not only can he score at will, but he keeps everybody involved.
As a player, NBA All-Star Weekend contains a lot of joy and a lot of excitement. Even with all the hype built into the game, it's really a special honor to be selected among many great players.
As a player, you experience so many different moments, but you never truly sit back and reflect on them. You enjoy them, but with the championships, we were so busy celebrating with everyone that we didn't really realize what we had accomplished as individuals and as a team.
I'm thankful that I was able to have a long, healthy career for the most part.
Every team deals with obstacles throughout the course of the season, and it's as a unit that they need to be worked through. Injuries are part of the game, just like facing tough teams on the road or having one of your best players get into foul trouble.
When I was growing up, I never thought I would play in the NBA.
It was truly an enjoyable moment in my life that I will never forget having the opportunity to play for two gold medals. But I think nothing sticks out more than winning a championship in 1991 for me.
If things work out for you as a team, then there are individual things that happen for you. But if you're not talented enough as a team, its hard for people to give you the recognition.
Most of basketball is in the mind. But it helps to have big hands.
Everyone likes to strike while the iron is hot. That's a philosophy I've always liked.
You've got to have a commitment to your craft.
I guess guys who play on national TV get a lot of publicity.
The influence of a high school coach can be so powerful.
It's always been a passion of mine to come out and share some of my knowledge about basketball and the experiences I've had with the younger generation.
I was way behind physically in high school. They had weight bars that were about forty-five pounds. I couldn't handle them. Couldn't even put the weights on. It was embarrassing. So I always figured out ways to avoid lifting when I was young.
I always help take care of my family.
Coaching jobs are far and few between; you try and get into the right situation and take advantage of it from there.
Basketball is such an escape from a lot of things.
It may sound simple, but both winning and losing can become a mind-set, and I won't accept losing - ever.
I want to do the best I can in the NBA. After three or four years, I want people to know who Scottie Pippen is.
I was LeBron James before LeBron James.
Yes, I think the '96 Bulls are the greatest of all time. I think the 72-10 record speaks for itself and the fact that we were able to cap it off with a championship. What it boils down to is we had a dominant style, a dominant defense, and we were a very good offensive team. It was the way we dominated our opponents that separated ourselves.
I want to be a role-model player, someone respected and looked up to.
If I had an opportunity to hand-pick a team that I wanted to play in the NBA Finals, it would probably be the Lakers.
