How Bulls GM Jerry Krause finally got Scottie Pippen paid, in Houston

In an unfinished memoir, Chicago’s former GM wrote that his “going-away present” to Pippen was a sign-and-trade for max money to Houston.

In a newly released excerpt from his unfinished and unpublished memoir, former Chicago Bulls GM Jerry Krause wrote that his “going-away present” to future Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen was a January 1999 trade to the Houston Rockets. Krause passed away in March 2017.

A seven-time NBA All-Star forward, Pippen had helped Michael Jordan and the Bulls win six NBA titles over his first 11 seasons. But he was very underpaid for most of that tenure, and with Chicago’s dynasty coming to an end, the free agent thought he had a better chance to contend by teaming up with Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley in Houston.

To compensate for that pay gap, Krause helped Pippen get more money at his next stop. As ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary on that era’s Bulls comes to its conclusion, here’s how the late Bulls GM remembered Pippen’s departure, via K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago:

In January, when the league was about to resume and free agents could be signed, Pippen’s agents asked us to do Scottie a favor. By doing a sign-and-trade with Houston, Scottie could get more than $20 million more than he could by just signing a straight-out contract. Jerry and I gave him his going-away present. I called Steve [Kerr] and Jud [Buechler] and told them the situation and to take the first good contract they could because we were not going to bid for them. They deserved it.

The Bulls received journeyman Roy Rogers and a second-round pick from the Rockets. Pippen landed a five-year, $67-million deal since he signed with his original team and was then traded, as opposed to the four-year, $45-million maximum if he had signed with a new team.

Unfortunately, the transaction didn’t have a happy ending in Houston. Pippen averaged 14.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 2.0 steals per game during the lockout-shortened 1999 season with the Rockets, who were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs after going a disappointing 29-21 (.580) in the regular season.

Pippen then got into a public feud with Barkley that offseason, and Houston traded him to Portland after just one season with the franchise. Ironically, Barkley had taken a cheaper contract the previous offseason in order for Houston to take in Pippen at his maximum salary.

Pippen and his contract moved on to the Trail Blazers in the 1999-00 season, while the Rockets began a rebuilding cycle as Olajuwon and Barkley’s storied careers approached their conclusions.

Besides the odd interpersonal dynamics in Houston, Pippen never appeared to be quite the same physically after back surgery in July 1998.

Nonetheless, he did finally get his much-deserved big contract through cooperation between the Rockets and his longtime Chicago GM.

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