Bulls wouldn’t pay Pippen but were fine paying Michael Jordan in baseball hiatus

Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf wouldn’t budge on paying Scottie Pippen what he was owed, but was more than fine funding Michael Jordan’s baseball venture

It’s hard to wrap one’s head around the short-lived professional baseball career of Chicago Bulls champion Michael Jordan. How could someone at the top of one sport who had just won an NBA Championship (a three-peat, no less) drop everything and try his hand at a completely new sport?

There are plenty of factors at play. The shocking death of Jordan’s father certainly spurred some emotional connection for him with the game of baseball, given that his father had aspirations for Jordan to commit to that sport over basketball in his younger years.

More from Hoops Habit

• 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
• Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
• Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
• Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
• NBA Trades: The Lakers bolster their frontcourt in this deal with the Pacers

As shown in The Last Dance, Jordan also grew to detest the fame basketball had gained him.

His ascension to the top of the game made him an icon everywhere he went. The fame was unbearable, and Jordan even reportedly had to cut a deal with grocery stores to shop after hours in order to avoid the crowds.

A pure competitor, perhaps Michael Jordan was simply looking for a new challenge, too. Having just wrapped up a three-peat, maybe basketball was just too easy for him.

Jordan also was in a unique position to take on a career in baseball without much of a financial hit, either, because Jerry Reinsdorf who owned the Chicago Bulls also owned the Chicago White Sox.

And instead of cutting Jordan’s salary from the books due to his retirement, Reinsdorf agreed to shell out the $4 million Jordan was owed from the Bulls in 1993-94 while he chased the baseball dream.

His figure was the highest counted against the team’s salary cap that season.

It’s not necessarily unheard of for the largest cap figure on a salary sheet to be a player that doesn’t play for the team. The 2015-16 76ers had over $21 million going to JaVale McGee and Gerald Henderson who didn’t play for them.

The 2016 Sixers weren’t competing for a playoff spot, though, they were tanking, tooling their team to compete years down the road. The Bulls were still trying to put together a winning team under Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, despite Jordan’s salary being nearly 25 percent more than what the second-highest player on the team was in Scottie Pippen.

Of course, Pippen’s contract would become a point of contention for the Bulls and Pippen down the line. Over the years, Pippen’s contract continued to fall down the team’s cap sheet, becoming more and more affordable for the Bulls as time went on due to the rise in salary cap over the years.

Pippen, perhaps unwisely, signed a long-term deal with the Bulls that appreciated for the franchise given the league-wide landscape and salary cap, but didn’t adequately represent his importance to the team as time went on.

More from Chicago Bulls

• NBA Rumors: Chicago pursuing the best remaining free agent
• 3 Ways the Chicago Bulls can utilize their disabled player exception
• 3 Teams that dodged a bullet with Russell Westbrook news
• NBA Rumors: Could Goran Dragic’s days be numbered on the Chicago Bulls?
• Revisiting 5 recent terrible trades ahead of the deadline

Pippen wanted more, Reinsdorf wouldn’t budge.

At the time of his decision to continue paying Jordan for playing baseball, Pippen’s contract was still fair. But you have to wonder if the fact that he had seen Reinsdorf stand by Jordan financially when he wasn’t even playing for the team rubbed him the wrong way when it came to him wanting to renegotiate his deal.

When Jordan got a massive deal in 1996 that netted him $30 million in the 1997 season, he was making over 1,200 percent of what Pippen was making.

Is it a double standard? From an NBA perspective, certainly.

But it does make some sense for Reinsdorf to have done this.

With Michael Jordan desiring to play baseball, Reinsdorf could have seen the marketable star walk away from one of his franchises for nothing. Instead, he offered him the opportunity to play for one of his teams, undoubtedly still bringing paying fans to the stands of one of his teams and strengthening the brand profile of one of his logos.

And of course, Jordan’s decision to retire was so unprecedented, and it did feel as if he might return to the NBA at some point. Continuing to pay Jordan left the door open for the Bulls to retain his contractual obligations and paved the way for him to return to Chicago once his MLB hiatus concluded.

Still, if you’re Scottie Pippen, there’s a right to be upset. Reinsdorf stood by his No. 1 no matter the circumstances, but not his No. 2.