{"id":30613,"date":"2025-07-23T06:40:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T06:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/30613\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T06:40:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T06:40:08","slug":"i-did-pretty-good-but-not-enough-for-a-scholarship-scottie-pippen-on-path-from-a-college-walk-on-to-nba-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/30613\/","title":{"rendered":"“I did pretty good, but not enough for a scholarship” – Scottie Pippen on path from a college walk-on to NBA legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I did pretty good, but not enough for a scholarship” – Scottie Pippen on path from a college walk-on to NBA legend<\/a> originally appeared on Basketball Network<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Walk-ons are often the overlooked grinders of college sports \u2014 athletes who earn their spot without scholarships, recognition, or guarantees. According to the NCAA, nearly half of all college athletes fall into this category.<\/p>\n

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Believe it or not, Scottie Pippen was one of them. Long before the Dream Team or six rings with the Chicago Bulls,<\/a> Pip was a 6’1″ high school kid who flew completely under the radar. No offers. No hype. Just a shot \u2014 arranged by his coach \u2014 to try out for the NAIA team at Central Arkansas. He showed promise, but not enough to earn a scholarship.<\/p>\n

“I went up and tried out. I did pretty good, but not enough to get a scholarship,” Pippen said<\/a> during an interview on “Live with Kelly and Mark”.<\/p>\n

Quite unbelievable, but Pippen<\/a> was not the player the world remembers at the time \u2014 he was barely good enough to make an NAIA college squad.<\/p>\n

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Pip’s growth spurt<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to Pippen’s graduation from Central Arkansas; he had grown 7 inches, standing at 6’8″. He was a different player. Pip averaged 23.6 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 4.3 assists, drawing looks from NBA scouts.<\/p>\n

Scottie was drafted fifth overall in the 1987 draft. He formed a duo with MJ and won six NBA titles, averaging 16.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 5.2 assists per game for his career.<\/p>\n

Pippen was drafted fifth overall in the 1987 draft. He formed a duo with MJ and won six NBA titles, averaging 16.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 5.2 assists per game for his career.<\/p>\n

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He collected seven All-Star selections, three All-NBA First Team selections, two All-NBA Second Team selections, and two All-NBA Third Team selections, to go along with eight All-NBA Defensive First Team and two All-NBA Defensive Second Team selections.<\/p>\n

The Bulls have retired his number 33. He has also played on the NBA’s 50th and 75th anniversary teams. To top it all off, Pippen has been a member of the prestigious Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame since 2010.<\/p>\n

Related: “It doesn’t do anything” – Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green on why timeouts never affected the Warriors<\/a><\/p>\n

Not the only NBA great who had to walk on college<\/p>\n

Although the seven-inch growth spurts sound unreal, many NBA players, including Rodman<\/a>, Pippen’s teammate during his Bulls playing days, experienced similar growth spurts as well.<\/p>\n

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Rodman was 5’11” in high school and failed to make his varsity team; however, in his late teens, he grew to 6’8″. The Worm decided to give basketball a try while playing for a junior college. Later, he got a scholarship to an NAIA school and, like Pippen, made his way to the league and became an NBA great.<\/p>\n

Walk-ons rarely get their due, but players like Pippen and Rodman prove that where you start doesn\u2019t define where you’ll finish. Walking on isn’t just about earning a roster spot \u2014 it’s about proving you belong.<\/p>\n

It’s a reminder that heart, growth \u2014 both literal and figurative \u2014 and persistence can turn even the most overlooked athlete into a basketball icon. And in Pippen’s case, it led all the way to Springfield.<\/p>\n

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Related: “As an open-court player, he was so much like Dr. J” – Michael Jordan on when he realized Scottie Pippen had the potential to be special<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network<\/a> on Jul 23, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“I did pretty good, but not enough for a scholarship” – Scottie Pippen on path from a college…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[25763,402,7329,25764,25765,355,9750,398,400,401,7331,99,25762],"class_list":{"0":"post-30613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-all-nba-first-team","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-chicago-bulls","11":"tag-college-athletes","12":"tag-growth-spurt","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nba-titles","15":"tag-ncaa","16":"tag-ncaa-basketball","17":"tag-ncaabasketball","18":"tag-scottie-pippen","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-team-selections"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}