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 Thursday, October 7
Jackson wanted to reunite with Pippen
 
Associated Press

  SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- Phil Jackson wanted the Los Angeles Lakers to acquire Scottie Pippen, but team owner Jerry Buss said Pippen's $67 million contract would have hamstrung the team for too many years.

Pippen was traded by Houston to Portland last week for six reserves. He has four years remaining on a five-year deal he signed with Chicago before he was traded to the Rockets last season.

Scottie Pippen
Pippen

"Phil definitely felt that Scottie would be a big improvement for us in the next year or two," Buss told a gathering of reporters Wednesday at training camp.

"But he is aware that if you take somebody like Scottie with a long-term contract under the current rules, it would have been impossible to ever improve this team."

Buss said the four years remaining on Pippen's contract precluded pursuing him. He denied reports that the Lakers offered Houston a deal, only to be rejected by the Rockets.

"Scottie is just a great player and certainly for a year or two it would've been the right thing to do," he said. "We would've probably done it had he not had a four-year contract."

Buss also knew acquiring Pippen would've drained the Lakers' budget for free agents.

"When you take him, you're basically saying this is our personnel for the next four years," he said. "Right now we have a lot more leeway than that and I think we should maintain that leeway."

Even without Pippen, Buss believes the combination of Jackson and the current roster gives the Lakers an excellent chance to win their first NBA championship since 1988.

"This is the best team we've had in the last 4-5 years," he said.

Buss lured Jackson out of retirement in June with a five-year, $30 million deal that makes him one of the NBA's highest-paid coaches.

The owner never spent that kind of money on a coach before, but he believes coaches need long-term, rich contracts to deal with today's big-money NBA players.

"It's very difficult for somebody making one-tenth of what the player he's talking to does and get that kind of respect," Buss said. "It's probably true that the money associated with it does command a certain amount of respect."

Under former coach Del Harris and his replacement Kurt Rambis, there was speculation the players didn't respect or listen to either man.

Buss believes Jackson is the answer.

"He commands a lot of respect. I like his confidence," he said.

Buss could be looking at dipping into his wallet again to keep swingman Glen Rice around. The Lakers exercised a $7 million option on Rice for this season, but he wants a long-term deal starting at the league maximum of $14 million.

With Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant holding big-money contracts, giving Rice the kind of deal he wants could strain the team's budget.

"It's tough to pay three superstars because once you do that, you're really freezing any improvements you could make past that point and there are nine other soldiers on that team," Buss said.

He said Lakers executive vice president Jerry West wants to watch Rice this season and see how he fits into Jackson's triangle offense. Rice practiced only lightly Wednesday because of tendinitis in his left knee.

"If he deserves that money, we would have to pay him," Buss said.

Any lingering talk of bringing back Dennis Rodman after his ill-fated stint with the Lakers last season appears unrealistic.

"I don't think anybody's really seriously considered bringing back Dennis," said Buss, who especially wanted Rodman in the first place last season.
 


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