![Scottie Pippen made less than $3 million in the 1997-98 season. [Image Source: Flickr | Horse RacingNation]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2020/4/26/660x290/b_502x220x82/scottie-pippen-made-less-than-3-million-in-the-1997-98-season-image-source-flickr-horse-racingnation_2449353.jpg "Scottie Pippen made less than $3 million in the 1997-98 season. [Image Source: Flickr | Horse RacingNation]")
With ESPN’s “The Last Dance” set to air the third and fourth episodes on Sunday, April 26, the first two episodes which aired the previous Sunday brought many surprises.
One of the biggest was that Scottie Pippen, a perennial All-Star and future Hall of Famer, was only the 122nd-highest-paid player for the 1997-98 season. For that season, his salary was a grossly underpaid $2.775 million.
This was a player that entering that season had made six straight All-Defensive First Teams, six straight All-NBA teams, finished in the top-11 of MVP voting five of the last six years, and won five championships with Chicago.
Here are ten players that in that season made more than Pippen, even though they weren’t close to being on his level. It can easily be argued that Pippen deserved to make more than the majority of players who were higher-paid that season and a list of them were found at HoopsHype.
Danny Ferry
The 1997-98 season was both Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Cedric Henderson’s rookie seasons, and that really put a hit on Ferry’s playing time. For the year, he went on to average only 4.2 points and 1.7 rebounds.
Harvey Grant
Grant had a stretch of productive play from 1990-91 until 1992-93, but his play began to deteriorate after. By 1997-98, he finished with pedestrian averages of 2.6 points and 2.6 rebounds.
Jim McIlvaine
Yes, McIlvaine was an excellent shot-blocker, but he’s also a player who never averaged more than 3.8 points or 18 minutes per contest in a season. He started 72 games for Seattle in 1997-98 but played an average of just 15.5 minutes.
Nate McMillan
McMillan twice made an All-Defensive Team and led the league in steals in 1993-94, but 1997-98 was his last one in the league. He played in 18 games averaging 3.4 points and 3.1 assists.
Chris Morris
A double-digit scorer in each of his first eight seasons, Morris was on the downside of his career by 1997-98. He averaged just 4.3 points and 2.1 rebounds, and the following season would be his last.
Ken Norman
Norman was a fairly good scorer early in his career, but injuries began to derail him. His last season in the NBA was in 1996-97 when he averaged 3.8 points in 17 games.
Stanley Roberts
Injury-prone, Roberts played in only 168 games from 1993-94 until his last season in 1999-00. Seventy-four of those appearances did come in 1997-98, but averages of 6.4 points and 4.9 rebounds were nothing to write home about.
Charles Smith
Traded by the Knicks to the Spurs during the 1995-96 season, he lasted just one more season before retiring. He is most famous by New York fans for being rejected multiple times at the rim in a playoff game against the Bulls.
Stojko Vrankovic
After barely playing in two seasons for the Celtics, Vranković went overseas to play in Greece for four years. He wasn’t all that productive coming back to the states from 1996-97 until 1998-99, and he averaged just three points and four rebounds for the Clippers in 1997-98.
Scott Williams
Williams was a member of Chicago’s first three championships but never averaged over 7.6 points in a season. In 1997-98, he posted averages of 4.1 points and 3.6 rebounds.
