The school teacher trying to run a class of disadvantaged kids in an inner city has to laugh to keep from crying when Scottie Pippen complains that his contract to play basketball - a seven-year deal worth $22 million and in its last year - has become a slap in his face.
The garbage collector or the candlestick maker, as well, must wince when they learn that Scottie Pippen grumbles that he gets no respect from the Chicago Bulls, from whose base it is estimated he has made more in endorsements than in salary. He is demanding a trade or, he threatens, he will not play this season. Pippen has been sidelined from the beginning of the season after having undergone foot surgery, and suggests he is about ready to play, but won't - for the Bulls.Now, in America, after all, we pay top dollar to be entertained, and Scottie Pippen, a smooth operator on the court, has emerged as a great entertainer. He is one of the 10 to 15 best players in basketball, and second only to M.J. Jordan as a player responsible for the five National Basketball Association championships in the last seven years the Bulls have won.
And everyone who follows basketball, or the gross national product, knows, Pippen is currently not receiving market value for his extraordinary skills. Which is not quite the same thing as saying that he is, as some have termed it, "grossly underpaid."
Yet Pippen sees a second-year player like Kevin Garnett signing a $126 million contract for six years. Or a veteran player like Charles Oakley making around $3.6 million. In fact, Pippen's salary - currently at $2.775 million a year - is 122nd in the league.
"I would rather leave things as I can remember them as a player and go on," Pippen recently said, in an adieu of sorts to the Bulls. "It's very difficult. I have a lot of respect for teammates and the fans in Chicago. I've enjoyed my 10 years playing here."
Memories, like Pippen's, are obviously highly selective. Does Pippen remember when hometown fans booed him and he lashed out at them for being "racist"? Does he remember when, in one of the most disgusting moments in recent sports history, he threw a monumental pout and refused to enter a tie game in the playoffs in 1994 against the Knicks with 1.8 seconds to go because the play wasn't designed for him?
And does he remember that, before signing his current contract negotiated by him and his agent in June 1991, it made him one of the highest-paid players in the game?
Does he remember when the Bulls' owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, told him: "Scottie, in my opinion, I think you will regret signing because salaries will be going up in the NBA and if you continue being a good player, it'll turn out you're underpaid?"
"I remember him telling me at the time," Reinsdorf said recently, "that he wanted the security because of the back surgery and he might be injured. I said, `Scottie, if you sign, we're never going to renegotiate.' " Pippen eagerly reached for the pen.
As part of the collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players' union three years ago, a team is prevented from renegotiating an existing contract.
"We'd like to pay him more money - he deserves more money," said Jerry Krause, general manager of the Bulls and an ample target of Pippen's dissatisfaction, "but all we could do now is extend his contract by a maximum of 20 percent a year. But we know he's looking for a much larger payday."
What about his not getting respect from the Bulls? "How do you spell respect?" asked Ernie Grunfeld, the Knicks' general manager, who answered his own question: "M-O-N-E-Y."
Meanwhile, Pippen, when not giving full value - such as not playing because of a tantrum, or because of injury or surgery (he could have had the foot surgery earlier last summer but opted to go on a promotional tour for the shoe company he sponsors) - has never offered to return any part of his salary to the organization.
And his public grousings have made it ever more difficult for the Bulls to trade for equal value when other teams feel that, with a 32-year-old player coming off injury, Chicago must deal from weakness.
Despite current market tendencies, Scottie Pippen indeed signed a contract that, to most people, would be commensurate with a king's ransom.
The classy thing to do would be to shut up and live up to it.