Pippen versus the Finnagler

With DeceptivelyQuick's powerful and dark association with the Invisible Finnish Hand, it is no surprise that we were very excited about all this Scottie Pippen in Finland business. This anticipation was heightened when we learned he would be playing against he, Petteri Koponen, The Finnagler, and our beloved Honka Playboys.

The epic battle went down January 5, and Pippen's squad came out on top. Thanks to a rally from 16 down, Pippen and his team Torpan Pojat prevailed over our Honka Playboys 98-85. True, his team was already favorites going in, having been riding an 17 game Finnish League winning streak and all, but let's hope Pippen added something. He struggled with his shot on his way to 9 points and 9 rebounds. After checking in with Tim Kisner, an American who plays for Honka, any struggles could be understandable:

Pippen played two games here one on Friday and then against us on Saturday. He missed his original flight here so he did not arrive until Friday morning, so needless to say was not in the best physical shape to be playing, besides being 42 years old with creeky knees. I thought Pippen played ok, he could not make a shot, I think he was 8-28 in the two games, but played good team basketball and they won both games. It is crazy to see guys that you grew up watching, it is also hard to watch them being a shadow of their former selves. The people of Finland were very appreciative of him and both games were well attended with a good atmoshphere, which is saying something for Finnish basketball.

Strange indeed, seeing a former NBA great show up in Finland for a few runs, but remember this sort of thing isn't exactly unprecedented. Tim was around when Rodman blew into town as well ,"two years ago Rodman came and played for the same team against us and it was huge, but Rodman is more famous over here due to his off the court stuff."

Which champion Bull will be next? The obvious choice to pull for is Jordan, but don't sleep on Ron Harper.

UPDATE: Ball In Europe has the best coverage of Pippen in Finland, including links to his boxscores. Also nice to see the Finnagler still putting numbers up. They also showed a clip from Pippen being introduced, they pulled out the classic Bulls intro. In Finland, no expense is spared.