{"id":334602,"date":"2023-09-28T13:43:10","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T13:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=334602"},"modified":"2023-09-28T14:00:31","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T14:00:31","slug":"nba-legend-courtside-for-melbourne-nbl-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=334602","title":{"rendered":"NBA legend courtside for Melbourne NBL clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

NBA<\/a> legend Scottie Pippen was seated courtside and commentating as Melbourne United carved out victory over\ufeff South East Melbourne Phoenix in the season-opening NBL<\/a> match on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

In fact, the \ufeffAmerican six-time NBA champion gave a spectacular endorsement of young Melbourne United guard Luke Travers, who was last year drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers but is playing in the NBL during the NBA off-season.<\/p>\n

Pippen, who had been lured to Australia by former Chicago Bulls teammate Luc Longley as a start-of-season NBL ambassador, likened Travers to NBA great Dirk Nowitzki as Melbourne United chalked up a\ufeffn 82-67 win at John Cain Arena.<\/p>\n

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"I like his size, I like his ability to be able to handle the ball out front," Pippen said on the ESPN broadcast.<\/p>\n

"He reminds me a lot of a Dirk Nowitzki type of player\ufeff. Not quite the force that Dirk was, but I like his ability to be able to play the ball out front."<\/p>\n

\"Scottie<\/p>\n

Germany's \ufeffNowitzki won an NBA championship with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011 and was a 14-time NBA All-Star, so Pippen's comparison was an incredible rap for Travers, who turned 22 on September 3.<\/p>\n

Australian basketball icon Andrew Gaze asked Pippen on the ESPN coverage how it felt to be adored by fans while travelling the globe.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"It's been amazing," Pippen said.<\/p>\n

"I had an opportunity to play international basketball for a couple of years, as well, but my years with the Bulls and having those opportunities to play and to have the game grow as much as it did in the '90s was \ufeffjust great for me as a player.<\/p>\n

"I felt like I was part of the trailblazing of making basketball more of an international sport."<\/p>\n

\"Luke<\/p>\n

Pippen was a seven-time NBA All-Star in a career that spanned 1987-2004.<\/p>\n

He played with the Houston Rockets in 1999 and the Portland Trailblazers between 1999 and 2003, but played his best basketball with the Bulls.\ufeff<\/p>\n

He formed part of a champion Bulls team headlined by Michael Jordan.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NBA legend Scottie Pippen was seated courtside and commentating as Melbourne United carved out victory over\ufeff South East Melbourne Phoenix in the season-opening NBL match […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":334604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334602"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=334602"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334607,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334602\/revisions\/334607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/334604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=334602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=334602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=334602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}