People often say that it takes a village to raise a child. However, it takes so much more to bring an aspiring professional athlete to the fore. But unfortunately for Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen, he didn’t quite have the level and volume of support he wished for.
Growing up in Hamburg, Arkansas, a small city with a small-town feel, in a poor family that struggled to make ends meet for Scottie and his 11 other siblings, Scottie didn’t really have a long runway to take off.
And even though he went on to play ball at Hamburg High School, where he was the team’s point guard, he felt his coaches were holding him back from truly coming into his own.
A racist town
As mentioned, Hamburg is a small city with a population of just over 2,500 people, more than half of whom are White. According to Pippen, he believed that the place he grew up in had racial undertones.
“It was sort of a racist town,” Pip told renowned author Jack McCallum in his book, “Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever.”
While Pippen played the role of court general in high school, he admitted he didn’t feel he received adequate support from his coaches, saying they seemed to want the White kids to be more successful than he was.
“I don’t want to say they didn’t allow the Black kids to succeed, but they weren’t going to allow a Black kid to be the star basketball player, the star receiver on the football team, and then be on the track team,” he shared. “It just wasn’t going to happen.”
In a separate interview, Pippen said being in Hamburg didn’t help his cause. After all, it wasn’t like college scouts were stumbling over themselves to get to his hometown to watch his games.
“It was tough growing up as a kid there, cause you always wanted to get out into the glamour and see all the limelight and everything,” Pippen stated.
Even though Scottie played well in high school, he wasn’t offered a scholarship by any school. Undeterred, he went to Central Arkansas and tried his luck there as a walk-on. Fortunately, he got accepted. And after a quiet freshman year, he broke out during his sophomore year and never looked back.
Scottie was the epitome of perseverance
Although Scottie didn’t think his high school coaches were behind him and his dream of playing in the NBA, Hamburg High head coach David Wayne recalled how determined his ward was to make something of himself. It didn’t matter if he didn’t get much publicity or if his games weren’t watched by many people; he played his heart out in every game.
“If there’s one thing I learned, it’s that when a kid tells you he wants to play in the NBA, you don’t laugh at him,” Wayne shared.
“That’s something Scottie told me when he was in high school. That helped me understand it’s good for these kids to dream and believe. Anything can happen when you put your work in and do what you’re supposed to do. It’s just a matter of who you are, where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.”
Despite his humble beginnings, Pippen went on to become one of the NBA’s greatest players, winning six NBA championships and establishing himself as a unique two-way player, one who could shut down opposing players and, at the same time, score and make plays for others.