I did watch him play, 80s and 90s and I can EASILY pick 5.. He was athletic sure, every all star caliber player in the NBA is athletic, what's your point? You can't say Pippen is the greatest SF of all time just because he was one of the best perimeter defenders of his era.. I guess that makes Dennis Johnson the all time best PG, Dumars or Moncrief the all time best SG after MJ, Rodman or Oakley or whoever the best all time PF, and Mark Eaton or Mutombo the best all time Centers?... Sounds about right to me..
Pippen is versatile offensively and could play the point forward role, I never said he couldn't.. But he is so overrated in that aspect.. Walking the ball up the court and passing it to MJ isn't exactly "great ball handling" .. Shaq could even do that.. Seriously you overrate that aspect of his game way to much.. He's by no means a Penny Hardaway or Magic Johnson type "big guard" the way you're trying to make it sound..
As far as defense goes, yes he is one of the very best of his era and of all time.. But his on ball defense is very overrated as well.. He wasn't guarding the smaller faster guys, that's why AI's highlight is crossing up MJ not Pip, he was over powered by the bigger forwards, that's why they had Rodman, he wasn't as versatile defensively as what you might think you remember seeing.. He was however VERY VERY VERY damn good as a team defensive player, probably top 5 in NBA history, he's the perfect team defensive player at the SF position IMO.. I'm not trying to knock him defensively, but I am being realistic here.. You do realize Harper is usually considered a top 5 defensive PG, Jordan at SG, Pippen at SF, and Rodman at PF.. See where this is going? There defense was built around a team style, not individual... And Pippen was simply amazing in playing that role..
And Yes I can pick at least 5 SF that I would take on my team before Pippen..
1.Bird
2. LeBron
3. Elgin Baylor
4. John Havelicek
5. Dr. J
6. Dave Debusschere
7 then Pippen/Worthy/Nique' Wilkins
If you preferred offense to defense you could easily take Rick Barry, or Alex English over Pippen as well.. I would include them both in my 7th place tie..
I would take a PRIME (even though that didn't last long) Grant Hill up in the top 5 and after a few more years probably even Kevin Durant over Pippen..
Dubusschere is probably the only SF on the list who was actually a better defender than Pippen was... Probably the best on ball defender ever and could pretty much play SG-PF and be very effective up around 12 boards a game as and undersized forward position.. Could guard almost every position on the court as well. And score some points...
Dr. J is very underrated defensively as well, not Pippen level but still and it's scary to think how good LeBron could have been defensively playing in that era with Pippen