Opinion | 2019 NBA Finals: Drake is Spike Lee for Millennials, so get over yourself and enjoy him
- Back in 1994, Scottie Pippen inadvertently changed the game of basketball when he mocked filmmaker Spike Lee
- Now the Toronto Raptors are armed with their own irritatingly infectious superstar with Canadian rapper Drake
Sadly, I’m old enough to remember when Chicago Bulls second-in-command Scottie Pippen inadvertently changed the game of basketball forever.
It was May 20, 1994 – 25 years ago last week – during game six of the Eastern Conference Finals. Pippen, driving off a beauty of a bounce pass from Pete Myers, posterised 2.16-metre centre Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks.
Forget the fact that Pippen literally walked over a fallen Ewing à la Muhammad Ali on Sonny Liston – it was after the fact true pop culture history was written.
Circling back, Pippen waltzed by film director Spike Lee, up out of his courtside seat at Madison Square Garden. Still fuming from a missed foul the previous play, Pippen told Lee to sit down in what both parties admit was an expletive-laden response unrepeatable for daytime television.
The pre-internet news media went bonkers. A fan interacting with a player was unheard of, sacrilegious, and Lee quickly morphed into a polarising figure as NBA viewership skyrocketed.