For every chip, there’s that one could’ve-been. What would it have been if Jerry Krause didn’t disband the ’98 Bulls? Would it have been different if Michael Jordan wasn’t away playing baseball for two seasons? What could’ve happened if the 1990 Eastern Conference Finals went differently? That last one stings Chicago a little even 35 years later. NBA historians can detail Game 7 between the Chicago Bulls and their then archnemesis, The Detroit Pistons when Scottie Pippen was not a 100%. His teammates stood up for him then. Now we know at least one teammate is salty about that.

Stacey King has gone from three-peating with the Bulls to coaching and a vibrant media career in the Chicago landscape. With his ’91 and ’92 Bulls championships memorabilia in the background of the Gimme the Hot Sauce podcast, King recalled that one chip they came very close to.

Before ’91, the Bulls had a grudge match to get through with the Isiah Thomas-led Bad Boy Pistons. After an outstanding college career at Oklahoma, King landed in Chicago in 1989, with Michael Jordan primed to lead the city to its first championship.

“To be able to kind of fall out of the sky and land in Chicago of all places, who won 50 games the year I got drafted. They had won 50 games the year before. Michael was like in his prime. Scotty was just crawling into his prime. And what a better situation to for a young kid 22 years old to come out and be, you know, into a situation like Chicago and be able to play for a champ,” King told his co-hosts before dropping a nagging thought we’ve not been able to say out loud for a while now. “We easily could have been a champion my first year, you know, in the 89-90 season.”

Most of Chicago and the Bulls thought so too even through a neck-and-neck series against the defending champs, the Pistons. The series was tied going into Game 7. Mid-game, Pippen was struck by a building migraine. Pippen played 42 minutes but only scored two points. The Bulls ended up losing, 93-74. King missed his shot at a chip right in his rookie year.

“If Scottie doesn’t get that migraine headache and, you know, Paxson doesn’t hurt his knee, that could have been our first title there. So, to get one in my second year, I just expected to win. We just expected to win.”

John Paxson played through a nagging ankle injury but didn’t miss a single game. Craig Hodges also had surgery during the season and dealt with back issues during this game. But the scoring burden fell on MJ who went 31 points alone. King played more than 10 minutes and scored 5 points.

To be fair, King at least isn’t saying Pippen faked the migraine as some in the media implied back then. He only talks about a series of unfortunate factors that cost them a title sooner than they did. Because Pip has dealt with too much criticism for something out of his control.

Teammates defended Scottie Pippen

The vitriol sent Scottie Pippen’s way for the loss was striking. At that time, decades before their fallout, Michael Jordan stepped up to defend him.

“It was unfair treatment to him. A lot of times when the expectations are so high and you don’t live up to it, they look for reasons why you never achieve it. He was the target at the time,” Jordan said. “We surrounded and supported Scottie because he helped us get to that point, and it was unfortunate he was put in that predicament to accept the blame; we all were to blame and not living up to the expectations.”

Even on The Last Dance docu-series, Jordan didn’t dwell on it. Stacey King also defended Pippen and praised him for playing through it. But King was upset that MJ would bring it up in the Netflix series.

“To have that in a documentary, bringing that back up?” King said soon after the 2020 documentary. “I thought Scottie was treated harshly there, and I understand where he is coming from.”

Does King wish things went differently? Yes. Did he blame Pip? Not at all. He revealed the mindset that came with playing with a stacked roster in his first year. “When you play with Michael, the confidence that you have playing with Phil and Michael and Bill Cartwright and Paxson, you just knew every single night that we, no matter who we play, we’re going to win.”

And he may have implied that Isiah Thomas got lucky Pippen had that migraine. “It’s gonna be like a 95% chance we’re gonna win. If you beat us, it’s because we just came out and we were out the night before or something, you know.”

They’d come back to win the next year and two more after that. Stacey King gets to call himself an NBA champion of the Bulls dynasty’s first three-peat. And he can sleep well knowing that fact.