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The decade of the 1990s will be remembered as a period dominated by Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, who won six NBA championships.

But the decade offered much more than that. It represented the payoff of a golden era that began in the 1980s, when some of the best basketball players of all time came into the league. The Hall of Fame will be opening its doors in years to come for the likes of Jordan, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Clyde Drexler, Reggie Miller and Gary Payton.

It has been said statistics can be manipulated to support any point of view and the smaller the sample, the easier it is to engage in this manipulation. That's why Hoop, in league with our indispensable colleagues at the Elias Sports Bureau, decided to undertake a statistical analysis of the entire decade of the 1990s. We offer here a look at statistical leaders in several major categories from the period Jan. 1, 1990, to Dec. 31, 1999.

While such a survey obviously rewards players who were active during the entire 10-year period and diminishes those outstanding players whose careers either ended before the decade was complete or began kurva jó well into its term, it does help to illustrate the amazingly consistent excellence of a number of players who grabbed the headlines during this golden decade. It also brings into sharper focus the achievements of other players who might have missed the adulation of superstardom, but nonetheless deserve recognition for their versatility and dependability.

No one appeared in the top 25 of all seven categories -- games, points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks and minutes, but one player managed to earn his way into six of the seven categories. His name isn't Jordan, it's Scottie Pippen.

Pippen spent much of the '90s having his extraordinarily versatile game given less than its due for one obvious reason: He wasn't Jordan. Like Hall of Famer John Havlicek, who played for the Boston Celtics from 1962 to 1978, Pippen affected the game in subtle ways while teammates garnered more glory. While Jordan grabbed deserved headlines with his 30-plus point eruptions, Pippen would fill the box score with rebounds, assists, steals and blocked shots while also providing the Bulls with dependable scoring. As a defender, ballhandler and rebounder, Pippen was at least Jordan's equal.

While Pippen may have been the second-best player in the league at times during the 1990s, the spotlight on Jordan was so bright it often blinded NBA observers to Pippen's versatile excellence.

Pippen finished the 1990s third in minutes, fourth in steals, 10th in assists and points and 21st in both games and rebounds. Entering the 2000-01 season, only six players in NBA history have more points, rebounds and assists than Pippen: Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson, Havlicek and Larry Bird, and future inductees Magic Johnson and Clyde Drexler. Pippen will likely pass Magic and Drexler in rebounds this season.

Eight players landed spots in the top 25 in five of the seven categories. These eight were Malone, Stockton, Olajuwon, Robinson, Payton, Shawn Kemp, Detlef Schrempf and Jeff Hornacek.

Player of the Decade? Jordan, of course. But no player was more versatile than Pippen. (Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE Photos)
Olajuwon holds the distinction of appearing

Eight players landed spots in the top 25 in five of the seven categories. These eight were Malone, Stockton, Olajuwon, Robinson, Payton, Shawn Kemp, Detlef Schrempf and Jeff Hornacek.