Well these Pippen rumors are definately gaining steam.

The prospect of returning to the franchise with which he won six championships has intrigued Scottie Pippen to the point that he recently had a brief phone conversation with Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf. Pippen and Reinsdorf have had minor differences over the years, and their discussion is the strongest indication to date of the depth of Pippen's interest. The talk also proves Reinsdorf fully endorses general manager John Paxson's plan to sign his former teammate with the midlevel salary-cap exception of approximately $4.6 million.

I think the 'minor differences' between Reinsdorf and Pippen have always been overblown by the Jordan disciples out there. Keep in mind that the Bulls did give Pippen a pretty generous contract when they made the sign and trade deal with Houston. Has Pippen really matured and is he capable of leading this team? The problem that Paxson will face is the possibility of waiting too long on Pippen and losing out on other free agents, but I really like this quote from Pax:

"I'm not going to panic on anything," Paxson said. "No matter what we do, a lot of our growth is going to come from within with our young players."

That's very important, this Newble and Pippen stuff is just background pieces for the young core of this team. No sense tying up a ton of money on spare parts.