Scottie Pippen is, perhaps one of the greatest basketball players of his generation. He was born on September 25, 1965, in Arkansas, and he went on to play for the NBA for seventeen years. He brought home six NBA Championships with the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan. He was part of what the world knows as the Dream Team, which was a team of the best of the best sent to play in the Olympics during the summer of 1992. It is still to this day considered the ‘greatest sports team,’ ever put together in the world. Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler, Chris Mullin, David Robinson, Karl Malone, and John Stockton were chosen to represent America in the Olympics, and it was a great time to be alive. Scottie Pippen was, at the height of his career, married to his first wife. Her name is Karen McCollum, and she was the first very public relationship the star had in what can only be called a long string of very public relationship issues since. The world is curious; where is Karen McCollum? What’s she been doing since her divorce?
The Marriage
Karen McCollum doesn’t get much mention as it pertains to Scottie Pippen, and that probably isn’t much of an issue for her. The couple was young when they first wed in 1988, and they were still young when they divorced in 1990. He was a new player in the NBA. He was not yet known as he is today, and he wasn’t yet part of the dream team. He was a new player, he was refining his incredible skill, and he and Michael Jordan hadn’t yet done their thing – and their thing was winning together and running the game like they were born to take charge. McCollum was with Pippen when he first began his career, but she wasn’t there long. She was not alongside him when he went to the ’92 Olympics. The couple married young following the birth of their first and only child together. Their son, Anton, was born on December 29, 1987. When the couple announced their divorce, it was reportedly not a bad one. They may not have wanted to spend the rest of their lives together, but they knew that they had a son, and that they should remain as amicable as possible in the interest of raising him and being parents to the little boy they shared. McCollum is a musician. She’s been featured on television shows over the years.
McCollum’s Life After Marriage
One of the main reasons that Karen McCollum is not mentioned often in relation to Scottie Pippen is that most people don’t remember he was married before. He spent nearly two decades of his life with his second wife, Larsa Pippen, with whom he shares four children. He married Larsa long after he was one of the most famous basketball players in the league. Being that he and his first wife were only married for two years, and it was long before he was as famous as he is now, the world didn’t pay as much attention. However, it bodes well to mention that Karen McCollum is a private woman. She’s a lovely woman who does not appear to want to be in the spotlight. She’s spent the past 30 years raising her son, working as a musician, and being a co-parent with her ex.
Tragically, she and Pippen lost their son in 2021 at the age of 33. Anton Pippen died in the spring of 2021, though both his mother and father declined to share a cause of death. It is known that Anton suffered from chronic asthma, which his father felt kept him from playing in the NBA. He and his father both loved basketball. Pippen asked that the world keep Anton’s mother, his friends, and his family in their prayers. McCollum has not made any public appearances or said much about her life since, but the world mourns with her. The loss of a child is the most heartbreaking, most devastating, most crushing thing any mother and father will ever deal with, and the world hurts with her and for her. McCollum might not have had much time with her husband before they decided to end their marriage, but she had three wonderful decades with her son, and she is mourning a loss greater than any other loss in her life this year. Our hearts go out to her.
Follow Us
