Iverson, Pippen Decide - It's Aruba and West Chicago

Bill Krieger... May 14, 1999

Alan Iverson and Scottie Pippen rebounded from down game 2 performances to lead their respective teams into the NIBL finals... which, by the way, are:

NIBL 1999 Finals

Aruba vs. West Chicago

Western Conference

The West came down to the Philly-Orlando game last night, and Alan Iverson blew the Cougar away. Iverson poured in 55 nibls for West Chicago, easily besting the 34 nibls that Elk Grove received from Matt Geiger and Eric Snow. Iverson accounted for almost half of the Beaters points in the 115-87 victory.

Here's the Western Conference Championship series stats:

West Chicago Nibls   Elk Grove Nibls
A Iverson, phi 119 C Webber, sac 89
G Long, atl 61 E Snow, phi 68
M Camby, nyk 56 M Geiger, phi 61
G Ostertag, uth 55 L Johnson, nyk 31
J Stakchouse, det 33 T Best, ind 13
    R Smits, ind 12
    C Ward, nyk 12
WifeBeaters total 324 Cougars total 286

Eastern Conference

When Scottie and Hakeem stumbled for Houston in game 2, so did Aruba. Scottie and the Thong came back with a vengeance in game 3, as Scottie scored 56 nibls and Aruba beat Cap City 146 to 111. Scottie gave Cap City a double whammy... not only scoring 56 nibls, but then also shutting the down the red hot Glenn Rice who tallied only 15 nibls. The Tool were led by Jayson William's 29 nibls. For Aruba, Hakeem still struggled with a measly 13 nibls, but both Brian Grant and Nick Anderson scored more than 30 nibls.

Eastern Conference Championship series stats...

Aruba Nibls   Capital City Nibls
S Pippen, hou 109 A Hardaway, orl 97
B Grant, por 95 T Gugliotta, pho 74
N Anderson, orl 88 G Rice, lal 74
H Olajuwon, hou 61 J Williams, sac 71
B Russell, uth 51 T Ratliff, phi 53
Thongs total 404 Tools total 369

The Finals

Well, last year Aruba a West Chicago stumbled on the way to their showdown. The big boys will meet this year. In the regular season, West Chicago led the NIBL with 4237 nibls and Aruba was second with 3991. Aruba had the best record at 12-1 and West Chicago was second at 10-3. Aruba beat West Chicago in the last week of the regular season 302-295.

Of course, that is all history... both teams will have to wait for the first round of the NBA playoffs to see what players will be available in the second round; we'll also have another supplemental playoff draft. Then, it's clash of the titans... for possession of the Michael Jordan Award for the NIBL Championship (and some dough, too)!

yow, bill