Antron Pippen, the oldest son of Bulls Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen, died Sunday at age 33.
His father announced the news Monday on Twitter but did not give a cause of death.
“I’m heartbroken to share that yesterday, I said goodbye to my firstborn son Antron,” Pippen said online. “The two of us shared a love for basketball and we had countless conversations about the game.”
Antron Pippen was born Dec. 29, 1987. He was the only child from Scottie’s first marriage to Karen McCollum. The couple divorced in 1990. He is the oldest of Scottie’s seven children.
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The younger Pippen grew up in the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville and was a 2006 graduate of Collins Hill High School in the Suwanee, Georgia.
“He’s a late bloomer like me,” Scottie Pippen said to the Atlanta Journal-Consitution in 2006. “He’s probably better than I was as a high school player.”
Antron went on to play college basketball at South Georgia Tech and later at Texas A&M International. After college, he played semi-professional basketball in the now-defunct World Basketball Association.
During his senior year of high school, Antron described to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the pressures of living up to his father’s basketball legacy.
“I’m used to the expectations,” he said. “When I was younger, it bothered me. I was trying to prove to people I could play. I’m very proud of my father. But I can only be myself.”
The elder Pippen said his son suffered from chronic asthma.
“If he hadn’t had it, I truly believe he would’ve made it to the NBA. He never let that get him down, though — Antron stayed positive and worked hard, and I am so proud of the man that he became.”
