When the Bulls tip off a seven-game, 11-day road trip in Los Angeles against the Clippers tonight, it may not be just the start of another dreaded western swing. It also may be the start of the Scottie Pippen Farewell Tour.

Troubled by chronic knee pain that has left him a shell of his former self, the 38-year-old Pippen has seriously contemplated retiring at the All-Star break in mid-February ? if not sooner.