Scottie Pippen’s name belongs to basketball royalty. Six championship rings, a spot on the 1992 “Dream Team,” and a decade of highlight reels alongside Michael Jordan built that legacy on the court. Away from the arena, though, Pippen’s family history holds a far quieter and sadder chapter. Her name was Tyler Roby Pippen, and she lived for only nine days.
Fans searching for “Tyler Roby Pippen” online run into a tangle of conflicting stories. Some articles call her Scottie’s son. Others claim her mother was Larsa Pippen or Karen McCollum. Neither claim holds up against the public record. Court documents, Associated Press reporting, and Scottie Pippen’s own Wikipedia biography agree on the same facts: Tyler was a newborn daughter, born to Pippen and former girlfriend Sonya Roby in the summer of 1994, and she passed away just over a week later.
This article separates verified fact from recycled speculation and lays out everything currently known about Tyler Roby Pippen, her family, and the legal case that once put her name in the news.
Who Was Tyler Roby Pippen?
Tyler Roby Pippen came into the world on July 20, 1994, at Mercy Hospital in Chicago. She arrived as one half of a set of twins, born alongside her sister Taylor Pippen. Their mother, Sonya Roby, was a model who had been in a relationship with Scottie Pippen during the early 1990s, at the height of his career with the Chicago Bulls.
Tyler’s life ended just nine days after it began. She died on July 29, 1994, also at Mercy Hospital. Her family never disclosed a specific cause of death, and no reliable outlet has ever confirmed one. Any article claiming to know the medical details of her passing is working from guesswork, not documentation.
Taylor survived. She grew into an accomplished athlete and now works in finance, a story covered in more detail below.
Scottie Pippen and Sonya Roby’s Relationship
Sonya Roby met Scottie Pippen during a period when he was becoming one of the most recognizable athletes in the country. The Bulls were building toward their first three-peat, and Pippen’s face appeared everywhere, from magazine covers to shoe commercials. Roby, meanwhile, kept her own life largely out of public view, a pattern she maintained for the rest of her time in the spotlight.
The couple’s relationship never became a marriage. When Roby discovered she was pregnant with twins, Pippen did not immediately step forward as the father. That decision would carry legal consequences within a year.
Roby has given almost no interviews about her relationship with Pippen or her life afterward. No modeling portfolio, hometown, or biographical detail has surfaced beyond her connection to the paternity case. She raised Taylor largely outside the media’s reach, a choice that appears deliberate given how little has changed in the three decades since.
The Paternity Case That Made Tyler’s Story Public
Tyler Roby Pippen would likely have remained a private family matter if not for the court case that followed her birth. After Scottie Pippen denied paternity, Sonya Roby filed a paternity suit against him. A DNA test conducted in October 1994 returned a near-certain match, and reports at the time cited a probability above 99 percent.
Even with that result in hand, the legal process dragged on for months. Pippen finally appeared in a Chicago courtroom on June 17, 1995, and formally acknowledged that he was the father of both twins. According to reporting from the Chicago Tribune, the court ordered him to cover outstanding medical bills and provide insurance for Taylor through the NBA. Some outlets have reported the medical-bill figure at roughly $10,000, others closer to $15,000; the underlying court record settles on child support and medical coverage rather than a single headline number.
By the time the case concluded, Tyler had already been gone for almost a year. The paternity dispute effectively became a matter about Taylor’s future rather than a battle over Tyler herself, since she had passed away before the DNA results even came back.
Scottie Pippen has never spoken publicly, at length, about Tyler’s death. He has occasionally referenced the broader pain of losing a child when discussing family and mortality, but he has kept the specifics of Tyler’s passing private, matching the family’s overall approach to the subject.
Taylor Pippen: Tyler’s Surviving Twin Sister
Taylor Pippen grew up under her mother’s full custody in the Chicago area, largely without a relationship with her father. In a 2016 interview with the Spanish outlet El Mundo, Taylor said Scottie never wanted to meet her and that she preferred not to dwell on it. Her comments made clear that sharing a last name with an NBA legend never translated into a personal bond.
Despite that distance, Taylor built her own résumé, separate from the Pippen name. She played volleyball at Mundelein High School in Illinois before joining Southern Illinois University’s team in 2012. She went on to compete professionally in Spain during the 2016 season. Her career eventually shifted from athletics to finance, and by 2024 she had become a vice president in commercial banking at JPMorgan Chase.
Taylor has occasionally acknowledged her twin sister’s memory in passing but has never spoken in detail about Tyler’s death, keeping that part of her story as private as the rest of her family has.
Scottie Pippen’s Other Children
Tyler was one of eight children Scottie Pippen has fathered across four relationships, and understanding her place in that larger family adds useful context.
- Antron Pippen (1987–2021), Scottie’s first child, born during his marriage to Karen McCollum. Antron played college and semi-pro basketball before he died at age 33; Scottie later revealed on Instagram that his son had struggled with chronic asthma.
- Taylor and Tyler Pippen (born 1994), twin daughters with Sonya Roby. Taylor survived; Tyler did not.
- Sierra Pippen (born 1995), Scottie’s daughter with former fiancée Yvette Deleone. Like the Roby case, this paternity was also contested before a lawsuit confirmed Scottie as her father. He later covered her educational and medical expenses under a settlement.
- Scotty Pippen Jr. (born 2000), Preston, Justin, and Sophia — four children Scottie shares with his second wife, Larsa Pippen, whom he married in 1997. Scotty Jr. built the most public career of any of Scottie’s children, currently playing in the NBA for the Memphis Grizzlies.
Three separate paternity disputes across Scottie Pippen’s early fatherhood years — involving Taylor and Tyler, and later Sierra — form a recurring pattern in his personal history, one that stands in contrast to the disciplined image he cultivated on the basketball court.
How Antron’s Death Reopened Old Grief
When Antron Pippen died in April 2021, more than two decades after Tyler’s passing, Scottie’s public tribute on Instagram drew renewed attention to his family’s history of loss. He described Antron’s death as heartbreaking and spoke about the importance of telling loved ones how you feel while you still can. Around that same period, Pippen released his memoir, Unguarded, in which he reflected on how tragedy within his family had reshaped his outlook on life and fatherhood.
Antron’s death did not directly reference Tyler, but longtime followers of the Pippen family have noted the parallel: two children gone far too soon, three decades apart, and a father who has processed both losses largely away from cameras.
Common Misconceptions About Tyler Roby Pippen
A wave of low-quality articles has circulated online in recent years, and several of them get basic facts about Tyler Roby Pippen wrong. Here is what the verified record actually shows, compared with the errors that keep spreading:
- Gender: Tyler was a daughter, not a son, despite some articles describing “him.”
- Birth year: Tyler was born in 1994, not 1993.
- Mother’s identity: Sonya Roby was Tyler’s mother. Larsa Pippen and Karen McCollum are unrelated to this part of the family’s story — Larsa is the mother of Scotty Jr., Preston, Justin, and Sophia, while Karen McCollum is Antron’s mother.
- Age at death: Tyler lived for nine days, not into adulthood.
- Cause of death: No source has ever confirmed a specific medical cause. Claims stating otherwise are unverified.
Genealogical confusion like this tends to spread quickly once one inaccurate article gets copied and rewritten by others. Sticking to primary sources — court records, wire-service reporting, and Scottie Pippen’s own public statements — clears up the record.
Why Tyler’s Story Still Matters
Tyler Roby Pippen never had the chance to become a public figure in her own right. Her name exists in the historical record largely because of a paternity case that unfolded after her death, not because of anything she did or said. Even so, her short life remains part of the Pippen family’s history, tied permanently to her twin sister’s story and to the broader picture of Scottie Pippen as a father who has weathered more personal loss than his championship highlight reels ever suggest.
Her story also serves as a reminder for anyone researching celebrity families online: fame does not guarantee accuracy. Verified facts about Tyler Roby Pippen are limited, but they are consistent — a birth, a death nine days later, a paternity case that followed, and a surviving twin sister who built a life entirely her own.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Tyler Roby Pippen?
Tyler Roby Pippen was the twin daughter of NBA legend Scottie Pippen and former girlfriend Sonya Roby. She was born on July 20, 1994, and died nine days later on July 29, 1994.
Was Tyler Roby Pippen a son or a daughter?
A daughter. Several inaccurate articles online incorrectly refer to her as a son.
Who is Tyler Roby Pippen’s mother?
Sonya Roby, a former model who dated Scottie Pippen in the early 1990s. She is not related to Larsa Pippen, Scottie’s second wife, or Karen McCollum, his first wife.
Did Tyler Roby Pippen have a twin sister?
Yes. Her twin sister, Taylor Pippen, survived and went on to play college and professional volleyball before building a career in finance at JPMorgan Chase.
What caused Tyler Roby Pippen’s death?
The family has never publicly disclosed a cause of death. No verified source has confirmed the medical details.
Did Scottie Pippen deny being Tyler’s father?
Initially, yes. A DNA test in October 1994 confirmed his paternity, and he formally acknowledged fathering both twins in a Chicago court on June 17, 1995.
How many children does Scottie Pippen have?
Eight children across four relationships: Antron (with Karen McCollum), twins Taylor and Tyler (with Sonya Roby), Sierra (with Yvette Deleone), and Scotty Jr., Preston, Justin, and Sophia (with Larsa Pippen).
