Former Bulls general manager Jerry Krause has been the main antagonist for the much-talked-about documentary mini-series The Last Dance. Many of the former players and coaches of the 90s dynasty Chicago Bulls have been vocal about his role in dismantling the team. Krause’s main goal was to rebuild with a young core of players. The general manager’s vision never came to fruition due to his obsession, which would be his downfall.
Krause was partially driven to prove to fans and the media that he deserved more praise for putting the dynasty together. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Phil Jackson are often given the most praise, with GM’s role going unacknowledged. When Krause began the Bulls rebuild following the 1998 championship season, the Bulls went from being the best team in the NBA to one of the worst in NBA history in just one year.
Krause’s ultimate goal was to put a winning team with high draft picks and young-free agent signings. He achieved his first part as the Bulls would have the first overall selection in the 1999 NBA Draft and selected power forward Elton Brand. Brand would go on to split Rookie of the Year honors and would be a consistent 20-10 threat early in his career.
In the summer of 2000, there were several future superstars or future Hall of Fame players that were free agent targets for the Bulls. The players included Tim Duncan, Grant Hill, and Tracy McGrady, with Chicago having the salary cap space to outbid teams. Neither player would sign with the Bulls for a litany of reasons. Many believe that the team came off as too desperate. Others believed that it was due in part to how the Krause regime had treated Jordan and Jackson the season before.
This is where Krause’s obsession arose in needing to find a superstar that he could claim as his Jordan. The need to find a centerpiece superstar impacted his judgment and directly affected the rebuild. It would start with the 2001 NBA Draft, where he would trade the team’s best player in Brand to the Los Angeles Clippers for high school power forward Tyson Chandler. Chicago would draft fellow high school talent Eddy Curry that night also, as Krause hit the reset button on the rebuild for a much longer time. Brand would go on to be an All-Star and would help several teams to the playoffs.
Curry and Chandler went on to be good NBA players but took too long to develop. Later in the 2001-02 season, Krause would make another costly trade for a player he envisioned as a superstar. The team traded small forward Ron Artest and center Brad Miller to the Pacers for shooting guard Jalen Rose. Rose never lived up to the expectation placed on him following the trade and would be traded two years later. Artest and Miller would go on to be All-Stars the following seasons and were highly respected for the defensive skills.
These moves delayed any hope of a rebuild under Krause and ultimately led to his resignation as general manager in 2003. His obsession in finding a superstar talent that he could call his own clouded his judgment in trusting what he was doing. Had the team not traded Brand, Artest, and Miller, there was a good chance Chicago would have been a perennial playoff team soon.
Had Krause build another playoff team following the dynasty, he would have received the credit he deserved. The late and former general manager would have been viewed as one of the best executives not just in Chicago sports history, but in NBA history also. In a desire to prove everyone wrong, Krause proved everyone right when he kept trading away promising talent for what he believed to be the next star.
