Break-A-Bulls
Many people like to blame Krause for the breakup of the Bulls dynasty. They say it was his personality and management style that chased Phil Jackson and Jordan away; that the core could’ve won more championships if Krause managed to keep them together.
Krause sees it differently. And it had little do with Jordan.
“Dennis [Rodman] was dying, physically. Dennis was beat. I knew Dennis couldn’t do another year, IF he got through that year. We knew Luc Longley had the bad legs. [Strength and conditioning coach] Al Vermeil told me, ‘Please, no Longley. No more. Can’t do it, Jerr.’ We were going to be without a 4, without a 5, without a team. We were going to get beat bad the next year if we had continued with that team. And we would’ve had to pay a tremendous amount of money to the players who were there to continue it, and it wasn’t worth it. We decided to make a change.” – Jerry Krause
To Krause, it was all about the Bulls’ deteriorating frontcourt. Before the 1997-98 season began, Jackson told Krause it would be his last in Chicago. And Jerry believes that Phil shared those concerns about the frontcourt, and that was his biggest reason for leaving. He wanted to go out on top.
“Phil told us he was going to leave. Okay, do we go to Phil and make him an offer that he can’t turn down? There’s always an offer somebody can’t turn down. But, can we get a 5 and can we get a 4 and win? Nuh-uh. Not in our cap situation. Michael had to make $30 million a year. There was no way to get another player…So it was a question of that. There was a contract issue with Phil, but Phil wanted to get out. Phil had had enough…For one thing, Phil didn’t want to coach a team without a 5 and without a 4. He knew we couldn’t win. Phil is a smart man…It was a very simple decision for him. ‘Hey, if I’m not going to win, I’m not going to be here. I’m not going to take the legacy I’ve established here and then lose.’ And we would have. We would’ve lost. Had we done that, we would’ve lost for a couple of years and the thing would’ve been blown up worse yet.” – Jerry Krause
You’ll notice Krause also mentioned Jordan’s contract. In his final two seasons with the Bulls, Michael played on one year deals worth $30.14 million and $33.14 million. Krause and his boss Reinsdorf were significantly into the luxury tax, seeing as the NBA salary cap was just $26.9 million in 1998. It rose to $30 million the following season, but how much would they have had to pay Jordan to stay? $35 million? $38 million? Krause is right, the team would’ve struggled to replace their starting frontcourt with their nonexistent cash flow.
Bulls fans can keep blaming Krause if they want to, but he’s not the reason the core broke up and the dynasty ended. On the contrary, his draft work (Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant in 1987), trade work (Bill Cartwright, Rodman) and his complete restructuring of the roster for the second threepeat are the reasons that the Bulls dynasty existed. Jordan’s Hall of Fame induction speech be damned, organizations do win championships.
Speaking of which, Krause used this interview as an opportunity to clear the air about that whole mess.
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