| Jerry Krause |
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EARLY CAREER Krause was born in 1939 and grew up in Chicago. He played high school baseball as a catcher at Taft High School in Chicago and received a scholarship to Bradley University where he played baseball until he suffered a shoulder injury. After college he went to work as a scout with the Baltimore Bullets . Early on Krause gained a reputation of being able to eye talent. Krause, nicknamed "Crumbs" for his poor nutritional and grooming habits, liked to say that he "discovered" Hall of Famer Earl Monroe while with Baltimore; while this story was probably apocryphal, it underscores the special talent Krause had for player evaluation - and his need for acknowledgement. After a few years with Baltimore, Krause worked as a scout with the Phoenix Suns , Philadelphia 76ers , Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls in the 1970s before he left pro basketball to scout pro baseball instead. He was scouting for the Chicago White Sox when he received a call from new Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf to join the Bulls as their new General Manager and once again work in pro basketball. THE CHICAGO BULLS Krause succeeded Rod Thorn as Chicago Bulls GM in 1985 , and began to build a champion around Michael Jordan , who was already considered one of the greatest players in the NBA. He is credited with surrounding Jordan with the role players that finally brought the Bulls an NBA championship. On a positive note, Krause found two gems in the 1987 draft: Scottie Pippen , an ultra-athletic small forward from the small University Of Central Arkansas ; and Horace Grant , a tough power forward from Clemson . The two were undoubtedly irreplaceable cornerstones, along with Jordan, of the Bulls' 1991-1993 Championship teams. They were also culled from relative hoops obscurity; this went back to Krause's strength for finding players who were not well-received or even known by mainstream scouts. It was a matter of pride for Krause to "out-smart" his fellow GM's with obscure draft picks. However, Krause also made some picks that didn't sit well with fans. In 1986, Krause was mesmerized by a tall forward named , Will Perdue , Marcus Fizer and Mark Randall . Krause made another transaction in 1988 to which Jordan strongly objected, albeit with far better results than the Sellers-Dawkins affair. It was clear that the Bulls needed a center if they were to contend for a title, so Krause dealt , the New York Knicks ' star who was the key player on the Bulls' most important early-1990s conference rival. Jordan later admitted that he may have been wrong and Krause may have been right about the trade, but it changed nothing about Jordan's overall distrust and hatred for Krause. Jordan would later be quoted as saying: "The trade of Oakley was good, and the best thing he did was to get Pippen and Grant. That's it. His claim to fame is that he drafted Earl Monroe for the Bullets. And I say to him, `What pick was that?' He says, `Two.' And I say, `Hell! Earl Monroe was a real secret, huh? A real secret? If you hadn't taken him, he'd have gone third!'" {Link without Title} The retirement of Jordan following the 1993 NBA season brought massive change to the Chicago Bulls roster. Krause attempted to replace Jordan with defensive specialist Pete Myers and free agent Ron Harper , but neither proved capable of leading Chicago to a championship, although Harper would play an invaluable role in the second "three-peat". Krause also discovered a young Croatia n swingman named Toni Kukoč who would also become a major contributor to the Bulls. When Jordan returned to the NBA at the end of the 1995, Krause had some part in assembling what has been labelled the best team in NBA history after offseason acquisition of Dennis Rodman from the Spurs. The Bulls won an NBA record 72 games and Krause was named Executive Of The Year for the second time. As the success piled up for the Bulls, Krause became more and more hungry for attention. He did much to alienate Jordan and other Bulls players through his constant presence at team-only locales. Krause seemed to feel an insatiable need to be "one of the guys"; as a young man, he never seemed to fit in with other players or scouts, though not for lack of trying. It was just not a part of his personality, much to Krause's anguish, yet he continued to overstep the bounds of a GM in a misguided effort to fit in. Jealous of the attention received by Jordan and Head Coach Phil Jackson , a man who Krause believed was indebted to him because he got him his initial job with Chicago, Krause did several things to alienate Jackson and the players. Some examples include:
The 1998 season was labelled the "Last Dance" after several key members of the Bulls faced free agency in the upcoming season. Pippen, who had long desired a massive contract extension after years of being underpaid, criticized Krause and threatened to leave following the season. Amid the distractions, the Bulls won their sixth title in eight years. After the Bulls' final title of the Jordan era in 1998, Jackson left the team vowing never to coach again but after he took a year off he decided to give it another chance with the Lakers. Michael Jordan biographer Mitchell Krugel used the term Jabba the Hutt to disparage Krause after Krause made a comment about Jordan and other players' multi-million dollar contracts: "Krause added to his greedy Jabba the Hutt image during the media gathering that preceded the opening of camp when he answered a question about the prospect of rebuilding the Bulls without Phil or Michael in the imminent future by saying, 'Organizations win championships. Players and coaches are parts of organizations'."Mitchell Krugel, ''One Last Shot: The Story of Michael Jordan's Comeback'' (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003), p. 55, ISBN 0-312-99223-8. REBUILDING Deciding that the Bulls were aging and facing an uncertain future, Krause chose to unload the veterans and rebuild. His original intentions were to compile an untalented team that would lose and therefore obtain high draft picks while clearing salary space to make a run at major free agents. The plan did not work, though, as notable free agents Tim Duncan , Grant Hill , Tracy McGrady , and lesser free agents Eddie Jones and Tim Thomas spurned the Bulls. At least one star, Kevin Garnett , stated publicly that the manner of the break-up and the treatment of Jordan and Pippen by the team meant that he would not consider playing for the Bulls. Krause decided to focus on building through the draft and the notion that the Bulls would "grow its own stars". The draft brought prolific collegiate players such as Elton Brand , Ron Artest , Marcus Fizer , Jamal Crawford , and Jay Williams to the Bulls but it would be the 2001 draft that stood out. After finishing 15-67 during the 2000-2001 season, Krause decided to gamble and trade away his best player in Brand for high schooler Tyson Chandler who was hyped as "the next Kevin Garnett", and draft another high schooler in Eddy Curry who, similarly, was hyped as a slightly smaller version of Shaquille O'Neal , with the fourth overall pick in the draft. Krause believed that the tandem of Chandler and Curry would develop into elite players and provide the foundation for another dynasty. A mid-season trade the following year brought scorer Jalen Rose to the Bulls in exchange for Brad Miller and Artest which cleared playing time for the two rookies. After drafting Jay Williams during the offseason, the Bulls had a roster with Rose, Crawford, Curry, Chandler, Williams, and Fizer that fulfilled Krause's dream of a talented young athletic team. The Bulls showed some improvement the following year. However, in 2003 , Krause retired as GM. While the official explanation involved obesity related health problems, team insiders suggested that Krause may have been told that his tenure was over and given the chance to resign rather than be fired. The Bulls fell to 23-59 in the next season, and Krause's dream of a talented young athletic team imploded with all of his draft picks and signings traded or out of the league within three years. Curry and Chandler are widely regarded as never playing to their potential. Meanwhile, former players Brand, Miller and Artest became All-Stars for their new teams. Krause went back to his roots and worked briefly for the New York Yankees Baseball team as a scout, before joining the New York Mets in 2005 . He now lives in suburban Chicago with his wife and appears occasionally on sports radio as an analyst. REFERENCES |
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