That broke up the Bulls? I get that he wanted to rebuild and didn't want to turn the Bulls into the Larry Bird Celtics (hanging on too long, too old) but its not like Jordan and Pippen were fossils. Both were in their mid 30s and still playing all star level ball. He was hell bent in getting rid of Phil Jackson for what ever reason, chalk that up to ego too? If that trio stuck around they win a couple more titles.
shareI haven't seen this yet, but it was always my impression that the league itself wanted the team disbanded cause it was turning into the Harlem Globetrotters and damaging the sport.
shareIt was his ego. He was apparently one of those little short fuckers that had a short man complex and while he did have the foresight to get decent players into the team he apparently wanted more credit for what he did than he deserved. It was really his hatred of Jackson who was getting all the credit that made him want to get rid of Jackson... whether he knew it or not Jordan was not willing to stay if Jackson left so whether Klause new he was destroying the Bulls when he got rid of Jackson is unclear.
shareWhen Jordan heard that Phil was told it was his last year, Jordan said he wouldn't play for another coach. Krause responded with something like "It's his choice if he doesn't want to play anymore". He could have swallowed his pride and asked Phil to come back after that, but he didn't.
shareJerry Reinsdorf got let off the hook way to easily in the doc. He had just as much of a hand in deconstructing the Bulls dynasty as Krause did. He knew at the start of the season that Krause wasn't going to bring Phil back, and how MJ felt about that. A move like that doesn't happen unless he signs off on it. And if he didn't want it, he could have told Krause, if you fire Phil, I'm firing you, and then rehiring him.
shareThis doc was never going to be an exposé or controversial... But it did give us enough to revisit the idea of why the iconic Bulls team were disbanded...
I agree Reinsdorf got off very lightly... There were a few segments where Jerry Krause is put on the spot, but not much else... The rest is just relying on Jordan's straight talking...
Agreed. Reinsdorf was the owner and basically had the final say on everything. It seems like he used Krause as a shield for the criticism of decisions he agreed with and Krause being dead and unable to defend himself rubs me the wrong way about the whole thing.
shareMy question is why they had to let Phil go and why tell him before the season even started.
Keep him on one year contracts, get rid of some extra weight and keep Jordan + Pippen and maybe replace Rodman with a decent less expensive defender/rebounder and you get at least another title run if not more.
Reinsdorf was the owner and had the final say on Pippen´s contract "renegotiation". I do think its unfair that Krause was basically scapegoated for a lot of the issues when he is dead and can´t defend himself. I also found a lot of the open mocking of Krause´s physical limitations from the players, extremely distasteful.
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