I just heard Stephen A Smith (from Philadelphia Inquirer) talking about Jerry's departure. He mentioned a string of trade Jerry did & said that's what caused his downfall.
Newgirl - You have good points and obviously are much better informed than I about the Bulls in general and Krause in particular. I realize he was probably only the mouthpiece for the owner, but that team with Jackson coaching in '98 was good for at least one and possibly 2 more championship runs. The ego involved to alienate Jackson, Jordan, and fans overshadows any success he demonstrated in trading for Pippen and signing him for an underapid- long term contact. As hard as it is to win championships in the NBA they should have kept that team together. In my reference to Jordan - I did not mean to imply Krause rode his coat tails to greatness. I really do not care about that. You are right that Carroll Dawson did ride Hakeem's coat tails. My point was that Krause' failings were overlooked by the media worshipping Jordan's accomplishments. Your reply was excellent by the way....Thank you
TBar, . Having said that, Bulls fans should be happy with Krause's "resignation". I think The thing is that Krause had BAD reputation (caused mainly by Jordon/Jackson). When you have bad reputation (no matter it's warranted or not), it's hard to get rid of it. NBA players are single-minded. They're aware of this bad reputation. Now they don't have a GM with bad reputation. Maybe some NBA players want to play for them now. But deep down I think he did his job quite well. 1st, you can't argue 6 championships. 2nd, he lay a great foundation for the Bulls right now and I appreciate his vision. Krause set out to build a championship caliber team, not merely a playoff caliber team like Boston, Minnesota and many other NBA cities seem to have. Every team has potential, but the Bulls aren't filled up by SGs and SFs, they have two young big men who have long way to go, have a lot to improve but they have shown flashes of pure dominance. Curry may just be the third best center besides Shaq and Yao in the league now scoring wise. And it will get quite interesting next season if Chicago ends up with Lebron James next season.
Newgirl- Good points well taken Aside from personalities- There is great talent in Chicago. They do have a very good foundation for the future. The big men are rare and they have 2 very good ones who could and possibly will become great. If they can hold this talent together they will be very competitive 2 years from now or sooner. He really did not do such a bad job - he is just so easy to not like and ridicule......
I think that Jk has made a hell of a job in the last 5 years to rebuild the Bulls, but it will take time for the fans to actually realize it. Everyone is giving too much importance to number of wins he has reently, but when you're creating a new team what really counts is the amount of talent stockpiled and basement you've built for the future. good luck Jerry, people will give you what's due. P.S.: that damn quote was "players ALONE don't win championships, organizations do" it was supposed to thank the whole organization, from JK to the ballboys... and to the players, who the last time i checked are part of it.
