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One, Jerry Krause doesn't owe you, the Chicago Bulls fan, JACK SHIT!!!! You, on the other hand, are eternally in debt to Jerry Krause. You've scathed him from the minute he took his position as Bulls GM. You booed him at every Grant Park Championship celebration for no other reason than the fact it felt good to you. The Chicago sports fan can never enjoy anything unconditionally (that's why we choose to dwell over the breakup of the Bulls championship corps than celebrate the fact that we witnessed the greatest dynasty in basketball history - outside of the Celtics of the late '50s and '60s - and why we will continue to until time forgets about these Bulls teams entirely). You had no right to boo him then, you only do it now out of complete mis-education surrounding the Bulls infrastructure in the years he ran the team. Because Jerry Krause is a nice guy, he's never snapped back at you. He's taken it all in stride and stayed about his job (which he's done as good as anybody who's ever done his job, although you'll never admit it). You will continue to feed off of the fruits of his work for years to come. You will enjoy at least a seventh Bulls championship by the end of this decade BECAUSE of Jerry Krause's work (Curry, Chandler, Crawford). You hate Jerry Krause for no good reason.
Two, Jerry Krause doesn't owe Michael Jordan JACK SHIT!!!! Michael Jordan, on the other hand, owes Jerry Krause a lifetime's supply of apologies. Michael Jordan hates Jerry Krause for one reason and one reason only. Jerry Krause is the one of the few people that doesn't kiss the ground Jordan walks on. Jerry Krause treated Michael Jordan the same way he treated every other player, athlete or person he ever encountered on a daily basis. Michael Jordan doesn't, has not ever and never will react to being treated as any other human being in any fashion other than a negative one (despite what the PR machine he has behind him has tried to make you think for close to the past two decades). No, Jerry Krause didn't draft Michael Jordan. No, Jerry Krause didn't discover Michael Jordan. Know what? Jerry Krause HAS NEVER CLAIMED TO HAVE DRAFTED OR DISCOVERED MICHAEL JORDAN!!!! Jerry Krause inherited Michael Jordan from Rod Thorn (who has publicly admitted numerous times that he would've foolishly drafted Olajuwon ahead of MJeff on Draft night '84, by the way). Jerry Krause has never said anything publicly to indicate anything otherwise. Because he's a nice guy, Jerry Krause has also never said anything publicly about Michael Jordan in any negative light. He's taken it all in stride and gone on about his daily business. Michael Jordan hates Jerry Krause for no good reason.
Three, Michael Jordan will not be Jerry Krause's successor as Bulls GM. Michael Jordan will never again be professionally affiliated with the Chicago Bulls. Nor should he be. If his track record in Washington is indicative of anything, it's that he's not cut out for this job (in fact, the only two things we've come to know that he is cut out for since Mr. Jordan came to Washington are adultery and high stakes gambling). He was taken to the cleaners by Joe Dumars in the Rip Hamilton for Jerry Stackhouse trade. Dumars took a star for years to come in Hamilton from Jordan in exchange for an erratic shooter in Stackhouse who will be leaving Washington as season's end. All the Wizards will be left with come next season will be Kwame Brown (whom Jordan has pretty much given up on already). Brown has shown flashes of potential, but has little confidence right now thanks to Jordan bashing him in the media at every opportunity he gets (the last time Jordan said anything complementary about Kwame was the night he drafted him). Look for MJeff to be taken to the cleaners in a Kwame Brown for ________ trade sometime in the near future. Meanwhile, Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler (BTW, Krause got the better part of that deal; Elton hasn't been a 20/10 player since he got to LA and the Clippers still haven't made the playoffs yet with him; Tyson WILL be a better player than him this time two years from now, you heard it here first) are already better than Brown and will continue to be for the duration of their careers in Chicago. Michael Jordan is a lousy general manager, just like he's a lousy father, husband, role model and a borderline anti-hero. You, the Bulls fan, should be mad at Michael Jordan right now. Michael Jordan betrayed you. He went back on his word ("I'll never wear another team's uniform.....I'll never play for another coach than Phil Jackson....I'm a Bull for life") and will now be affiliated with another city's team for the rest of his professional life.
Four, Jerry Krause was THE LEAST RESPONSIBLE FIGURE in the breakup of the Bulls. The figures who had the most responsibility in the breakup of the Bulls championship team following the '98 season in descending order are as follows: Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Jerry Reinsdorf, Jerry Krause. Phil Jackson wanted Jerry Krause's job. He tried to force Reinsdorf to move Krause out in a power struggle. Michael Jordan aligned himself with Jackson in what he believed would be an insurmountable combination of power that Reinsdorf and Krause wouldn't be able to resist. Reinsdorf called Jackson and Jordan's bluff. The rest is history. I'm not even going to touch on Scottie Pippen. He's commonly accepted to be a douche bag. Everybody living anywhere in the state of Illinois north of Springfield is no more than six degrees of separation from knowing at least one of Scottie's illegitimate children (I happen to know three, myself). Scottie's a quitter (1.8 seconds), a liar ("I've played my last game in a Bulls uniform" - mid-season '98), and a man of questionable character (his best friend is Horace Grant, I need say no more). Jerry Krause NEVER made the statement "players don't win championships, organizations win championships." I've talked to several people who personally witnessed said press conference when the alleged statement was supposedly made. What Jerry Krause actually said is as follows: "When the time comes to rebuild, I relish the opportunity and look forward to the challenge of putting together this organization's next championship with entirely new pieces." He was misquoted. He was blackballed. You hate him even more so as a result of it.
Fifth, Jerry Krause is a frickin' genius!!!! I can say without exaggeration that he's the greatest GM in NBA history (yes, Calvin, greater than Jerry West and I got ammo if you wanna go head up with me on this one). His risks that paid off were of unparalled levels of brilliance (acquiring Oakley for Keith Lee, trading Oakley for Cartwright, acquiring Pippen for Olden Polynice, acquiring Rodman for Will Perdue, drafting Toni Kukoc in the second round). His busts (Stacey King, Brad Sellers, Will Perdue) for the most part had NO NEGATIVE EFFECT ON THE BULLS WHATSOEVER!!!! THEY WON SIX CHAMPIONSHIPS IN EIGHT YEARS, PEOPLE!!!! No other GM of our time has a track record like that in ANY sport.
Sixth, and finally, JERRY KRAUSE'S PLAN WORKED!!!! The Bulls are still on a faster pace to win their next championship than the post-Bird Celtics (close to 20 years since their last title and still probably won't make it out of the first round this season), the post-Isiah Pistons (more than a decade since the Fag Boys.....I mean, Bad Boys fell apart, and they're just now getting close to the top of the East again) and the Jordan-led Wizards (who will miss the playoffs again as I predicted before the season and who are now at least five MORE years away from winning a championship than they were before Michael became affiliated with their franchise). You know what the Bulls would've looked like had Jerry Krause never gone through with his "diabolical plan?" Well, here goes. Jordan would've missed the entire '99 season after he severed the tendon in his shooting hand with the cigar cutter ("Be Like Mike and smoke until you get lung cancer, kids"). Pippen and Rodman would've been complete wastes of cap space after their play started declining during the '99 season. The Bulls would've still been a disaster under Tim Floyd, seeing that Phil made it clear time and again he wasn't coming back in '99 under any circumstances because he was taking his one year sabbatical from coaching that he'd been publicly talking about as far back as Jordan's first retirement (go read a copy of his autobiography if you think I'm lying). Of course, this whole "keeping the team together" thing is a moot point when you consider that the new collective bargaining agreement made it impossible for the team to continue paying Jordan, Pippen and Rodman what they'd been making with the Bulls up to that point. But I wouldn't expect any of you to understand this because you don't put the effort into researching these things for yourself the way that I do. I would expect you all to completely dismiss everything I've just said the way you all inevitably will because ignorance is bliss and you all enjoy the comfortability that comes with being so naive. I would expect no more from you assclowns. You're the same people that perrenially pack Wrigley even though the Cubs haven't won a championship since the fictional white Jesus was rumored to have risen from the dead.
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