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Jerry Krause was a longtime professional basketball scout and General Manager for, among other franchises, the Baltimore Bullets and, most notably, the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He put together the Bulls team that won six NBA championships and is a two-time recipient of the NBA's Executive of the Year award.
Early career
Krause grew up very portly and unathletic, and never played basketball or any sport. After attending Taft High School in Chicago, he entered Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. He actually started out a baseball scout sometime around college. Despite this outsider status, however, he made it as NBA scout through hard work and an exceptional eye for basketball talent. Krause was nicknamed "Crumbs" by Michael Jordan for having leftovers of his previous meal on his clothes. He 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.
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 the 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 (and, ironically, weakness) 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 1987, Krause was mesmerized by a tall forward named Brad Sellers, and planned on selecting him in the NBA Draft. Sellers, Krause reasoned, was too good a pick to pass up, as he handled the ball very well for a big man, and also had a solid outside jumper. Two things Sellers did not do well, despite his large frame, were rebound and play interior defense; this underscored an overall lack of toughness and intensity to his game. Jordan, on the other hand, pushed management to take a hard-nosed two-way guard from Duke named Johnny Dawkins. He felt Dawkins could aid Chicago in their quest to dethrone the Detroit Pistons exponentially more than the soft Sellers could. It looked like Krause would take Dawkins even as late as the morning of the draft; the coaches and players had made it clear that they wanted him and not Sellers, and Krause didn't particularly have a problem with Dawkins' game. However, Krause took Sellers anyway, and spent the summer trying to sell him to Jordan. Jordan would have none of it, though, and went after Sellers mercilessly in practice; naturally, Sellers wilted in the glare of the game's most intense performer. As it turned out, Dawkins had a long career in the NBA as a solid contributor, while Sellers proved to be everything Jordan predicted: a soft, jump-shooting big man who rarely ventured into the paint and was out of the league in a matter of years. Other Krause first round draft picks that underperformed include Stacey King, Will Perdue 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 Charles Oakley to New York for Bill Cartwright. It had all the makings of Brad Sellers, part 2: Oakley, who happened to be Jordan's best friend on the team, was extremely tough, particularly on the boards and on defense, and never backed down against Detroit. Cartwright was a true center, unlike the power forward Oakley, but was much older. He also never enjoyed a reputation as an outstanding defender, unlike Oakley, but was a far more capable inside scorer. However, although not being a true lockdown defender, Cartwright was very effective at preventing opposing centers from dominating games. Jordan despised the trade, not only because of the players involved but also because of how Oakley learned of it: via television, while he was out with Jordan. Cartwright turned out to be everything the Bulls needed, however, providing a presence in the middle for all three Bulls championships from 1991-1993. Perhaps most importantly, Cartwright proved to be the league's best center at defending Patrick Ewing, the New York Knicks' star who was the key player on the Bulls' most important early-1990s conference rival. Jordan later admitted that he was wrong and Krause may have been right about the trade, but it changed nothing about Jordan's overall distrust 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!'" *
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 Croatian 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 assembled what has been labelled the best team ever 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. 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:
- During the summer of 1997, Krause's stepdaughter married. All of the Bulls assistant coaches and their wives were invited to the wedding, as was Tim Floyd, then the head coach at Iowa State, whom Krause was openly courting as Jackson's successor (and would eventually succeed Jackson). Jackson and his wife were not invited, and Krause did not tell them of the snub; they found out from the wife of assistant Bill Cartwright.
- During contract negotiations for Jackson's final year with the Bulls, when the topic of a potential extension past the 1997–98 season came up, Krause reportedly told Jackson, "I don't care if you go 82-and-0, you're fucking gone."
- It was during the 1997-1998 season that Krause uttered the statement "Players don't win championships, organizations win championships", which raised the ire of Michael Jordan. In actuality though, Krause said that"players and coaches alone don't win championships; organizations win championships"
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.
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 fullfilled 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 all of his draft picks and signings were either traded or out of the league within three years. Meanwhile, former players Brand, Miller and Artest became All-Stars for their new teams. Krause worked briefly for the New York Yankees and New York Mets baseball teams as a scout, but was released by both teams. He now lives in suburban Chicago with his wife and appears occasionally on sports radio as an analyst.
References
Baltimore Bullets | Chicago Bulls | Chicagoans | National Basketball Association executives | Living people
"Jerry Krause"