The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame promptly inducted Michael Jordan in 2009, the year he became eligible. The 6-time NBA winner started off his speech rather emotionally and went on to discuss a range of stories from his career. While Jordan delivered his usual self during the speech, his frankness stunned a number of people. Roland Lazenby in his book, “Michael Jordan: The Life,” claimed that people told him they did not know Jordan was such an a**hole.
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Jordan seemed to have gone after former Chicago Bulls general manager Jerry Krause. Krause went on to compare Michael Jordan with Dennis Rodman, who had a “party animal” reputation around the league. Krause claimed that while Rodman had a good heart, Jordan showed a lack of concern for who he might hurt.
Jerry Krause compared Michael Jordan to Dennis Rodman during Hall of Fame speech
Michael Jordan made the speech in 2009, more than a decade after he stopped playing for the Chicago Bulls. The speech saw him attack the likes of Jerry Krause and former coach Dean Smith.
With respect to Krause, Jordan suggested that the GM was guilty of placing the organization “over the players.” In a story about a meeting with Jerry Reinsdorf, Jordan explained how he had not invited Krause and had no idea why he was in the meeting.
Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated ended up claiming that Jordan’s speech was rude, vindictive, and flammable. Reilly had said that by the end of it, “nobody wanted to be like Mike.”
Lazenby claimed in his book that nobody was more surprised and happy than Jerry Krause. Krause had later said that while Rodman had the worse reputation, the mercurial defender could not hurt another person and was good at heart.
Michael Jordan on the other hand, did not care who he ended up hurting. What’s more, Krause had said that Jordan would prove to be a psychiatrist’s dream, and they would love to break him down:
“I sat there,” Krause recalled in 2012. “I was a little, shall we say, surprised. But again, that’s Michael. I was surprised that he’d done it on that stage. I was very shocked that he nailed Dean. Me? You could expect it. Dean? That was hard. Dean must have sat there thinking, ‘What?’ Dean must have been shocked. We lived with it long enough to win six championships, and you understand who it’s coming from. Dennis could behave terribly, but Dennis is good-hearted. He did things to harm himself. But Dennis would never hurt another human being, except himself. Michael?”
He continued:
“Michael doesn’t care if he hurts people. He’s not all there at times. I’m not saying he’s nuts. I’ve seen so many times where he was incredibly gracious. I would assume it would be a psychiatrist’s delight to take him and break him down. That would be very interesting. He’s one of the smartest basketball players I ever worked with, but that Hall of Fame thing, that speech, helped me make people realize how stupid he is. I had umpteen people come up to me after that speech and say, ‘I didn’t realize Michael was such an asshole.’”
Jordan attacked Jerry Krause in “The Last Dance” as well
It was clear that there was no Chicago Bulls figure that Michael Jordan hated more than Jerry Krause. Krause had apparently suggested that it were the organizations that made championships happen. Michael Jordan claimed in the documentary that his approach was offensive to the way he played basketball. Krause passed away in March 2017 at the age of 77, three years before the release of The Last Dance.
In the documentary, Jordan claimed that Krause was a laughingstock during the time he managed the Bulls. He had followed it up by saying that Krause remained a laughing stock now, three years after his death.
Needless to say, there was absolutely no reason for Michael Jordan to attack Krause. More so considering the fact that it was years after his Bulls’ days, and that Krause was no longer alive.
