Chicago Bulls General Manager Jerry Krause and star guard Michael Jordan won six championships together for the Chicago side. However, throughout their stint with the Bulls and even beyond that, they refused to showcase any notable camaraderie towards each other. The personal bond between the two was doomed to fail from the start. In MJ’s 2014 memoir Michael Jordan: The Life, Roland Lazenby went into multiple instances that depicted the nasty exchanges between the two ambitious personalities.
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As per Lazenby’s book, Krause’s constant provocations would poke Jordan’s ego at every turn, which contributed to their strained relationship. In the Lazenby-written memoir, the Bulls GM confessed that he baited MJ repeatedly with his quips. He used to compare the high-flying Guard to former Knicks player Earl Monroe and Lakers legend Elgin Baylor.
As per the 2014 memoir, Krause would constantly say, “You’re [Jordan] a combination of Earl Monroe and Elgin Baylor, and you might be as good as both of them someday.” To further irk Jordan, Krause would add, “Earl did it on the ground. You’re doing it in the air. Elgin was the first one to do it in the air. You remind me of him.”
Considering that Jordan was at an elite level since his rookie days in the mid-1980s, he would feel slighted by such comments, especially the “as good as” part. For comparison, Monroe’s highest scoring average for a season was 25.8 points a game. Meanwhile, MJ tallied 28.2 points a game in his rookie year itself. While Baylor was a much better comparison as one of the best scorers to play the game, Air Jordan had already become a scorer of his level in his early career.
The comparisons were the General Manager’s way of irritating his Ace scorer. However, Krause underestimated Jordan’s obsession with competition and tendency to hold grudges and take things personally. These disrespectful remarks would only fuel more animosity between the two.
Jordan was enraged by these comparisons and was aware that his GM was doing this to egg him on. In disdain, as per Krause, Jordan would reply, “That f******’ Monroe. Where’d you take Monroe? Second in the draft? Big fuckin’ deal.”
Bulls employees who watched these exchanges first-hand would wince when the Executive would keep challenging the superstar. This “needling” would then create a toxic culture within the Bulls organization.
Jerry Krause and his fractured Legacy
It wasn’t just MJ who would be caught in Krause’s “needling” cycle. The rest of the team was also caught in this chain, which had severe long-term repercussions. It also impacted the image of the 2x Executive of the Year. In Michael Jordan’s controversial “The Last Dance” documentary, Jerry Krause was portrayed as an object of ridicule. As per the doc, he was the “villain” responsible for the team breaking up prematurely.
After Jordan’s constant tirade against the GM, Pip followed suit too. Unlike MJ, his reason wasn’t Krause’s relentless goading. Pippen felt he had been fleeced by the Bulls organization. Despite giving immense fuel to the Bulls’ championship aspirations, he was the sixth-highest-paid player on the roster in 1997. The GM refused to give him his deserved money. This led the defensive stalwart to demand a trade in November of 1997 and even castigate the executive publicly.
To make matters worse, Krause also informed Head Coach Phil Jackson before the 1997-98 season that even if he won all 82 games and won a title, he’d get rid of him. Therefore, the Executive’s conduct towards the Head Coach and their two best players, who had won five championships together, is one of the reasons for the fall of the Bulls dynasty. Perhaps, this is why long-time Bulls fans couldn’t help but boo Krause posthumously during the Bulls’ Ring of Honor ceremony recently.
