Michael Jordan suffered a gruesome foot injury that sidelined him for most of his second year in the league. So, when MJ did eventually come back to the court, it wasn’t without certain restrictions and limitations, something that caused serious friction in the entire Chicago Bulls organization.
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The head coach of the Chicago Bulls at the time, Stan Albeck wasn’t too into the idea of limiting Jordan’s minutes on the floor. In fact, he had once let MJ play more than the allotted 14 minutes, which in turn did not sit well with Bulls owner, Jerry Reinsdorf.
This caused Reinsdorf to issue a warning to Stan Albeck not to do the same thing again. And right in the Bulls’ next matchup, Stan Albeck decided to show the Bulls owner how silly his 14-minute rule was. The Bulls were engaged in a nail-biting game with the Indiana Pacers.
Down by a point with approximately 30 seconds left in the game, Stan Albeck decided to take MJ out right as he hit the fourteenth-minute mark. Albeck did so to show Jerry Reinsdorf how silly this limitation requirement of his was. Luckily for the Bulls, the team won the game with Jon Paxson draining his jump shot. But Albeck had already pissed off Jerry Reinsdorf.
The Bulls trainer at the time, Michael Pfeil too started to feel odd as to how Jordan could practice for two hours but was only limited to play a total of 14 minutes, with seven minutes per half.
Eventually, Reinsdorf told Bulls GM Jerry Krause to lift the minute restriction off of Michael Jordan when they realized how close the Bulls were to making the playoffs. Yet Reindsdorf still regretted the decision and felt he should not have let Mike play that entire season.
“The one thing I could never understand,” Pfeil said, “was how could Michael practice for two hours, yet he couldn’t play but fourteen minutes?” “Michael’s minutes increased after it became obvious we could make the playoffs,” Reinsdorf said. “Finally, Krause went down at halftime of a game late in the season and told the trainer to tell Stan to play Michael as many minutes as possible. I shouldn’t have let him play at all that year. It was wrong.”: From Michael Jordan: The Life
The Bulls were already worried about Michael Jordan aggravating his injury from playing and not taking enough rest. But one of the reasons why Jerry Reinsdorf was so against playing Michael Jordan was in the hopes of getting another lottery pick for the team. To be fair to Reinsdorf, this approach only makes sense from their standpoint. After all, they would be giving their franchise star the rest that he likely required, while also getting him some help by pairing him up with another young star.
Given that the team had already landed Jordan, having another piece to build around would’ve kickstarted the Bulls’ rise to fame much earlier and could’ve had a more lucrative dynasty than they eventually had. However, this willingness to tank, along with the whole situation was never going to sit well with Michael. And sure enough, he wasn’t a big fan of any aspect of it.
The minutes restriction did not sit well with Michael Jordan
As mentioned previously, the minute restriction for Michael Jordan ended up creating quite a stir within the Chicago Bulls organization. From the owner to the general manager, right down to the head coach and the training staff as well.
But the one who was on the other end of all this was Mike himself. MJ was furious to know he would only play restricted minutes. But the way he was told about the news went on to create some major differences between him and GM, Jerry Krause.
While Jerry Krause and the Bulls management only wanted to prevent Jordan from aggravating his injury, he ended up feeling otherwise. MJ felt as if, “You’re our (the Bulls’) property, and you’ll do what we want you to do.” However, things finally cooled off as MJ returned to the court. Unfortunately, things between him and Jerry Krause were never the same after that.
Luckily, Jordan did not aggravate his injury further and the Bulls saw no harm be inflicted on their most valuable asset.
