The NBA of the 1990s can be described along with the destiny of the Chicago Bulls. And although he wasn’t the man who set the team up to dominate, Michael Jordan was clearly the leader of the Bulls.
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The credit for setting the Bulls up to be the team of the 1990s belonged to GM Jerry Krause. And it would seem that his general underappreciation brew trouble internally.
There appeared to be a constant power struggle between the star player and the general manager. Snide remarks and jabs at each other became a common theme around the team.
It even got to a point where the GOAT was brought to tears in one instance. For a man as tough as MJ to reach that point, it must have been something terrible.
How did Jerry Krause get Michael Jordan to break into tears?
Krause showed no mercy, and a blowout loss in the Playoffs to the Pistons prompted a particularly angry rant from him. The 1990s Eastern Conference Finals were a grueling competition. And it was also the last time the Bad Boys got in their way.
However, at the time, it appeared that the Bulls had choked once again. Despite MJ and Pippen already being among the best in the league, that too.
So, with the best player in the league not being able to deliver silverware, Krause went in on the team. After the Game 7 blowout at the Palace of Auburn Hills, Jerry Krause would go at his team in a manner he never had before.
“It was a brutal series that came down to a seventh game at the Pistons’ new stadium in Auburn Hills, Michigan. We were struggling. Paxson had sprained his ankle in the previous game, and Scottie was suffering from a horrible migraine that blurred his vision so badly that he couldn’t distinguish the colors of the jerseys. Both men tried to stumble through the game anyway, but the team fell apart in an embarrassing second period, and we never recovered. We lost by 19 points, and it felt like 100. After the game, Jerry Krause showed up in the locker room and launched into a tirade, which was unusual. And Michael was so angry he burst into tears in the back of the team bus. “I made up my mind right then and there it would never happen again,” narrated coach Phil Jackson.
Jackson’s version of the incident lays bare the tension between GM and the player. However, the coach also reveals the side of MJ we are familiar with. The competitive MJ who hated to lose.
How did the Chicago Bulls fare after the Jerry Krause “tirade”?
With the incident taking place in 1990, the newly lit fire was what it took to get them to win, it would seem. Michael Jordan, who promised never to let the embarrassment repeat itself, kept his word.
Two three-peats followed. Unprecedented in the modern era of basketball. No ghosts of Detroit were left behind, and Jordan’s Bulls put the past behind them.
Krause continued to be at the helm of things. The GM was eventually cited as the reason the 1998 season was dubbed “The Last Dance”. There may be schools of thought about how he got things done differently. But there’s no denying the fact that the results talk for themselves.
The 90s were undisputably the Bulls’. Whether you call them the Jerry Krause Bulls or the Michael Jordan Bulls is a discretionary call. They can revel in their success regardless of what one says.
