In the world of professional sports, trash-talking is a tradition. In basketball, the tradition runs strong. But among all the great trash talkers to grace the NBA hardwood, no one did it like Michael Jordan. His Airness was infamous for his verbal assaults, both on and off the court. Though players made a great target, Michael’s favorite prey lay outside the court, courtside to be specific. Jerry Krause was the genius responsible for putting together the 6-time champion Bulls. But in pure Jordan style, The ‘Black Jesus’ took things too far with Krause, on the regular. In the book Michael Jordan: The Life, Bulls Legend, and Golden State Warriors Coach, Steve Kerr coined Jordan’s behavior as “Something I haven’t seen any man do to another man that way, especially his supervisor.”
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Due to a multiplicity of reasons, the team, Phil Jackson, and especially Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen took a distaste for Jerry’s way of conducting business for the Bulls.
Steve Kerr recalls Jordan’s ‘relentless’ bullying of Jerry Krause
Mike is known for his extreme behavior. Though such drive is good to win championships, it’s not necessarily the best when it comes to bonding and team unity. Michael having already punched and abused his teammates on multiple occasions, actually took it further with Krause. MJ would often make comments about Krause in public, to reporters, during flights, and even practices that Jerry attended.
Jordan made it a point to ‘relentlessly’ attack Krause at any given opportunity. But during one such instance, Steve Kerr believes that MJ took the verbal attacks too far. Recalling the incident Kerr, in the book Michael Jordan: The Life said:
“Mike was sitting at the back of the bus and started yapping at Krause who is sitting in front. Ron Harper kind of joined in but was shot down by Michael. Jordan didn’t want this to become a team rebellion. It was something only he could do. He tested everyone all the time, but it was different with Krause. It wasn’t a test. It was genuine. I don’t know what compelled him to behave the way he did with Krause. But it was embarrassing. I had never seen any man talk to another man that way, especially someone who is supposed to be his supervisor.”
The incident left a bad taste in the mouths of many of Jordan’s teammates, as working with Jordan became more and more taxing as the years went by.
‘Michael Jordan hate’ and how Krause won in the end
In the end, Jerry had the last laugh. With the firing of Phil Jackson, Michael was out of the NBA prematurely, as No.23 refused to play under any other coach. With Jordan gone, the whole team went into a rebuild, from which the Bulls haven’t recovered still.
But to put the entire blame on Krause would be misleading. Mike was disliked by most of his teammates, with most of them calling him ” an absolute a**hole.” With the recent comments from Scottie Pippen calling Jordan ” the worst teammate,” the world is now getting to see the good, bad, and ugly that encompass the personality known as Michael Jordan.
