In 2020, the NBA community was treated to The Last Dance, a docu-series that covered the Michael Jordan era of Chicago Bulls basketball. While the series was generally excellent, it did spend a lot of time on the feud between the team’s players and GM Jerry Krause. It was apparent that most of the roster blamed Krause for the end of the team’s dynasty. That is, except for Toni Kukoc.
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Shortly after the series was released, Kukoc did an interview with CBS Sports. While other players were ambivalent at best, Krause was willing to give credit to the GM that put the team together.
“Every player today should tip their hat to him,” said Kukoc. “…Jerry built the six-time champions. You have to give him credit.”
Kukoc has a point. Krause’s two most aggressive moves, trading up for Scottie Pippen in the 1987 draft and luring Kukoc to the NBA from Croatia, would go on to define the six titles that the Bulls won in the 1990s.
A lot of the hate Krause took from fans and players came from his terrible relationship with Scottie Pippen. Between what may be the worst contract in NBA history and a failed trade to Seattle, Pippen had plenty of reasons to distrust and dislike the GM. This was directly applied to Kukoc, who the team called “Jerry’s Boy”.
Kukoc understood that most of the hate he faced from his teammates were because of his positive relationship with Krause. But, he still had respect for the man that built the team. Importantly, he wishes that the late GM, who passed away in 2017, could share his side of the story.
“I wish Jerry were here to say his part of the story,” he said. “It’s easy to like Michael [Jordan] and Scottie [Pippen] and Dennis [Rodman] and Phil [Jackson], and I like them all… but you have to give him credit.”
How Krause Got Kukoc
Jerry Krause’s obsession with Toni Kukoc is well recorded. It was well-known that Kukoc did not want to move to the US at the time of the draft. After taking him in the second round of the 1990 edition, Krause kept trying to convince Kukoc to leave Europe, convinced the Croatian would translate into a potential superstar.
Three years of nonstop communication later, Kukoc made the jump to the NBA after being sold on the idea of playing alongside Jordan and Pippen. But the attention that Krause gave Kukoc rubbed Jordan and Pippen the wrong way.
“Not only did that alienate Chicago’s two incumbent stars, but it contributed to Pippen’s poor contract,” wrote Sam Quinn of CBS Sports. “The Bulls had around $2 million in cap space earmarked for Kukoc while negotiating with Pippen, limiting the amount of money he could get.”
Ultimately, the move paid off to the tune of three more championships, but the cracks that formed between the front office and the stars did the team in. In 1999, Scottie Pippen was traded to the Rockets shortly after Michael Jordan retired for the second time. He eventually got the big contract he wanted, but found life on the court didn’t improve much further.
The Bulls have not been back to the NBA Finals since the breakup of the team.
