Chicago Bulls: The Last Dance gets right into Jerry Krause’s big mistake

The Chicago Bulls themed documentary called “The Last Dance” premiered last night and the insight was crazy. Especially involving former GM Jerry Krause.

Before we get going, it is fair to say that ESPN hit a home run with their documentary called “The Last Dance”. The Chicago Bulls team that won its sixth title in an eight-year span is being highlighted over five weeks with two episodes coming out every Sunday for the duration of those five weeks. The first two episodes premiered and were very cool. There were so many likable people associated with that team.

One man who was not very likable, from the way the documentary made it seem, was Jerry Krause. He was the general manager of the Chicago Bulls during the entire dynasty. Now, before the criticism comes in, it has to be noted that he was the man responsible for putting together one of the greatest teams in the history of American professional athletics. That 90’s Bull’s run of dominance was amazing and something we will likely never see again from any of our teams.

With that said, Krause ruined it. He signed Phil Jackson, the Bulls legendary coach, to a one year deal for the 1997-98 season but made it clear that it would be his last year no matter what. He claimed that they could go 82-0 and Phil would still not be back. That makes it seem clear that there was drama but it sounds like Krause was over the Bulls dynasty before it was even over. It was also never something handled by Bulls’ owner Jerry Reinsdorf which is annoying as a fan.

There is also the notion that he seemed to want to rebuild the team in the middle of a dynasty. All of this friction made it where the 1998 championship would be the last one that the Bulls ever came close to winning. If Krause didn’t think he needed either Michael Jordan or Scottie Pippen to win titles, he was big wrong.

“The Last Dance” documentary wasted no time getting into Krause’s antics. The show got right into the apparent friction that he had with many people involved in the organization. It really makes you wonder what it was that happened to make Krause so willing to blow it up besides maybe not being able to take a joke. It was definitely interesting to hear, however, how things started to fall apart before they even won their last title.