Behind the Bulls scene, by Tim Shea 

The GOAT Michael Jordan failed. He could not do it successfully. Mr. Air could not hit the curveball  

If You Did Not Know I Will Tell You  

The absolute, most difficult single action in all of sports is hitting a round ball, travelling at a high speed, often with non-direct movement, with your round bat, and hit it squarely. 

When I say high speed, I mean 90 to 100 miles per hour 

The ball is perhaps moving sideways or down or up at the last possible instant. The ball is thrown from a distance of 60 feet 6 inches from a mound almost a foot above the playing field (the diamond). 

MJ was in the minor league (Double A) and his production was not good as determined by his Batting Average which was .202 meaning he was eliminated 798 times out of 1000 attempts. The pitchers realized that he could not hit the curve ball. As a matter of fact, while he was with the Chicago team he had 436 official “at bats” and “struck out” 114 times. 

You might imagine that his statistics are poor. You would be right, and you would be wrong. He had 3 Home Runs (HR), stole 30 bases and had 51 Runs Batted In (RBI). For a man of 31 years, it has its merit but at the same time also shows how difficult, even for the best athlete of his time, the offensive part of baseball is.  

The MAN that BUILT the BULLS 

But I am not here to talk MJ. 

This is about the man that put together the 6-time Championship team of the Chicago Bulls, Mr. Jerry Krause. RIP 

In my mind Krause is the reason why MJ has six rings and Lebron James only four.  

*Speaking of LeBron, his misfortune in Cleveland was he had no Jerry Krause, but a less talented GM named David Griffin that declared, “Everything we did was so inorganic and unsustainable and, frankly, not fun. I was miserable.” “Literally the moment we won the championship, I knew I was gonna leave”. 

From 1985 to 2003 Krause with the Bulls was voted Executive of the Year in 1988 and 1996.  

In my opinion he deserved more.  

Some details included; he traded for Charles Oakley. He drafted Will Perdue, traded for Bill Cartwright, he drafted our own ACB star Ricky Winslow in the second round. Names like Scottie Pippen Horace Grant, were his draft picks. Drafted BJ Armstrong, Drafted in the second round Toni Kukoc. Hired Phil Jackson as Head Coach. Traded for Luc Longley and on and on it goes with trades for Ron Harper and, the one and only, Dennis Rodman. He also signed John Salley as a Free Agent. 

All through regular season turmoil, important injuries and living with the American icon Michael Jordan’s insults and yes, disrespect, he managed to maintain the focus and calm that was needed.  

https://www.basketballnetwork.net/old-school/how-michael-jordan-taunted-jerry-krause-during-97-finals 

Jerry Krause: Baseball – The first love 

Like myself he was first a baseball man. His transfer from Chicago White Sox baseball made Bulls history. He brought with him the sharp eye and understanding of positional pieces in sports. He brought his analytic, critical baseball eye to the basketball court.  

When Phil Jackson was hired by Jerry and took over the helm as Head Coach from Doug Collins, Phil in turn hired the wise, advanced veteran assistant coach Tex Winters to construct what became the jewel of NBA offensive systems called the Triangle Offense where the group was more important than the individual. It was in fact the opposite of what Doug Collins had done. With him Jordan had always been more important than the collective and the team had won no championships. 

In professional sports the position of General Manager is crucial. Their abilities in scouting, signing, drafting and trading potential players is key to any club’s success. 

Jerry had a gift. Period 

10 Year NBA Adventure and Fishing 

In my 10-year adventure in the NBA as a Scout and Director Krause and I coincided at some events and I had the opportunity to have brief conversations with him. In Chicago we met twice, at the annual, month of June, NBA Pre-Draft workouts held at the Moody Bible College Gymnasium.  

I have to say he was not exactly well dressed and appeared disheveled. He was very short, heavyset, round faced and with slits for dark eyes constantly scanning (nervously) his surroundings as he conversed.  

To be clear…In a world of fashion-conscious giants he was the square peg in the round hole. 

And a well-known fact in league circles was that MJ had nicknamed him “Crumbs” due to his casual eating habits (in public) where he might have remaining food particles on his clothes.  

I don’t think he cared one bit. 

As to our conversations that were, initially basketball “shop talk” you noticed he became more animated when we switched to MLB baseball and to another of our mutual interests, sport fishing. He too was a black bass enthusiast and we, as fishermen do, quietly, guardedly exchanged learned secrets about different types of lures and about the differences in seasonal fishing. He knew his stuff. 

Have I mentioned his nervous eyes? Well, they became calm and reflective as we, as he talked about fishing his favorite places. 

One comment that he made (that I have claimed as my own) referred to the people that did not fish by claiming that they “hadn’t the patience for it”. He said that it was, “not necessary to have patience for fishing” because it was the other way around and that “fishing teaches you patience “. 

I gave that a rating of 10 on the wisdom scale. 

BULLS BASKETBALL CHANGED 

Krause left the Bulls the same year that the now famous baseball-based book MONEYBALL was published in 2003. That book not only changed the way baseball was evaluated and how baseball players were judged it rapidly and completely changed the analytic workings of professional basketball. To this day its formulas are now a bible for the modern General Managers, Coaches and basketball/béisbol staffs. 

Jerry Krause did not have at his disposal this new arithmetic and these analytic tools. I can’t say that I know how he accomplished, twice, three-peats equaling six NBA crowns. He understood, like a chess master, that the pieces and interchangeable roles on the court was a fundamental part of team success. Along with coaches Tex Winters and Phil Jackson in the Triangle Offense they showed the NBA that just having great players together was not enough to win championships. They showed the NBA that HOW one star player and other good players playing together was the key to winning.  

By being of one mindset, complimenting one another was for them like having a sixth man. It enabled them to set the then record of 72 victories and only 10 losses in the 1995-96 season.  

I firmly believe that to be successful in professional sports a hierarchy must be established and respected. 

Imagine an inverted  pyramid.  

At the top is the club, below that are the players and then below them, the coaches.  

In the end, whether Michael Jordan or anybody else likes it or not, I agreed then and I agree now with Krause’s statement that: Organizations Win Championships, not Players. 

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