Speaking Ill

You’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but the way sportswriters are carrying on about former Bulls’ general manager Jerry Krause, who died yesterday at the age of 77, I’ll make an exception.  Krause was a talented executive given to paranoia and megalomania.  There, I said what most of the eulogists know to be true.

From what I read today, Krause made those six Bulls’ NBA championships possible.  Oh, and Michael Jordan.  Take Jordan out of the equation, and what are you left with?  How about not winning a championship those 1-1/2 years Jordan was “retired” and trying to play baseball?

Michael Jordan was a basketball god, perhaps the god, and I say this as someone who rooted against the Bulls with every last fiber in his body.  (Why?  Comiskey Park.)  Jerry Reinsdorf inherited Jordan when he bought the Bulls, which is like inheriting a young Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.  Give me either of those as a foundation, and let’s see what I could do, or anybody else.

Yes, hiring Phil Jackson as coach and filling in the roster (Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, John Paxson, Bill Cartwright, Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr) were astute moves, maybe smart enough to earn Krause admission to the basketball HOF.  But don’t forget that Krause and Reinsdorf thought so much of their respective abilities they allowed Jordan and Jackson to leave after championship #6 (pushed/jumped, potato/potahto).

Krause firmly believed that organizations, not the players on the court alone, won championships.  Fair enough.  So, what was the post-Jordan era like when Krause got to implement his philosophy?  The Bulls went 45-169 the first three years and 96-282 before Krause left.  Lots of high draft picks, though.

Krause is also being credited by some with having a hand in the White Sox 2005 World Series win.  Why?  Because as a scout for the Sox back in the 1980s, he recommended they acquire Ozzie Guillen, and Guillen the Sox player in time became Guillen the Sox manager.  But did Krause ever recommend any bad trades, did he fall in love with any Joe Charboneaus?  The eulogists don’t say.

And let’s get back to Guillen.  The Sox traded LaMarr Hoyt for him.  Hoyt had won 74 games with the Sox in five years, which in itself was impressive considering he was a minor part of the Bucky Dent-Oscar Gamble deal with the Yankees.  Roland Hemond was the Sox general manager who did that, just as he was the GM who signed off on the Hoyt-Guillen deal.

Of course, I'm just speaking ill here.