The Last Dance: 4 Predictions for episodes 3 & 4
3. The Bulls’ front office grows increasingly stubborn
Former team general manager Jerry Krause established himself as The Last Dance’s antagonist within the first 15 minutes of its showing, and by telling Phil Jackson that he’d be out of a job the following year no matter what the outcome of the ’97-98 campaign was, he directed the ire of the team’s fanbase entirely upon him, making himself the anti-hero of this story in the process.
It’s clear that Krause wanted much more of the credit than he was actually receiving for crafting and organizing the pieces that ultimately won six championships together, but with a figure like Jordan in the fray, Krause, and everyone else for that matter, had to be comfortable in taking a backseat to His Airness’ illuminating spotlight.
He wasn’t. It was Krause (along with owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who can’t be excused of his role in the situation’s entirety) who was responsible for dispersing the core of the team’s nucleus in the midst of their rampant historic run.
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And up to this point, the only speculative reasoning for his doing so, was his own ego.
Spoiler alert: the Bulls’ won the league’s crown that season, and Scottie Pippen did return midway through it, appearing in 44 regular season games and playing an integral role in their Finals matchup with the Jazz.
But according to the film, Pippen purposely delayed his surgery so he could sit out for a portion of that year because he didn’t want to “f*** up his summer.” He also unleashed a torrent of obscenities directed at Krause on the team bus in the middle of the year. And on top of this, it seemed as if Jordan’s relationship with the team’s management was only beginning to worsen itself.
Jordan himself philosophized that it was perhaps Krause’s stature as an unmistakably short and stout man who led to an overcompensating drive for power – and little wiggle room for being undermined. Whatever the cause may be for his tyrant-like style of leadership though, one thing seems painfully inevitable: it’s going to get worse before it gets better.