The Last Dance: Things left to explore after episodes 3 and 4

Jerry Reinsdorf

The first set of episodes saw plenty of airtime for the Chicago Bulls longtime owner, but it mostly came in the form of present-tense recollections of the Michael Jordan era.

We also saw a load of blame and vitriol directed at Bulls general manager Jerry Krause from Bulls players. It was made clear that the team, particularly its stars, loathed Krause and regularly treated him with disdain.

As the owner, though, the buck stopped with Jerry Reinsdorf. He certainly should not be immune from criticism for some of the decisions that led to the players’ ire, but that has been glossed over in the series to this point.

In the fourth episode, we saw glimpses of some Krause redemption. He was rightfully given credit for moving on from Doug Collins after an Eastern Conference Finals appearance to pass the reigns on to Phil Jackson and Tex Winter.

What we haven’t seen explored is exactly what the dynamic was between Krause and Reinsdorf. What role did he play in some of the early decisions that led to Krause’s poor treatment by players? What steps, if any, did he take to address that tension?

More important perhaps is the initial decision not to bring back Phil Jackson after the 1997 Finals. The end of episode four teased that and the series would be remiss without going into more detail into Reinsdorf’s role in the saga.