Legendary NBA point guard Isiah Thomas has been on X all day defending former Bulls GM Jerry Krause. In a series of tweets responding to fans, Thomas showed great respect for Krause and called out the Bulls for not properly appreciating all that he did for the franchise.
“I have great respect for Jerry Krause. He was a genius who deserved way more respect than the Bulls sadly gave him,” wrote Thomas. “He won 6 championships and you question his judgment? Krause was brilliant and adding Toni, a 6’11” point guard who can shoot the 3, was brilliant.”
Isiah is a Pistons legend who dominated the East in the late 80s and early 90s. Alongside Joe Dumars, Dennis Rodman, John Salley, and Bill Laimbeer. Thomas led the “Bad Boys” to two championships in 1989 and 1990. At the time, Thomas’ top rival was Michael Jordan and the Bulls.
It was after the disbanding of the bad boys that Jordan took over, and he went on to win six championships to secure his legacy as the GOAT. But while it was Jordan (a 6x champion) who led the Bulls, it was GM Jerry Krause who built the historically great team.
The real turning point for the franchise was the trade for Scottie Pippen. The Seattle SuperSonics traded Pippen in the 1987 draft and his arrival in Chicago gave Jordan the partner he needed to make a run. This was all thanks to Jerry Krause.
With other players like Steve Kerr, Toni Kukoc, and Dennis Rodman, the Bulls became an absolute force in the NBA and credit belongs to Krause for assembling, arguably, the greatest team in NBA history.
Unfortunately for the former Bulls GM, he gets a bad rap for how he ended things with the franchise. After watching his Bulls win titles, Krause sparked resentment in the locker room when he insisted that front offices win championships and not players.
To this day, Krause gets blamed for breaking up the Bulls in ’98. It was Krause, after all, who pushed Phil Jackson out which led to Michael Jordan’s second retirement. As the turn of the century drew closer, Krause became more and more pessimistic of his team. Toward the end, he decided they were just too old to keep together.
Krause remained as GM until 2003 but his tenure isn’t viewed favorably by the fans. Despite his achievements and his decisions that led to prosperity, Bulls fans hold great resentment toward their former executive and consider him directly responsible for ending a dynasty that might have won even more championships with more time together.
Much to the chagrin of his widow, Krause was loudly booed during a Bulls tribute video and it says everything you need to know about Krause’s reputation in Chicago today.
After ‘The Last Dance’ documentary further pitted the public against Krause, it seems that there’s no changing how people view his role on the 90s Bulls today. While most fans curse his name for breaking the team apart, Isiah Thomas says the fans should be thankful that he built the team to begin with. Like it or not, he played a huge role in their success and Michael would not be considered the GOAT today had Krause not surrounded him with championship-level teammates.
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