With the release of the final two episodes of “The Last Dance” yesterday, there has been no shortage of takeaways and reactions from the community.
One of which revolves around Jerry Krause, who many see as the villain who ended the great Bulls dynasty. As we now know, his mini-feud with Phil Jackson helped push him out the door in 1998 and marked the end of one of the greatest eras in basketball history.
Skip Bayless, however, sees it differently. According to the FOX sports analyst, Jackson himself is the real culprit behind the breakup of the Bulls.
On Undisputed Monday morning, he went on the air to share his theory.
https://twitter.com/undisputed/status/1262382761723211776
He was also active on Twitter about his theory following the episodes last night.
MJ GOT CONNED BY THE SPINMASTER, PHIL JACKSON, WHO A YEAR LATER WAS COACHING SHAQ & KOBE TO 3 STRAIGHT TITLES. MJ SHOULD'VE TOLD REINSDORF TO GO GET AN EXPERIENCED COACH, MAYBE DOUG COLLINS AGAIN.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) May 18, 2020
This makes me sicker than ever: MJ now says "we coulda won 7." Phil was done, not MJ. Yet he let Phil, the Spinmaster, get away with a grieving ceremony in which the Bulls all wrote and burned their thoughts on the '98 team. MICHAEL SHOULD'VE COME BACK WITHOUT PHIL.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) May 18, 2020
Just as I suspected covering the Bulls in ‘98, Jordan got duped by Phil. If you missed my breakdown of interviews I did w Phil & Krause, here it is:
WATCH: https://t.co/yxYQjCwyQ3
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) May 18, 2020
In his view, Jackson duped Jordan and the Bulls by leaving the team to sign with the newly formed Kobe and Shaq Lakers. While there’s no tangible evidence that he agreed to join the Lakers before his departure from Chicago, it didn’t take him very long to find a new gig — and it’s certainly interesting that the new job just happened to involve the two best young players in the league at the time.
Draw whatever conclusions you like, but it’s unlikely we’ll ever really know for sure.
