• last year
SI's Chris Mannix reflects on the 'The Last Dance' and explains why former GM Jerry Krause deserves more recognition for his contribution to the Bulls' dynasty.
Transcript
00:00The Last Dance documentary was endlessly entertaining and incredibly insightful, but it was also
00:08unbelievably unfair to former Bulls general manager Jerry Kraus.
00:12If you knew nothing about Kraus entering that documentary, you would probably come away
00:16with the idea that Kraus was little more than a caretaker during the Bulls championship
00:21runs.
00:22But that couldn't be further from the truth.
00:24While Kraus did inherit a team with Michael Jordan, who was clearly the driving force
00:28behind Chicago's six championships, it was Kraus that assembled the team around him.
00:34It was Kraus who came away from that 1987 draft with both Scottie Pippen and Horace
00:40Grant mainstays on the Bulls championship teams.
00:44It was Kraus who traded for Bill Cartwright, who was an instrumental part of the Bulls
00:49first three championships.
00:51Kraus had his flaws, no question about it.
00:53He made some bad draft picks, he made some bad deals, and how he handled the Phil Jacks
00:58situation at the end might have cost Chicago one or two more championships.
01:02But all the insults lobbed at Kraus by Jordan and Pippen, all the demeaning you're seeing
01:07of them and have seen of them on this documentary, it doesn't do Kraus the justice he deserves.
01:14He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2017.
01:17He was one of the best executives of his generation.
01:21And make no mistake, the Chicago Bulls do not win a championship without the moves made
01:27by Jerry Kraus.
01:29Michael Jordan was the biggest star, but it was Jerry Kraus working behind the scenes
01:33making sure Jordan had the support he needed to win championships.