Jerry Reinsdorf‘s run into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame could come as a product of luck, many would say — but those who saw him take a team from a bottom-dweller to a six-time champion know it wasn't fortuitous.
It all started with a dinner with Yankees‘ late-owner George Steinbrenner, in which he confessed the growing pains of his basketball franchise, the Chicago Bulls.
Reinsdorf told the Ohio-born entrepreneur that his front office had no clue what they were doing and that he'd love to run the team someday.
Somehow “run the team” got misinterpreted and a week later he was contacted by the front office asking if he was ready to go through with the purchase of the team.
Shocked, but pleasantly surprised, a young Reinsdorf pounced at the chance and became the owner of the NBA franchise in 1985.
With a third-overall pick by the name of Michael Jordan that was labeled as a fine scorer and talented player, but not one to build a franchise around, Reinsdorf put pieces around him by drafting Horace Grant and Scottie Pippen in the following years.
Fast forward 13 years and Reinsdorf had six NBA championships and sold out arenas everywhere the Bulls played.
“Jerry Reinsdorf is one of the most intriguing owners of all,” Hall-of-Famer Jerry West told Sam Smith of Bulls.com. “Rarely do you see or hear much out of him. People who are understated and have success, I’ve always been very fond of people like that because it points to who they really are.”
“Let’s forget just basketball,” he said. “Look at his contribution to the sports enthusiast in Chicago. He’s had a vision and obviously he’s been at the right place at the right time, but he’s done so successfully. The Bulls had great success obviously with Michael, but I can’t say if I even saw him around with all the celebrations. It points out to me what kind of a person he really is, so pleasant, so easy to be around; there’s something about him you just like.”
Reinsdorf has also drawn high praise from President Barack Obama, a raving Chicago sports and basketball fan.
“It's hard to overstate what Jerry Reinsdorf has brought to Chicago and basketball,” said Obama. “For hometown fans like me, privileged to experience six Bulls championships, the memories are indelible. Night after night, we reveled in Michael's unbreakable will; the long-armed, strangulating defense of Pippen and, later, Rodman; the sly, cerebral leadership of Coach Jackson. Jerry Reinsdorf made that possible. Taking over a struggling franchise in the early '80s, he put into place the pieces for one of the greatest runs in NBA history.”
“Yet Jerry has always been content to stay far in the background, ceding the spotlight to the magnificent performers on the floor, the coaches and management,” President Obama added. “He has done the same on the South Side, where his White Sox brought Chicago its first World Series championship in nearly a century. Few in sports can claim such a legacy. For his achievements, his character and commitment to excellence, Jerry Reinsdorf deserves to be enshrined with the other heroes of the game.”
Jerry Reinsdorf will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame on Friday among the likes of Allen Iverson, Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming.
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