Charles Barkley had no qualms pointing to the real culprit of the Chicago Bulls’ breakup, coming to the defense of late general manager Jerry Krause and pointing the finger at owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
The TNT analyst ensured to tell Dan Patrick of “The Dan Patrick Show” that Krause has been unfairly blamed for how the dynasty disbanded after the 1997-98 season, pointing to the Bulls owner as the responsible party of that mess:
“[Krause] didn’t take that apart — anyone who thinks that is a fool,” said Barkley. That thing was orchestrated by Jerry Reinsdorf. The notion that that little man broke up the Bulls is asinine and absurd … Jerry Reinsdorf broke up the Bulls ’cause he didn’t want to pay anybody. You think about this — he let Horace Grant go because he became a free agent and they didn’t want to pay him. They probably don’t want to talk about that in the documentary. That’s why he went to Orlando. He only paid Michael [Jordan] the last two years. When he had Michael at a bargain, he was happy.
“To try to make Krause the bad guy, I thought that was very disingenuous of Reinsdorf.”
“The Last Dance” really zones in on Krause’s decision to make the 1997-98 season Phil Jackson’s last year as Bulls coach, which in retrospect inspired the name of this docuseries.
Jackson knew this would indeed be his last ride and wanted to go out with a second three-peat, which he did. Jordan determinedly said he wouldn’t play for any other coach besides Jackson. Scottie Pippen was already looking elsewhere after being massively underpaid over the course of the Bulls’ dynasty.
While Reinsdorf has been tight with his wallet on many occasions, the docuseries paints Krause as the firestarter by nuking the coach. Yet Jackson was also looking for more money, and if the directive to tell him “no” came from Bulls ownership, chances are that Reinsdorf could be the villain hiding in plain sight.
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