For
whatever reason, NBA free-agents do not want to play for the Chicago
Bulls. It can't be the weather, as past signings by the New York
Knicks, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons have
shown.
The
Brooklyn Nets proved it again last Sunday.
It
can't be that the Bulls lack credibility, as the legacy of their
Jordan-era dynasty continues to resound across the NBA landscape.
So
what is it, then?
My
two cents says long-time owner Jerry Reinsdorf continues to be
perceived as the guy who let unpopular general manager Jerry Krause
break-up the Bulls. While this is a vast over-simplification (there
was an abundance of blame to share), it remains a free-agent
toxin.
Krause's
actions said management is in charge here—not you.
Compounding
the damage is the fact that with two hand-picked successors still
making player-related decisions, this (wrongly or rightly) screams
AND WE HAVEN'T CHANGED A BIT!
With
his death and subsequent election to the Hall of Fame, you could say
Krause has successfully rehabilitated his image. It isn't so easy for
Reinsdorf. In a player's league like the twenty-first century NBA,
how does an owner answer the question how could you fire Michael
Jordan?
In
retrospect, Reinsdorf's biggest mistake was not creating a buffer
between Krause and his players. However gifted Krause was at
assessing talent, he was a frequently insufferable human being with a
cloying need to be one of the guys.
Despite
his considerable sway within the organization, this puppy-like need
for inclusion made him an easy target. It exploded into outright
derision after his universally-misquoted comment about an
organization's role in winning championships.
So
without a popularly-accepted transformation, the Bulls remain cast as
a management-heavy franchise where even a once-in-a-lifetime player
like Michael Jordan was kicked to the curb to suit management's
desires.
It's
not accurate—or fair. But so little in life is.
So
the Bulls go it alone. With a hugely-talented core of young (albeit
injury-prone) players and another smart pick at number seven in Coby
White, the Bulls again appear on the verge of greatness. Even without
visits from Kawhi Leonard and Kevin Durant.
But
I'd be lying if I said I didn't care that the Bulls aren't the
favored destination of big-name free agents, a la the Los Angeles
Lakers. My fandom would be made immensely more comfortable if the
Bulls needed only to clear cap space and wait for favored suitors.
Alas,
that isn't a luxury destined to be theirs.
The
Bulls have become something of a (cough) square peg. An outlier. An
entity that, when confronted with a very public and very unpleasant
bruhaha, held fast to the people it knew best and longest.
In
other words, Jerry Krause was a longtime employee of Jerry Reinsdorf.
Right or wrong, it was very unlikely he was going to throw Krause
under the bus to save the skins of Johnny-come-latelys like Phil
Jackson and Jordan.
If
loyalty is a crime, the Bulls can give you a line-by-line itemization
of the sentence.
In
their stints as GMs, Jackson and Jordan have shown their criticisms
of Krause to be baseless. Indefensible. Comically ignorant. Neither
had (or in the case of Jordan, has) a clue.
Karma
is a bitch.
And in
their clunky, old-fashioned way, the Bulls' M.O. remains firmly
rooted in the past. Much as my antiquated, sixties-liberal,
greatest-good-for-the-greatest-number politics do.
So
yes, I remain a fan.
Even
when their free-agent signings amount to Thaddeus Young, Luke Kornet
and Tomas Satoransky.
Lacking
the sun-kissed glamor of the Lakers, their crosstown rivals the Clippers and the Miami Heat or the mega-market
promotional opportunities of the Knicks and Nets, the Bulls possess
just one thing: heart.
As the world of sport is increasingly subsumed by the complexities of contract management and the endless search for new revenue streams, that is something.
