THE UNFAIR JUDGEMENT OF JERRY KRAUSE

According to researchers out of Princeton University, people make judgments about such 

things as trustworthiness, competence, and likability within a fraction of a second 

after seeing someone's face.

That study was seemingly confirmed in "The Last Dance", the wildly spectacular documentary

about Michael Jordan and the dynasty of the Chicago Bulls.  Oh, everybody has always 

loved Jordan at first blush, except maybe that basketball coach who cut Jordan 

from the team during his sophomore year in high school, -MJ has always been magnetic 

and somebody that demands your attention.

No, I'm talking about Jerry Krause, who was made out to be a villian in the documentary. 

Krause, the Bulls general manager, didn't make a good first impression, and for a society 

that often judges people by physical appearance, Krause never had a chance. Let's just 

say, Krause wasn't genetically gifted. He was short, heavy and just didn't look the 

part of an executive, especially in a sport defined by its players who are tall and gifted

by the gods with overflowing talent and chiseled bodies. Pat Riley he was not.

Jordan openly mocked Krause about his height saying that he shouldn't be smoking a cigar

because it could "stunt his growth." Scottie Pippen, who wanted his contract renegotiated,

dressed down Krause on the team bus. I'm fairly certain Krause had been made fun of

his entire life just because of his appearance. As much as we all want to think differently,
we are still a society that bullies, harasses, mocks, and makes judgements about people
just because of the way they look. Don't believe me? Go spend five minutes

on Twitter.

Using a description from the movie, "Moneyball", where baseball scouts often judged prospects

on whether or not they had a "good face," - well, Krause certainly didn't have it. And
the millions of people watching "The Last Dance",  made judgements about Krause just
because of the way he looked. And like a lot of those baseball scouts in "Moneyball", people
weredead wrong about Krause.

The bottom line and the thing Krause should be judged on, is his record which includes
the six NBA titles he helped bring to Chicago.  As much as people want to say it
was all Michael Jordan,  it wasn't. Krause was the architect of that dynasty. The moves
 he made were worthy of being a first ballot Hall of Famer - it was blasphemous Krause
was rejected time and time again before finally being elected into the Hall of Fame.
in 2017.  In fact, he didn't get into the Hall of Fame until after died, which is sad.

I'm fairly certain the people who watched "The Last Dance" don't even know Krause
is in the Hall of Fame. Judging by how he was portrayed in that documentary, that's not
surprising.

People shouldn't have judged Krause on his appearance, they should've made up their

mind by seeing what he did to construct that dynasty. His moves were brilliant.

Krause's first move as the Bulls GM was hiring Tex Winter as an assistant coach.

Winter didn't invent the Triangle offense, but he perfected it and made the other

coaches understand it.

Trading for Scottie Pippen and drafting Horace Grant on the same day in 1987 was

pure brilliance. Nobody heard of Pippen, who played for some tiny school in

Arkansas, yet it was Krause who saw the raw talent of Pippen that became, well,

Jordan-like.

Krause fired Doug Collins, who was running seemingly every play through Michael

Jordan, despite getting the team to the Eastern Conference Finals. Krause didn't want

a team that was Jordan and then everybody else. He wanted a true team where everybody

was involved. Krause replaced Collins with Jackson, who turned out to be Zen master

for that team

Krause surrounded Jordan with great talent: Pippen, Tony Kucoc, Grant, Rodman,
Bill Cartwright, Steve Kerr, John Paxon, Ron Harper, and many others. 

People wanted to vilify Krause for breaking up the Bulls and a bid for a seventh 

NBA title and that may be unfair. Krause worked for Jerry Reinsdorf, a savvy businessman,

who has been labeled cheap by many people throughout sports. Perhaps, Krause was

just following orders from the boss.

Oh, sure, Krause made some mistakes, like displaying his public infatuation with

Tim Floyd, who had been a college coach at Iowa State and the ultimate successor (failure)

to Jackson. And he sparred regularly with the media - and nobody wins with the media

when that happens, The pens, microphones, and cameras have always been mightier

than the sword and they stuck it to Krause because they made it personal.

Every general manager in sports makes mistakes, just look at the team you follow.
Brian Cashman of the New York Yankees has made a ton of them - Jacoby Elsbury,
Kei Igawan, Carl Pavano just to name a few. They happen. Krause didn't make very
many of them and he has six titles to prove it.

Krause wasn't around to defend himself against the comments made against him

and how he was portrayed in "The Last Dance". All he has his record - which should

be more than enough to tell his story. It's a shame that in this society, the facts and

record don't always matter - image still does. And Krause didn't have it and he was

judged harshly because of it.

In Krause's obituary, there should've been a line about how Krause being one of the

greatest GM's of all-time in any sport because that should be part of his record,

even if society wanted to judge him just because of the way he looked. And that's sad,

real sad.