Princewill Pius
During his time with the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan helped his team earn the NBA championship title six times in eight years. However, decisions made behind the scenes forced Jordan and his teammates from the Bulls before they could try for their seventh. “It’s maddening because I felt like we could have won seven,” Jordan said during ESPN’s 10-part docu-series, The Last Dance, per CBS Sports. “I really believe that. We may not have, but man, just to not be able to try, that’s something that I just can’t accept.”
According to the unfinished and unpublished memoir of the Bulls general manager at the time, Jerry Krause, he and Bulls executives gathered to assess the team’s potential.”Did we break up the winning team so that we could satisfy our own egos and win without those players and coaches?” Krause wrote, per NBC Sports. “Do you really think that people who worked for so many years to win and then win again and again would be dumb enough to let egos get in the way of trying to win again?”
Instead, Krause explained that the changes were a natural progression. “Put yourself in our shoes as we walk out of that room. What would you do?” he added. “Did we break up a dynasty or was the dynasty breaking up of age, natural attrition of NBA players with little time to recuperate and the salary-cap rules that govern the game?”
Still, who knows what could’ve been!
Written by: Nicki
