Blood on the Horns

by Roland Lazenby

  As the playoffs progressed, Krause would recruit an unidentified Bulls assistant coach to go to Pippen as a private emissary with the hopes of arranging a meeting between the general manager and star player. The coach told Pippen, “You really need to talk to Jerry.” “I wanted Scottie to come up and we could talk like two grown men,” Krause revealed. “We could get our feelings out on the table. Even if he left, we could hash it out man to man, and if he had to leave he could leave like a man. We asked him several times. But he never responded.”

  Later, in the glorious aftermath of the season, Krause would again approach Pippen. “Look, if you don’t want to come up to the office we could meet somewhere,” the GM said. Pippen’s answer was to stare at him blankly, Krause said.

  What Krause said he wanted to tell Pippen was that there were misconceptions about the team’s efforts to trade him. “I didn’t shop him,” Krause said. “He was never shopped. We did talk to teams that expressed an interest.” The Bulls came closest to trading Pippen in 1995 to Seattle and in 1997 to Boston, Krause said. “Those teams made serious offers that we had to consider, but we turned them down. Teams have called and asked, ‘Is he available?’ And I always say everybody’s available, except Michael.’ Teams have called us. When four teams call us expressing an interest in Scottie, I’m gonna find out who else is interested.”

  As Michael Jordan liked to say, the playoffs never really started until you lost a game at home. If that was the case, then the playoffs started for the Bulls after the second game of the second round against the Charlotte Hornets.

  The Bulls had used their trademark defense to hold the Hornets to 32 second-half points while claiming Game 1 of the series. But late in Game 2 former Bull B.J. Armstrong found the groove with his jumper and propelled the Hornets to the 78-76 upset. Charlotte forward Anthony Mason also did a nice job on Jordan defensively, using his size to take away some of Jordan’s effectiveness in the post.

  “It’s probably been three weeks since we played a real good game,” Jackson told reporters. “I thought that some of us are going through the motions and just letting everybody else take the responsibility, letting Michael take the responsibility for scoring and not carrying their own weight.”

  In the wake of the loss, Reinsdorf finally broke his silence with an interview with the Chicago Tribune’s Sam Smith. The chairman denied that he planned to break up the team. “If we win the championship, I would be inclined to invite everyone back,” Reinsdorf told Smith. “Neither I nor Jerry Krause has ever said—anywhere—that we want to break up the team. We get accused of saying it. I read it all the time. I hear Spike Lee saying it on the Jay Leno show.”

  Jackson’s agent, Todd Musburger, countered Reinsdorf’s claims by telling Chicago’s WMAQ radio that he wasn’t convinced of the chairman’s sincerity. “They are trying to put the responsibility on the players for not coming back, not the team,” Musburger said. “The Bulls are having a hard time taking the responsibility for what might happen. They told us loud and clear (during the previous summer’s contract talks) this would be the last year of Phil’s duties as coach of the team. They have had ample time to display what they want to do.”

  Reinsdorf’s message was that it was Jackson, not Krause, breaking up the team. Jackson himself admitted that he had been eager to leave for the past two years. “But as it gets into the playoffs, it’s going to be harder and harder to say goodbye to this team,” he said, adding that he had no intention of coming back. “It’s being wanted back,” Jackson explained. “That’s the whole thing.”

  Jordan admitted being confused by Reinsdorf’s timing. “I think all of it’s been a pretty trying season,” Jordan said. “We’ve still been able to get on the basketball court and play the game, and that’s what we’re going to be remembered for, not all this conversation that’s going on now.”

  Asked if Reinsdorf was trying to put the blame for the breakup on Jackson and himself, Jordan replied, “If that’s the case, it’s a bad time, but it’s a lot of things that have been bad timing that have happened to us thus far. But I don’t know. It kind of caught us off guard because we never really expected it. We didn’t expect any more conversation about next year until this year was over and done with. So his reasoning I really don’t know. But he certainly has the prerogative to make a decision like that.”

  “I was a little bit surprised about the timing of it,” Pippen told reporters. “If it was something he wanted to get out, I felt like he could have come out way before the playoffs. But I’m sure he wanted to get you guys off his back about running Michael out of the game.”

  “That’s how out of touch things are,” Chip Schaefer observed, “when you have to win a title to have the owner be ‘inclined’ to ask everybody back. You know how hard it is to win 62 games?”

  Privately, Reinsdorf expressed exasperation over the circumstances, so much so that the team chairman wanted to establish a chronology to his talks with Jackson. Reinsdorf said that he first met with Jackson in Phoenix in November 1994 to discuss the coach’s future with the team. “Michael was off playing baseball, and I never thought he was coming back,” Reinsdorf said. “I told Phil we were gonna have to rebuild and asked did he want to see us through the rebuilding. He said he wanted to think about it. Then lo and behold Michael came back.”

  That changed everything, Reinsdorf said, and the discussions over Jackson’s future with the team took on a new tenor. It was obvious by June 1995 that Jackson had warmed to the idea of coming back to coach Jordan for another run at more championships. His contract with the team ended in 1996, which left the parties negotiating over the 1995-96 season. By March of 1996, “Todd Musburger and Krause were going at each other,” Reinsdorf said, necessitating the chairman’s involvement. “Phil and I met at the United Center after the first game of the Orlando series that year. I told Phil I thought he was the best coach in the NBA. He said I was the best owner in the NBA. I said, ‘If that’s the case, we ought to be smart enough to figure out how to stay together.’ We agreed to agree on that and went on to win our fourth title.”

  Reinsdorf said that within days after the championship they resumed negotiations. The team chairman said he first mentioned a five-year deal to Jackson. “He said he was tired of being an NBA coach,” Reinsdorf recalled. “Look at him now as compared to what he looked like when he started. He said it was too bad that coaches couldn’t take sabbaticals and come back to their jobs after a year or two off.”

  Reinsdorf said that after Jackson declined a five-year extension, they concentrated on a two-year deal. When they reached a stalemate over money, Reinsdorf suggested a one-year contract. “Phil said, ‘Great. That’s what I wanted to do all along,’” Reinsdorf recalled.

  Then the team produced a 69-win season and was rolling toward the 1997 league championship. “During the ‘97 Finals, Phil and I met in Park City in Utah and he told me, ‘I don’t know if I want to coach next year. I don’t know if I ever want to walk into a gym again,’” Reinsdorf said. “I told him that it wasn’t the right time to decide his future. He said, ‘If I do come back, I just want to come back one more year.’”

  What followed was another round of charged negotiations between Krause and Musburger, which produced no agreement. Instead, Reinsdorf and Jackson met in Montana to complete the negotiations. “I flew out to Montana,” Reinsdorf said. “We talked at length. Phil said at the most he wanted to coach one more year. Phil and I have never had a cross word between us. We had nice conversations in Montana. Within a day or two, Phil told me positively this was his last year.”

  Then came Krause’s obviously gleeful announcement that Jackson would not be back with the team after the 1997-98 season, which left Reinsdorf to endure a year of media speculation and criticism over Jackson’s status with the team. The chairman said the circumstances led him to meet with Jackson during the playoffs. He told the coach that he’d been readi
ng how management was pushing Jackson out. “I asked him, ‘Has anything changed? Do you want to coach another season?’ He said, ‘No,’” Reinsdorf recalled. “Then two days later, Skip Bayless wrote an article quoting Phil that made it sound like we were pushing him out.”

  It was the Bayless column that prompted Reinsdorf to step forward and address the issue with the Tribune’s Smith. Reinsdorf was clearly frustrated with the circumstances after the Bayless column. (If Reinsdorf, Krause and Jackson could agree on anything, it was that Bayless was a nightmare of a media personality, what Reinsdorf called the Tribune’s answer to acerbic Sun Times columnist Jay Mariotti. Hired in March, Bayless had immediately targeted the Bulls, slamming first one side then the other. “The guy hasn’t been here long enough to know where State Street is,” Krause said testily.)

  “I told Phil, ‘I really have to go public to set the record straight.’ The reason I picked that moment was I felt enough had been said,” Reinsdorf said privately. “The world was getting the wrong impression. Nobody was pushing Phil out.”

  What could account for the vastly different accounts of the circumstances? Some observers suggested that Jackson had mixed feelings about leaving. Other observers pointed to Jackson’s dislike for Krause. Was Jackson, long a master of mind games, using the circumstances as a way of tormenting the GM? as Bayless suggested.

  “Probably Phil didn’t know what he wanted,” Reinsdorf said.

  There was no question that Jackson had second thoughts about leaving the team, regardless of whether he felt comfortable expressing those to feelings to Reinsdorf. And the coach clearly felt he had worn out his welcome. In March, Jackson had likened the situation with the Bulls to the end of the New York Knicks’ dynasty in the 1970s. “I was in New York,” Jackson said. “We had 11 great years of a run. I was there for 10 of those great years. The eleventh year things started to turn. Fortunately I got off before the landslide hit in the late ‘70s. But when it turned, the town turned against the Knicks, and it took them almost 10 years to get it back.”

  “The people were against them,” Jackson said of Knicks management, “because they were overcharging, the were abusing their position for power. They were being brusque and intrusive in the press. They said things like the bottom line is the figure that really counts now, not wins and losses.”

  The parallels between the Knicks and Bulls were disturbing, Jackson said. “It draws a pattern that’s scary, because the people in Chicago are going to have a long memory and they’re going to remember this stuff later on down the line. I hope it doesn’t happen, because I think this town deserves winners. They’re good sports fans.”

  Yet just a few weeks later, after being told that Reinsdorf again said he was the best coach in the NBA, Jackson said, “Jerry has a real good feel for what is organizational stuff and what makes good sense. He’s always been first to say that I’m the best coach in the NBA, which is great. I know I’m the best coach for this group in the NBA. That’s the only thing I can say. With this group, we’ve developed a style that’s worked extremely well. With another group, who knows if I could build this relationship or not? This has taken a long period of time to really integrate it into this kind of a situation. But, be that as it may, Jerry knows—and he and I have talked about this before—we don’t want anything to dull the sheen on what we’ve done. We really don’t. Even this little pecking that goes back and forth. If I leave, it’s a good time to leave. I’ve had a wonderful stay here. I’ve been blessed by the fact that I’ve had the chance to work with these guys in this organization in this time in the history of the game. For whatever reason it all came together.”

  Shrugging off the controversy of Reinsdorf’s comments, the Bulls rolled over the Hornets in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, a contest that had the home fans heading for the exits early. At the next day’s practice in the Charlotte Coliseum, Ron Harper explained the mood of the players: “On our team we got some older guys, and we know we aren’t going to be around for a long period of time. We know this is our chance now to go out and to just show folk what a good basketball team we have.”

  Pippen had produced a line of “Last Dance” hats and T-shirts for sale to the public. Harper was asked when he planned to start wearing his. “My Last Dance hat ain’t coming out till we get to the championship, the final round,” he replied, laughing.

  Just as Pat Riley had trademarked the “threepeat” slogan when he was coach of the Lakers, Pippen had made his move on the “Last Dance” phrase.

  “It was just something fun to do. We’re always trying to have some fun,” Harper explained, adding that actually getting the hats manufactured and into stores for public sale had been difficult.

  “I’ll buy one,” offered the Tribune’s Skip Mylenski. “I’ll contribute to your pension fund.”

  “It’s Scottie’s pension fund,” Harper corrected.

  Harper was asked if his hesitation in wearing the hat was a sign he was holding out hope that the cavalry would ride in and keep the team together. “No. No. No. Believe me,” he said. “Let me tell you what I hope the cavalry do. Let it go. It’s been fun.”

  As one of the few Bulls under contract for next season what were Harper’s plans? If he had to spend one more year in Chicago, wouldn’t he rather do it on a championship team again? “If it was my choice?” he said. “I would do this until we say we had to stop. But I think the key part is that everybody has to be happy. Everybody’s deals have to be the deals that they get. Phil’s gotta have the deal that he wants. MJ don’t care about no cash. SP needs to get his cash, I think.”

  A reporter asked if money was the key to happiness. “Money’s not the key to happiness all the time,” Harper said. “It’s how you treat and respect the guys on your team. I think the reason we play well is because we respect what our skills are. If we had a boss that came down every day and said, ‘Hi, how ya doin’?’ and smiled a little bit … He don’t have to come in and hold anybody’s hand. Just come in, you know, and speak. That’s why (Scottie’s) not a happy camper. It’s how you treat people. Growing up as a kid I always learned you treat people the way you want them to treat you. So if you respect them, they will respect you back.”

  Terry Armour of the Tribune posed this question: “I’m pretty sure Reinsdorf is gonna say for Scottie to get the money he wants Michael is gonna have to take a pay cut. Do you think Michael will take a pay cut?”

  “I think he will,” Harper said. “MJ ain’t worrying about no cash. That’s the least of his problems.”

  “Should Michael have to take a pay cut?” another reporter asked.

  “I don’t think MJ should have to take a pay cut. I think my boy Scottie should get his cash,” Harper said. “He should get his just due for all the hard work and time he put in for this team. He’s only got five championship rings, on the all-Defensive team, all-NBA team, All-Star, all-world team, the Dream Team, the beam team, on my team.

  “They’ve made a lot of cash since Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen have been on this team,” Harper observed. “They’ve sold out how many games? Five hundred and some games? Consecutive? They got two of the best players on this team, and they sell out every building they go into.”

  Another reporter pointed out that the Bulls’ current owners paid less than $20 million for the team, meaning they had hundreds of millions in equity in the francise. “They should give some of that up,” Harper said, “to some of the guys like Scottie who should get his just due.”

  Over their seasons of success, the Bulls had acquired quite an entourage, so much so that they began using two buses for playoff travel. And to avoid trouble, Jackson and Jordan would sometimes hang back, waiting to see which bus Krause got on, so they could get on the other.

  “Jud Buechler was on the floor stretching,” Chip Schaefer said, “and he looked around at all the people we have now in this traveling circus
, and he said, ‘God, we’re like Noah’s Ark now. We have two of everything.’

  “The staff has just grown and grown and grown,” Schaefer said. “We have more players, more coaches, more strength coaches, more massage therapists. I have an assistant trainer that I didn’t even particularly ask for. We got more doctors, more media people. We got more everything. It’s unbelievable.”

  The trainer’s favorite year was 1991, the first championship season. “We had the same 12 players that we’d had all year long,” he said. “Phil had three assistants and myself. We only had two broadcasters because of the simulcast for radio and TV. Most of the year we traveled with this little special forces hit squad of just 24 people. So there was a lot of more intimacy about it. Over the years, we’ve added three more players to the roster and another coach, and the broadcasters are up to five with TV and radio and a Spanish broadcaster. It’s just grown and grown and grown.”

  Schaefer pointed out that the growth went to the very heart of the philosophical debate concerning the team versus the organization. It was embodied in the wrangling Jordan and Reinsdorf did over championship rings. “It’s something they’ve had a big debate about over the years,” Schaefer said. “Jerry Reinsdorf’s philosophy is that it’s the whole organization. The person who answers the telephones and licks the stamps in the office is as deserving of a ring as Michael Jordan. I can see the merits of that. Michael, of course, feels there’s this smaller group, mainly the players and coaches, who should get something different and unique, maybe just a ring with one more diamond in it or something. Jerry has just the opposite philosophy. It’s worthy of debate.”

  Reinsdorf had usually addressed the matter by giving the players something beyond their championship rings. One year it was an especially fancy money clip, something that your average NBA player certainly needed.