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Jerry Krause 5 years post Jordan 186 games under .500
John Paxson First 5 years post Krause 12 games over .500

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Being an NBA GM is not an easy gig. Unless you can get some good free agents your success depends almost totally on your coach and your drafting. They lost the coach, Jordan, Pippen, Rodman and some bench players from 97-98 to 98-99. I would compare what happened to the Bulls post-Jordan to what the Warriors are doing after the team's championship run. It's unclear if the Warriors will be able to make the playoffs anytime soon.

The NBA has a lottery, but there are plenty of organizations with lots of lottery picks who can't break .500. It's hard to break the cycle once a team gets in the habit of losing. LeBron dominated the Eastern Conference for a long time because there were no decent teams in the conference. Meanwhile the West was stacked. The NBA is a league where you cannot win unless you have two or three top 20 players.

Drafting is totally clear in hindsight. If the Bulls hadn't traded Aldridge for Tyrus Thomas it's unclear whether they would have gotten Rose. If Rose doesn't mess up his knee they probably lose again in the Conference Finals. The Bulls biggest problem was probably that former players discouraged players from going to the Bulls in free agency. If you can't get free agents you have to get lucky in the draft and pull off some blockbuster trades.

If the news basketball operation guy from the Bulls has a pipeline to Europe it's possible they could build through the draft. But the team is still another two or three years now from being a serious contender if things go well. Once LeBron went to Miami the GMs have less power and they are at the mercy of the free agents who want to play with their friends.

The NBA would be a better product if they just contracted about 6 teams and went to several regional divisions instead of conferences. Why shouldn't the playoffs be seeded based on season records regardless of conference to make the playoffs more interesting?

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God is the uncaused cause of the universe. He had no beginning and has no end. He is not bound by the laws of the universe he created.

There are people that were much better than he was at drafting and being a GM. Free agency was virtually non existent in those days. Big Time Free Agents rarely moved in those days. That's why they instituted the rule change.

Krause's draft record was abominable and Jordan thought so himself. When you look at the supporting casts of the other teams that the Bulls faced in the Finals the opposing team supporting cast was always much better than what Jordan had with the Bulls.

Krause was a terrible judge of talent. Paxson had the Bulls in the playoffs 2 years after taking over for the mess Krause made.

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?
But would it have taken 2 years if Paxon took over after '98?

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God is the uncaused cause of the universe. He had no beginning and has no end. He is not bound by the laws of the universe he created.

Tom Dore told a story a couple weeks ago of being on the road in Salt Lake City on Thanksgiving. Some guys were talking about going to a movie and asked Michael if he wanted to come. He said he can't go out. They talked him into it because it was Thanksgiving and no one would be out. They were the only ones in the theater and Tom said "see, I told you you wouldn't be bothered". Michael said "just wait". After the movie was over there were a couple thousand people waiting outside to see him.

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Don't know but what I'm comfortable in saying is that I doubt seriously that they would have been on average 40+ games under for 5 years running. The NBA had a strike shortened season or that lost number would exceeded 200 over 5 seasons.

I'm also comfortable with saying Paxson's draft record would have been much better. Paxson drafted much better with much lower picks than Krause. Look at his first 5 years of picks and contrast them with Krause's. His were better.

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Craig Hodges is not happy

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bulls ... LAdSJs126w

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

At least they left out Jordan's crack about him and his "Muslim farts"

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

He sounds really burned up about it

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Hey, I missed the first Sunday and was too ashamed to mention it, so I'm catching up on everything now.

I love it, of course, but with everything going on, what should be nostalgia is turning into real existential dread. I'm sure I'm not the only one. But seeing all the archival footage of everyone, old footage of Chicago, even just how everyone has gotten older, all combined with the centrality of the Chicago Bulls to living here in the '90s, I feel like I'm watching the series finale of life. I know I'm being melodramatic, but still.

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Not exactly getting what you are saying. I know my life was tied up into the Bulls as I had season tix from halfway through Jordan's rookie year through the Last Dance. I knew Krause had no chance so I took my ass to the Southside for a couple years and then gave up on them too. It was 20+ years ago, god forbid Michael Jordan is the highlight of my life. That would be awful.

At the very end of the story is something not to be glossed over, that could actually be a buried lede:

In-season, during the run up to their first championship in 1991, Jordan actually was looking into the possibility of getting out of his contract for next year and leaving the Bulls.

See last sentence:

They weren't going to make a deal, Jordan thought. Krause was too scared and Reinsdorf was too satisfied. Jordan called his agent, David Falk. Had he checked any further on whether he could get out of his contract for next year?

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We Now Know That JOE BIDEN has been COMPROMISED by CHINA! (let that sink in)

Election 2020-The Largest Fraud in the History of Mankind.

*If you believe that Biden won, you also believe that Epstein killed himself*

The Bulls lost to the NBA in 2011, not LeBron's Heat.

They were a better team than the Heat.

The league and the officials took it right away from them. It was heinous.

_________________
We Now Know That JOE BIDEN has been COMPROMISED by CHINA! (let that sink in)

Election 2020-The Largest Fraud in the History of Mankind.

*If you believe that Biden won, you also believe that Epstein killed himself*

You be melodramatic? Nevahhhh!

As with any of these things I kinda have a love/hate relationship. I absolutely love watching it and wish there were 50 episodes. But I can alreadly feel myself hating the fact that it is over and then realizing there will never been a better time to be a sports fan for any of the teams I follow in my lifetime. So if that is what you mean then I understand

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Yeah god forbid you have to have a teachable moment with your kids . It was over 30 years ago bro . I think it’s ok to talk about it .


The former Bulls guard did a radio interview on “The Odd Couple” with Chris Broussard and Rob Parker and criticized some of what he heard from Michael Jordan on the documentary. For starters, Hodges didn’t like hearing about the cocaine circus story from the first episode.

“That bothered me because I was thinking about the brothers who are on that picture with you who have to explain to their families who are getting ready to watch this great Michael Jordan documentary event and they know you’re on the team, and now you’ve got to explain that to a 12-year-old boy,” Hodges said.




How long ago did they do this and it’s coming out right now?” Hodges said. “Just the timing. It’s impeccable as a marketer. You got everybody sitting at the crib. You got the No. 1 icon in black America at a time when black people are dying in untold numbers. Why now? Why now? Somebody’s got to explain that to me.”

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Yes, explain it to your kids, ORLANDO WOOLRIDGE!

I understand what CH means . It’s a little hard watching this as it was only 22 years ago it so much has changed. MJ’s face looks terrible in the interviews . Watching him approaching 60 within the scope of also watching him at his athletic and physical peak is jarring.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Christ, you should have seen him 2 years ago. He lost weight for this here documentary.

I could see how Hodges might be a bit hot under the collar.

_________________
We Now Know That JOE BIDEN has been COMPROMISED by CHINA! (let that sink in)

Election 2020-The Largest Fraud in the History of Mankind.

*If you believe that Biden won, you also believe that Epstein killed himself*

He made Vinny Johnson look like the North Pole with as quick as he heated up .

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

He is a man known for his inflamed passion for The Game, but he was also known to get gassed very easily.

Most appropriate statement ever:

Hodges has told his compelling life story with fiery passion

EDIT: Credit to Good Dolphin - he had it first. Glossed over the post.

_________________
We Now Know That JOE BIDEN has been COMPROMISED by CHINA! (let that sink in)

Election 2020-The Largest Fraud in the History of Mankind.

*If you believe that Biden won, you also believe that Epstein killed himself*

I have no innerest in watching this. Way too depressing.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

It is more uplifting than depressing.

If watching it changes today's players a bit and hardens them up, it will be a great victory for the Game.

_________________
We Now Know That JOE BIDEN has been COMPROMISED by CHINA! (let that sink in)

Election 2020-The Largest Fraud in the History of Mankind.

*If you believe that Biden won, you also believe that Epstein killed himself*

Remember how bad Dickey Simpkins was? I can't believe he was able to survive on those Jordan Bulls teams.

well, the memories lit a fire under him

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

There were and still are a lot of enablers to Jordan's gambling problem, including Stern. Just because you can cover the debt doesn't mean it isn't an addiction. If it was simply a competitiveness addiction, than playing for a dollar would be sufficient. Mike was always tight with a buck so losing any amount would have upset him.

Is MJ good at golf? He sure seems to lose a lot and hustlers seem to really like to play with him

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

The doc keeps hinting at it but doesn't really come out and say what an insipid, ass kissing, no challenging "journalist" Ahmad Rashad was.

If a player wanted an interview where they could tell their side of a story without question or follow up, Ahmad was your guy.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I would guess he has a vanity handicap. Meaning he likes to keep it low so he doesn't post his bad rounds. MANY prefer to be a sandbagger.

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He's a 3 handicap so he's very good. But, like Franky said he could be a vanity capper, but I doubt it. MJ cares too much about gambling to willingly give up an advantage like that.

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