With two straight wins in eight years, Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls set the standard for success in the NBA. Isiah Thomas weighed in on what made the franchise so dominant in the 1990s, highlighting their former general manager Jerry Krause as the driving force behind their championship victories.
Thomas revealed his thoughts during a fan interaction on X. The 63-year-old claimed that the Bulls would not have won titles without Krause’s contribution to building the team. He claimed:
“This is a bold statement: The Chicago Bulls will never win a championship without Jerry Krause. Let everyone know.”
This was part of his tweeting spree to restore Krause’s public image. Thomas had previously praised the Chicago-born player for bringing the right talent onto the roster. In particular, Zeke praised the former Bulls GM’s role in bringing Toni Kukoc to the NBA, saying:
“Krause was brilliant and with Toni comes a 2.08 m tall guard who shoots the 3 brilliantly.”
These comments certainly showed Krause’s influence on the Bulls. It all started when he brought in longtime friend Tex Winter as an assistant coach in 1985. Winter’s triangle attack greatly influenced Phil Jackson, who made him the core of the team during the championship years.
Krause also played a key role in signing Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant in 1987. He then boldly traded a fan favorite, Charles Oakley, for Bill Cartwright. A year later, BJ Armstrong arrived in Chicago. Both soon became cornerstones of the roster and helped the franchise to its first consecutive three-peat victory from 1991-93.
Kukoc and Steve Kerr joined the Bulls shortly thereafter. Krause further strengthened the roster by adding rebounding specialist Dennis Rodman and point guard Ron Harper. These new additions were undoubtedly crucial to their second three-peat victory from 1995 to 1998.
While these incidents proved Karuse’s brilliance as a general manager, his decisions also caused a rift within the franchise. For context, his insistence on rebuilding the team after 1998 forced MJ, Pippen, Rodman and Jackson to leave the Bulls. The franchise has struggled to recover.
In the following years, Krause was unable to repeat his earlier successes. The Bulls’ draft picks fell short of expectations and coaching changes did not produce the desired results. In 2003, he finally retired due to minor physical problems.
So Thomas was right to point to Krause’s influence in the creation of the Bulls dynasty, but his failure in the post-Jordan era proved that the coaching staff and the players were equally important to their historic run.
