I quoted former Bulls GM Jerry Krause in a recent post here, and I thought it might be interesting to revisit how it all went down. Apparently, Krause is a scout for the Arizona Diamondbacks these days. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...707_1_jerry-krause-bulls-title-teams-bulls-gm This CNN/SI article discusses why Reinsdorf and Krause broke up the dynasty: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ba...8/playoffs/news/1998/06/14/mariotti_suntimes/ I vividly remember management saying that the breakup of a team that just won the NBA championship was so we wouldn't become like the Celtics - grow old and become a mostly irrelevant team. IMO, you don't break up a dynasty until it is proven they were done - that's why, as transplant says, they play the games! Anyhow, in defense of the breakup, Krause was quoted as saying "organizations win championships." Now that may not be the full quote, but no matter how you read it, there's an awful lot of arrogance in that sort of philosophy. And it's wrong headed. The gist of the meaning is that the Bulls could become champions again in spite of dumping the greatest player of all time and his side kick (both voted top 50 players of all time, not just in a season) along with the greatest coach in the history of the game. They could become champs again because Krause and Reinsdorf are so brilliant at building rosters from scratch that they didn't need those three to succeed. So I look at the Celtics team of the time. What I see is terrible records. But not because they grew old, as management suggested. But because they lost two key players to death by cocaine. By 1998, when the CNN/SI article was written, the Celtics had gone through 5 losing (sub .500) seasons, missing the playoffs the last 4. Two years later, the team was in the ECF after finishing with a 49-33 record. That team featured a pair of superstar players in 3rd year player Paul Pierce and 5th year player Antoine Walker. They made the playoffs four straight years. After two years of sub .500 records again, GM Danny Ainge pulled the trigger to bring in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to go with Pierce and they immediately won a title. They made the semifinals or finals for the next four years. They were in the ECF last season. And they grew old again as our management wanted to avoid with the dynasty team. But still they're 34-27 this year, one win worse than our own Bulls. So the team we don't want to be like rebuilt itself twice in the years since the breakup of the dynasty. Good thing we didn't turn out like those Celtics. We only failed to win even 20 games for three straight years and finally broke that 20 win barrier in the fourth season. How does that compare to those Celtics? Those Celtics won more games in their draft lottery days than we did. Those Celtics have been to the Semifinals three times to the Bulls' once in those years. To the ECF twice to the Bulls' once. To the Finals twice to the Bulls' never. I like the Celtics' model a lot better than ours. Their organization, if those win championships, is clearly better than ours. So they lucked into Paul Pierce you say? We had numerous draft picks near the top of the draft in those seasons. The only blown one was JWill. Three of the others became Paul Pierce level (all-star) players for their teams after we traded them away. They lucked into a trade for Garnett? Do explain that to me. Garnett was available for trade and Boston made a fairly huge offer. You have to give Ainge the credit for making the call and pulling the trigger. They lucked into a trade for Ray Allen? Seattle's GM Sam Presti wanted to build his team around defense and Allen was a liability (not so under Thibs in Boston?). To quote Presti, "Boston really pursued this. What started as a smaller conversation became fulfilled. Their pursuit was impeccable." The Bulls did spend a #2 pick in the draft on JWill only to lose him. The Celtics lost Reggie Lewis and Len Bias. I think the Bulls had lots of PGs to fill in for JWill and that JWill didn't pan out in his rookie season to be an player of Lewis' obvious level of contribution or Bias' expected production. So the Celtics faced this tragic adversity and rebuilt the team to ECF level of contention twice in the years since the breakup of the dynasty. The Bulls? What version of rebuild are we on now? There were the Floyd era teams that didn't win even 20 games (4 seasons), the Cartwright era teams (one full season, 30 wins), the Skiles era teams (made it to the Semifinals once), the Vinnie Del Negro era (two .500 seasons with injury depleted or expiring contract laden rosters), and now the Thibs era (one ECF, two first round exits). I'd say they finally rebuilt just once to the Celtics level (making ECF). It only took them 13 seasons. Sorry to say, players win championships. Good organizations pull the trigger on a Deng for Pau Gasol deal and are not afraid to make a mistake or put actually good players around him.
