Especially in the early 2000’s a growing quantity of bad Chicago Bulls free agent signings plagued former general manager Jerry Krause.
For the most part, former Chicago Bulls general manager and two-time NBA Executive of the Year Jerry Krause was successful in building up this franchise. He was one of the original architects of both of the three-peats for the Bulls. But he was also part of the downfall in the late 1990’s, that might’ve prevented this team from winning more titles beyond the 1998 NBA Finals.
As the Bulls lead executive from 1985-2003, Krause saw a mixed bag of results beyond the best of the years surrounding all-time great shooting guard Michael Jordan. Not many of the players that suited up for the Bulls during the 1990’s liked Krause all that much. Jordan and fellow eventual Hall-of-Famer Scottie Pippen openly disliked Krause in the latter dynasty years for this team.
Krause is also not the most popular of the Bulls executives. But the last two lead executives that the Bulls sported were essentially run out of the city after failed rebuilds at least three years in. That is a familiar storyline for the likes of former vice president of basketball operations John Paxson. The Bulls replaced Paxson and former general manager Gar Forman earlier this year with Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley.
The exit for Paxson wasn’t great, but it was better than the way Krause was ousted from his role in the Windy City. A lot of the rebuilding efforts that Krause put forward in the early 2000’s were the reason why he was let go following the 2002-03 season.
Here’s a look into the three worst free agent signings that Krause ever made as general manager of the Bulls.