Jerry Krause reveals why he split up Michael Jordan and the Bulls

Throughout the ESPN’s “The Last Dance,” the central question of the documentary explored why anyone would want to break up the Chicago Bulls’ dynasty in the 1990s. In the 10th and final episode, Michael Jordan said he would have returned to the Bulls for another season and wanted to chase a seventh title in 1999.

But in a previously unpublished and unfinished memoir, former Bulls general manager Jerry Krause revealed why Chicago went in a different direction. The excerpt was posted to NBC Sports Chicago after Krause’s family gave permission to writer K.C. Johnson as Krause died in 2017.

In the piece, Krause says there were “cracks in the foundation” and the team’s free agents weren’t expected to hold up in the long term.

Krause and the Bulls asked for medical reports on each of the team’s players. He said there were serious issues raised for Dennis Rodman and Luc Longley.

“OK. No center, no power forward, very little (cap space) to sign anybody of any quality to replace them,” Krause writes. “Who defends in the middle if Jordan and (Scottie) Pippen do come back? Who rebounds?”

The Bulls would have also had to pay Pippen, and Krause had doubts whether the superstar, coming off two major surgeries in two years, would have lived up to the contract if they couldn’t find adequate replacements for Rodman and Longley.

Krause’s logic was similarly shared by Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf. In Sunday’s finale, Reinsdorf said the Bulls’ free agents “individual market was going to be too high” and they weren’t worth the money.

Chicago went on to hire Tim Floyd to replace Phil Jackson as coach, traded Pippen to the Rockets and made a series of other moves to begin a rebuild.

“Put yourself in our shoes as we walk out of that room,” Krause writes. “What would you do? Did we break up a dynasty or was the dynasty breaking up of age, natural attrition of NBA players with little time to recuperate and the salary-cap rules that govern the game?”