Where did it all go wrong?

By Moray Pickering Sports Central Columnist Fans of the Boston Red Sox may think that they have it tough with the Curse of the Bambino, but their situation is nothing compared to what the fans of the present day Chicago Bulls are faced with. Yes, I am of course referring to the dark and sinister force known as the Curse of the Two Jerry's.

To be honest, I don't know which is more amazing -- that Jerry Krause and Jerry Rheinsdorf were able to destroy a franchise, which had just won three straight NBA Championships, within the space of a month, or that they were able to build that dynasty in the first place.

Supporters of Krause, and apparently there are at least a couple, will point to the fact that Krause was the one who brought Scottie Pippen to Chicago. That is, of course, true. But then again, in the nearly fifteen years that he has been making the personnel decisions in Chicago you would expect him to get at least one move right, and that was his one move.

It was only three-and-a-half-years ago that Michael Jordan was knocking down the game-winning shot against Utah in the NBA Finals, but now the Bulls have absolutely nothing in common with that great team. In fact, every time the present day Bulls take to the court at the United Center, it feels like it is an insult to the teams that raised those six fluttering banners in the roof.

At last count, the Bulls have been through at least three rebuilding programs since Krause developed a liking for being GM of a basketball team with no talent. Perhaps he had grown bored of winning all those games, and let's face it, 72 was an awful lot to win in one season, and who really wants six championship banners anyway -- those things cost a lot to clean, you know. Or maybe Krause simply has an ego the size of the Sears Tower and was getting sick and tired of people saying that the only reason that the Bulls were the team they were was because of No. 23, who was not actually drafted by Krause.

Whatever the reasons, Krause got rid of all of the key components of the Bulls' success. First, Head Coach Phil Jackson was politely pushed out of the door and replaced with Iowa State coach Tim Floyd, a friend (yes, apparently he has some of those, too) of Jerry's. The departure of Jackson was one of the main reasons why Jordan decided that he had had enough and went into retirement for three years. And, if Jordan wasn't going to be there, then Pippen decided that he wasn't going to hang around and signed with Houston. Even Dennis Rodman, who usually seems quite keen on crazy situations, felt that it was too much for him and disappeared off the face of the planet, only to reappear with the Lakers towards the end of following season.

It does take a special kind of moron to so completely destroy a great team in such a short space of time, but then again nobody is denying that Krause is something special. Krause believed that given two or three years, he could rebuild the Bulls through the draft and free agency, not beyond the realms of possibility given that the Lakers have done exactly that by drafting Kobe Bryant (through Charlotte) and signing Shaq through free agency. However, there are many differences between Krause and Jerry West, with ability being the main one.

Krause's attempts to lure big-name free agents to Chicago failed miserably, as players like Tim Duncan, Grant Hill, Tracey McGrady, and even Tim Thomas decided that they were better off staying with their own teams, or rebuilding a team in a warmer climate and a GM with a much better reputation, namely Orlando and John Gabriel. So instead of landing a couple of big-name free agents to build a young team around, Krause was left to pick at the scraps of the free agent market, by signing Ron Mercer and Brad Miller -- hardly franchise players.

The problem with Chicago, and Krause in particular, is that they simply cannot seem to make up their mind about which is the best way to rebuild.

Personnel decisions often seem contradictory and Krause is not averse to changing his masterplan at regular intervals. The best example of this is, of course, Elton Brand and the decision to trade him to the Clippers for the rights to Tyson Chandler and Brian Skinner, who they, in turn, traded to the Raptors for Charles Oakley.

Brand was co-Rookie of the Year with Steve Francis a couple of years ago and was the only top-quality player to have been with the Bulls since the last championship. He is one of the very few players in the league who can consistently put up 20 points and 10 rebounds a night, and was still under contract with the Bulls for another two years.

Many put Brand's numbers with the Bulls down, since he was the only scoring option on a woeful team. However, Brand has since gone on to prove those people wrong by putting up the same numbers on a Clippers team full of other scoring options. But, for whatever reason, Krause simply decided that Brand was not in his long-term plans and decided to go with two teenagers straight out of high school, Eddy Curry and Chandler.

This came a year after Krause had drafted Marcus Fizer out of Iowa State, despite the fact that he played the same position as Brand. So Fizer was played out of position for a year at small forward. Fizer's long-term prospects don't look to good either, as the Bulls hope that Chandler will become their power forward in the future. So, in two consecutive years, Krause has drafted power forwards who he has lost faith with within a year, hardly the sign of a man with a master plan.

So, that brings us right up to date with the present day Bulls. A team that features promising youngsters like Curry, Chandler, Fizer, and Jamal Crawford, along with a motley collection of journeymen veterans like Charles Oakley and Greg Anthony. It is hardly a team that you want to pay money to go and see, yet the Bulls still have the fifth highest attendance in the league.

This should hardly come as a surprise, as Chicago sports' fans are amongst the most committed in the country, despite the fact their pro sports teams have been pretty unsuccessful over the last couple of decades, with the exception of the Bulls' success in the mid-'90s.

The bottom line is that Bulls' fan deserve better than what they are currently getting from the team and their management. Tim Floyd resigned last week after three years of banging his head against the brick wall that is Jerry Krause, and until that wall is removed, the Bulls will never be able to move out of the shadow of their past success.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.