It Ain't Easy, Is It MJ?

Michael Jordan once thought he could be a better GM than Jerry Krause. It turns out, he was wrong.

If you’ve ever read Sam Smith’s famous book, The Jordan Rules,which chronicles the Bulls' first championship season and all of the turmoil that went on behind the scenes, the one issue that was repeatedly discussed was the players dislike and distrust of former Chicago Bulls general manager, Jerry Krause. 

But no one seemed to take issue with the man often referred to as "Crumbs" more than Michael Jordan. Jordan never trusted Krause and felt the GM was terrible at his job. He also felt that if given the chance, he could do better.
 
Well, since retiring from the NBA, Jordan has had two opportunities to prove that he was a better talent evaluator and front office executive than Krause and has failed spectacularly in the process.
 
As team president of the Washington Wizards with final say over all personnel matters, Jordan famously took Kwame Brown with the No. 1 pick in the 2001 NBA Draft. Brown, who is in his 11th season in the NBA and signed a free-agent contract with the Philadelphia 76ers this summer, never lived up to the hype associated with his draft selection and has widely been considered a bust.
 
When Jordan purchased an ownership stake in the Charlotte Bobcats, again, with final say over all personnel decisions, he drafted Adam Morrison with the third pick in the 2006 NBA draft. By 2010, Morrison was out of the NBA and like Brown before him, is also considered a bust.
 
But things hit rock-bottom for Jordan and the Bobcats when the 2011-12 NBA season came to a close.
 
During the 66-game, lockout shortened season, Charlotte finished with a 7-59 record, a winning percentage of .106 and the unenviable distinction of being the worst team ever in the 65 year history of the NBA.
 
In the span of nine years since retiring from the game for good, Michael Jordan went from being the greatest player of all time to the worst executive anyone has ever seen.
 
Now, after a recent article appearing in ESPN The Magazine, it appears that Jordan has handed all personnel matters and day-to-day basketball operations of the Bobcats over to general manager Rich Cho, whom he hired in 2011 after Cho was unceremoniously fired from the Portland Trailblazers.
 
Jordan has also agreed to let the people in the Bobcat front office -- Cho's staff -- do their jobs without any interference from him. Both moves are smart and reasonable if the Bobcats are going to elevate their status from bottom-feeder to being a relevant team in the NBA.
 
It is a rare feat when a former NBA great also excels as an executive in the front office, but it has to burn Jordan to finally come to the realization that he was never able to outdo Jerry Krause in the front office even though he was so sure that he could.
Contact Us