For nearly 22 years, Michael Jordan lived with the joy of collecting six NBA championships and cementing himself as one of the league’s best players…
For nearly 22 years, Michael Jordan lived with the joy of collecting six NBA championships and cementing himself as one of the league’s best players ever. And yet Jordan seemed to lament more what he didn’t accomplish than cherish what he did.
“It’s maddening. I felt like we could’ve won seven (titles),” Jordan said in the final episode of “The Last Dance.” “I really believe that. We may not have. But not to be able to try it, it’s something I can’t accept.”
That explains Jordan’s reaction when he watched Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf explain why the team disbanded in 1998 after winning its sixth NBA title in eight seasons.
Reinsdorf argued that “it would’ve been suicidal” to re-sign Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr, Ron Harper and other role players. The reasons? They were all aging veterans. The Bulls had limited purchasing power because of salary cap rules. And it also did not help that Bulls general manager Jerry Krause already announced that coach Phil Jackson would not be retained following the 1997-98 season.
“Their market value individually was going to be too high. They weren’t going to be worth the money they were going to get in the market,” Reinsdorf said. “When we realized that we were going to have to go into a rebuild, I went to Phil and offered him the opportunity to come back the next year. But he said ‘I don’t want to go through a rebuild. I don’t want to coach a bad team.’ That was the end. It came to an end on its own. Had Michael been healthy and wanted to come back, I don’t doubt Krause could’ve rebuilt another championship team in a couple of years. It wasn’t going to happen instantly.”
At first, Jordan watched and listened to Reinsdorf’s explanation with curiosity. Eventually, Jordan rolled his eyes.
“Krause already said at the beginning of the season that Phil can go 82-0 and he was never going to be the coach.
