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 Monday, September 11
Time to give Krausy a little credit
 
By Frank Hughes
Special to ESPN.com

 I know, he looks like the eighth dwarf -- Ugly? Nasty? Crumbsy?-- who ate all the other dwarves and then told Snow White to pound sand.
Jerry Krause
You may not like Krause, but he hasn't had a bad offseason.

His social graces make Marge Schott look like Martha Stewart.

And his unapologetic arrogance makes Bobby Knight look like the Dalai Lama. (Can the Dalai Lama be fired?)

But c'mon, people, let's give Chicago Bulls general manager Jerry Krause a break. It's not like he promised Utopia and delivered Charlestown, West Virginia. It's more like he promised Utopia and delivered, well, Milwaukee. It's not great, but it's not terrible, either.

Listen, after Krause told everybody who would and could decipher his blatherings that the Bulls were going to recreate the success of Michael and Scottie through free agency, he deserves to get skewered.

But it's not like the guy has not put together a decent group of talent in Chicago. Look at his roster: Elton Brand, Marcus Fizer, Ron Mercer, Ron Artest, Jamal Crawford, Brad Miller, Dragan Tarlac. OK, I'm not even going to pretend I know anything about Dragan Tarlac, but that's a pretty good name, even if he stinks. If he has even any hops, they can call him the Draganfly.

Anyway, that group of players, they're young, to be sure, and I am not ready to declare them playoff-bound just yet, but that's the nucleus of a pretty decent club, and in the Eastern Conference, that's all you need.

This was Krause's biggest mistake: Knowing that he was going to have $20 million under the cap, he immediately assumed the Bulls were guaranteed one of the top four free agents, and let everybody know it. Nobody likes somebody who gloats, but Krause simply cannot help himself.

So when he did not sign any of those players, his critics were more than willing to gloat about his deficiencies.

But would you have rather had Krause pull a Phil Jackson and tell the world, despite what everybody knows to the contrary, how bad everything is going to be?

Remember last season, when Phil had Kobe and Shaq, and Phil was like, "Well, you know, maybe, if we're lucky, and we get some breaks, and Tim Duncan and Rasheed Wallace and Gary Payton and Karl Malone and Jason Kidd all snap their seventh vertebrae, you know, the Lakers might win, let's say, 24 games."

Gimme a break. I forgot how much I hate that Lou Holtz woe-is-me BS until I saw Holtz Saturday night, after his South Carolina team upset Georgia, moaning and groaning about it being only "one win." Hey, Lou, you're about to get canned, live it up a little when you get a big win.

Pro sports is all about expectations, and Krause built his a little too high. Nobody ever said the guy was a diplomat. They've said he's another word that begins with D-I-P, but, hey, who remembers little things like that.

I have to give Krausy credit, though. In the midst of a brutal attack by media, fans and colleagues -- including rumors that Krause created a racist atmosphere in Chicago by giving Toni Kukoc big money while stiffing Scottie and Michael for years -- he chose to be patient, bide his time, ignore his detractors and make wise decisions.

Mercer
Mercer

OK, for the most part wise. I still think he overpaid for Mercer, who passes as frequently as a car in the right lane on the Kennedy Expressway during rush hour, but he had to land somebody at a time when other players were disappearing.

After that, he waited. And waited. And waited some more. And then he finally got the center the Bulls sought by signing Miller. And he did not overpay Miller. He gave him just slightly above what Charlotte could match, and not a penny more. Shrewd. Smart. Calculating.

And what it did was enable the Bulls to keep some of that money they had for next summer, when another batch -- albeit much less talented -- comes along and Krausy will have another chance to add to the core.

Do you ever see those criminals, and as they're being led out of the klink with a paper bag over their faces, their mothers are telling the television camera, "Oh, I know little Johnny, and little Johnny could not have done this, because he's the sweetest person. When he was three-and-a-half-years-old, he brought me home a buttercup."

Well, I feel like that mother trying to defend Krause. Perhaps I'm a little bit naive. But I at least feel like the guy deserves some recognition for putting his franchise in a pretty good position to win. Not now, like he promised, but at some point in the near future. Wouldn't it be nice to see a group of players all come up together and have success, just like the old days?

And if they don't?

Well, then I'll just pile on Krausy like everybody else.

Frank Hughes covers the NBA for the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune. He is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
 


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