Following an unfortunate incident at the inaugural Chicago Bulls Ring of Honor event in which fans at the United Center booed the widow of the late Jerry Krause, one ESPN NBA reporter is blaming the great Michael Jordan. Speaking on The Hoop Collective podcast, Tim MacMahon made the case for how Bulls fans were simply following the lead Jordan set forth in The Last Dance in hating Krause.
“Michael Jordan is a bully, he’s a petty bully,” MacMahon said. “He’s arguably the greatest player of all time, but he’s a petty bully and the fans followed his lead.”
The Hall of Famer, whose career the ESPN documentary was centered on, famously detested the executive. And it is believed that fallout between Jordan, Krause and Scottie Pippen led to the breakup of the dynasty. Chicago has had limited postseason success since Jordan left.
In The Last Dance, Jordan gets the last laugh in explaining how, in his view, Krause’s foibles screwed up one of the greatest teams in NBA history. As Jordan worshippers, Chicago fans’ hatred of Krause likely intensified watching the doc.
Krause passed away in March 2017.
To his credit, MacMahon also blamed the Bulls organization for the odd event, while others, including game analyst Stacey King, shredded the fans directly.
“It was a very clumsily done thing,” MacMahon said. “Booing a dead man is rough regardless, I would like to think those fans didn’t know at the time they were booing that the man’s widow was sitting there.”
It’s unclear why the situation got so out of hand, but MacMahon wasn’t afraid to place the embarrassment at the feet of the GOAT.