1993-94 Season Was Peak Krause-Pippen's Relationship

nbcsports.com/chicago/bulls/why-bulls-1993-94-season-was-peak-jerry-krause-scottie-pippens-relationship

MAY 11, 2020
PRESENTED BY BULLS INSIDER

Jerry Krause loved the 1993-94 season.

Stunned by Michael Jordan’s first retirement like everyone else, he wrote that being around that 55-victory team was a privilege. He wrote that the job that coach Phil Jackson and his staff did was “the finest single-season coaching performance” he had seen.

In his unfinished and unpublished memoir that Krause’s family has shared with NBC Sports Chicago, Krause showered praise on Toni Kukoc, Steve Kerr and Pete Myers, and wrote that “everyone on the roster contributed.”

But he saved his biggest praise for Scottie Pippen.

“He stepped up,” Krause wrote. “He had his best all-around season of his 17-year career.”

This is no small admission given the oft-contentious relationship that Krause and Pippen shared. But it also proves how Krause used a scout’s eye to analyze even his most complex relationships. For instance, in his writings, while acknowledging Pippen as “often difficult,” he defended him for missing part of Game 7 of the 1990 Eastern Conference finals with a migraine headache.

“Scottie wanted to come back in that game,” Krause wrote. “Our team doctor told me he would resign on the spot if I let him.”

Krause’s wheeling and dealing to acquire Pippen in a 1987 draft-day trade on the same night he selected Horace Grant — with an assist from then-coach Doug Collins — marked one of the most important nights in franchise history and set the stage for the first three-peat.

In this excerpt, Krause wistfully wrote about the first time he saw Pippen play at the Portsmouth Invitational in Virginia, an annual predraft showcase:

Love at first sight — pure scouting love. Sitting high in the stands away from the other teams’ scouts and general managers as the teams came out to warm up before the last game of the tournament’s first round, I looked at (Bulls scout) Billy (McKinney) and said, ‘That’s Pippen, isn’t it?’ I could tell by his long arms. And the rest of the body — the shoulders, the feet. Wow. I’m thinking, ‘If he can play, this could be something.’

After about a quarter of the first game, the question of could he play had been answered. After the game, I told Billy to change his plans and stay in Portsmouth for the game the next night and to tell me which general managers changed their plans and stayed to watch the kid. Most of us were headed home for a day on the way to the next (predraft) tournament in Honolulu. I prayed that Pippen’s team would get beat the next night and not make it to the finals and that (NBA scouting director Marty) Blake wouldn’t invite him to Hawaii. No such luck. Scottie was the most valuable player award (winner) and was on his way to Hawaii.

In Hawaii, as the competition got better, so did Pippen. The thought of this guy playing alongside Michael (Jordan) caused this scout’s mind to work overtime. The quickest, longest-armed, most tremendous lateral quickness combination in the game . . . we had to get this guy.

We had the eighth and 10th picks in the draft. I learned that Sacramento, picking sixth, told everyone they were set on taking North Carolina point guard Kenny Smith. But I also found out they had cornered Pippen and asked him a bunch of questions and that Smith, who had a questionable knee in college, had taken (medical) tests for every team from Nos. 6 to 12 but us and Sacramento.

We worked out Pippen. It was the best individual workout I’d ever seen. (Strength and conditioning coach) Al (Vermeil) had a drill which measures lateral quickness and pure desire called a three-ball drill. A player has 30 seconds to get as many balls in the basket, basically by moving from a box on one side of the lane, picking the ball up and dunking it or laying it in the basket and moving to the other side of the lane to do it again. Scottie stunned everyone by setting a record that would last for the next 11 years.

We took him to dinner, to breakfast and spent time in between. We asked a ton of questions about his background and gave him psychological tests. When he left, I was more convinced than ever this was a player we had to have.

Figuring Sacramento at No. 6 was lying and would take Pippen, I knew we had to move up to No. 5 owned by Seattle. The Clippers were picking fourth. Seattle general manager Bob Whitsitt had a player he wanted at No. 5. If the Clippers took that player, our deal — swap picks No. 5 and No. 8, give them a second-round pick in the 1988 draft, agree to switch a first-round pick at their option in one of the next two drafts and give them two free exhibition games — was on.

Jerry Reinsdorf was on the phone with the Clippers and I was on another phone with Whitsitt when Reinsdorf told me, “The Clippers are taking Reggie Williams, a 6-7 guard from Georgetown.” I told Whitsitt, who told me Williams was the guy he wanted and thus our deal was on. I told him to draft Pippen for us. I never knew what happened in the Sacramento draft room but they took Smith. At No. 8, we took Olden Polynice, a center from Virginia, for Seattle and called the league to say we had a trade.

The rest is history.