To prove his management capabilities, he is a championship-level general manager, not just someone lucky to have Jordan.
Without Jordan, he can still win a championship and build a strong roster.
The second thing, however, is precisely related to Jordan, which is that his appetite was spoiled by Jordan.
What level is Jordan? Averaging over 25 points in his rookie season, an achievement many players can’t reach in their entire careers.
Why was Artest traded away by the Bulls, even though he was a nice guy?
Because in Jerry Krause’s view, his offense was too poor. Let alone averaging 25 points, reaching 20 at his peak was a problem.
For Krause, who was used to Jordan, how could he endure it? Simply trade him away, trade them all away!
Also, Jordan was a perimeter star, so Krause desperately built the core around inside players over the years.
Brand, Chandler, Eddie Curry—he didn’t want to pick a so-called "Jordan successor". He didn’t want to continue living in Jordan’s shadow.
Like in the 2001 draft, the Bulls with two high picks chose Chandler, which was already enough, but Krause insisted on taking Eddie Curry as well.
In fact, behind Eddy Curry were Jason Richardson and Joe Johnson. Although not as good as Jordan, they were excellent shooting guards.
If Jerry Krause could let go of his obsession and choose a player like Jordan, the combination of inside and outside would make the Bulls’ roster more balanced.
Looking at the Bulls’ current starting lineup, the inside duo of Chandler and Curry is exceptionally cumbersome. Though they appear as starters, they often play less than 20 minutes and then rest, making them fake starters.
When it comes to tough battles, they still rely on veterans.
Shooting guard Trenton Hassell is a worker-type perimeter, with no technical similarities to Jordan other than both being Black.
The player they got in exchange for Artest, Jalen Rose, is already 30 this year, with no more potential to tap.
While his scoring ability is decent, he can’t make it to the All-Star, only being used as a near-star player, playing only 30 games last season due to injury.
The starting point guard, second overall pick Jay Williams, also fails to ignite much imagination in fans.
After Jordan left the Bulls in 1998, the Bulls tanked and got quite a few high picks.
However, none have turned into combat power, and instead, with repeated tanking, trades, and give-ups, they’ve become a mess.
The season opener saw the Bulls challenge the Boston Celtics away, and they got thrashed by the defending champions without any fight back.
In the second game against the Glory, another thrashing is inevitable, how could Chicago fans not boo Krause?
Krause’s obese body sat there expressionless, with a sense of loss filling every cell of his body.
He’s already 63 and knows he won’t last long as general manager and that his struggles in recent years have undoubtedly failed.
Seeing the cheers fans gave to Jordan upon his return to Chicago and the boos directed at himself, Krause knew he was completely defeated.
Especially with Ah Gan and Jordan joining forces, Krause stands even less chance.
Before the game, Krause’s wife advised him not to attend the game tonight.
He could sell the ticket to someone else for profit; why go and face it? It would surely be Michael’s grand occasion.
But Krause stubbornly refused; he still came to the United Center and sat in a front-row seat to watch the game.
Other spectators were enjoying it, while Krause was enduring torture, tormenting his spirit with total failure to seek some form of release.
On the Glory’s side, the starting lineup was the same as the last game, with Ewing and Gan Guoyang forming a Twin Towers, which seemed more vibrant against the young Bulls’ Twin Towers.
Chandler and Curry were too green, having skipped college to jump straight to the NBA, and were both picked high by the Bulls.
Before the NBA season started, it was a beautiful fairy tale of young men wandering the world, gaining fame early and making a name for themselves.
When the NBA started, it became clear that not every high school player was Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, or Little O’Neal.
The Portland Trail Blazers picked two high school players in the 1996 draft, who grew into league stars, maintaining strong competitiveness in the post-Gan era.
This successful case made Jerry Krause ignore that the Trail Blazers had Gan Guoyang at that time, who invested a lot in nurturing the two young players. Moreover, the Trail Blazers’ growth environment was very stable.
Of course, most importantly, Kobe and Little O’Neal had the talent to grow into stars, while Chandler and Eddy Curry did not.
Reportedly, Yao Ming’s confidence in playing in the NBA came because he dominated Tyson Chandler in a scrimmage.
If America’s so-called strongest high school player is at this level, Yao Ming felt playing in the NBA was entirely feasible.
In high school, Chandler could rely on his outstanding physical advantages to put up terrifying stats.
But in the NBA, where there are monsters everywhere, without the honing that college provides, Chandler had no independent offensive skills and could only rely on height, wingspan, and jumping ability to catch and finish and block shots, nothing more.
Defensively, he was even more immature, averaging 2.5 fouls in less than 20 minutes per game.
In comparison, Chandler’s model Kevin Garnett played 28 minutes on average with 2.4 fouls per game in his rookie season.
Just in foul control, you can see a player’s maturity, and Chandler falls way short in this aspect.
Eddy Curry’s performance was even more disappointing to Jerry Krause and Chicago fans. Clearly, Krause hadn’t done thorough background research on him.
He assumed that every player, like Michael Jordan and Ah Gan, had a competitive spirit and would continually strive with their talent, climbing to the top step by step.
As a general manager, he thought he just needed to gather quality players and assemble the roster.
As a result, Eddie Curry was not that hardworking player. He didn’t even like basketball.
He played basketball as a kid just because he was tall and was asked to play.
He did well later, and when choosing between college and the NBA, he chose the NBA because he could make money faster—millions of US Dollars.
How much can you expect such a player to work hard?
To him, playing games was just like clocking in and out, training, and competing, it was his duty.
As for the championship or defeating the Devil like Ah Gan? He didn’t care and just wanted to finish and leave early.
This caused Krause and Curry to have a very poor relationship, different from his poor relationship with Jordan back in the day.
His poor relationship with Jordan was because both were highly competitive, vying for team control and credit, wanting to break each other down.
But with Curry, it was because this guy was so unmotivated and lazy that he completely failed to meet Krause’s expectations, and Krause had given up on Brand for him.
Whenever he thought of this, Krause felt heartache. How did he end up picking this gluttonous fatty? Damn, he’s greedier than me!
After the game started, in the post, Curry and Chandler were completely dominated by Ah Gan and Ewing.
Moreover, Curry was clearly afraid of confronting Ah Gan, choosing to pass the ball outside as soon as it got inside and refusing to execute post-up plays.
He didn’t love basketball, didn’t want to challenge the gods, and just wanted to finish the game and go take a shower comfortably.
He didn’t want to provoke Ah Gan and get embarrassed on the court.
Gan Guoyang didn’t have the desire to crush the kids tonight; his goal was to give Jordan opportunities to shine.
However, at the beginning of the game, Jordan’s shooting wasn’t great, missing three consecutive shots.
Gan Guoyang grabbed two offensive rebounds under the basket and warned Jordan, "If you miss another one, I’ll dunk your head in the hoop."
Jordan chuckled, received a pass, broke through, took a baseline shot from zero angle, and against the defense, executed a classic fadeaway jumper, scoring!
The crowd erupted in cheers, relishing the familiar scene and beautiful shot.
Though his jumping height and breakthrough speed weren’t at their peak, the feeling remained.
The atmosphere in the United Center livened up, and soon Gan Guoyang followed with a bounce pass to the wing for Jordan on the fast break.
Jordan caught the ball, abruptly stopped, took another mid-range shot, and scored! The fans were thrilled with the successive shots.
While returning to defense, Jordan told Gan Guoyang, "I’m feeling it now, keep giving me the ball."
"How many are you aiming for tonight? 40?"
"Are you kidding me? Of course, 50 points."