Jerry Krause: Michael Jordan ‘never came to me and asked for other players’

Former Chicago Bulls general manager Jerry Krause sees at least one key difference between Michael Jordan and the superstars of today’s NBA.

In a recent appearance on The Vertical Podcast with Adrian Wojnarowski, Krause claimed that Jordan never asked him to acquire another player.

“But I will say one thing for Michael Jordan … He never came to me and asked for other players,” Krause said. “He never came to me and asked me to draft a player. Never came to me and asked to trade for a player. Never once did that happen. Part of it was he thought he was so darn good he could win without ’em … He understood what we had to do as an organization.”

Of course, Jordan played in an era immensely different from the modern era of super teams and super salary caps. Free agency back then wasn’t nearly the behemoth that it is today, and it was difficult to fit multiple big contracts on one roster. Jordan was also notorious for his distrust of Krause and often went straight to Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf for personnel suggestions.

The timing of Krause’s comments is no coincidence in light of LeBron James recently blasting his front office for a lack of roster additions. But they should probably be taken with a grain of salt when you consider the proper context.