Former Bulls GM Krause dies at 77

Jerry Krause, the Chicago Bulls’ general manager during their 1990s dynasty that saw them capture six NBA championships with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen leading the way, has died. He was 77.

A Chicago native, Krause spent 18 seasons leading the Bulls’ front office and was a two-time NBA executive of the year. He helped put together a run that ranks among the most successful in history and made the franchise a worldwide brand.

Krause, who always called himself a scout at heart, retired last spring from major league baseball’s Diamondbacks. That capped a fivedecade-plus run as a sports executive that began when he took a $65-per-week job as an office assistant for the Chicago Cubs in 1961.

A finalist for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in the contributor category, Krause gained his greatest notoriety for engineering most of the moves to surround Jordan during the Bulls’ dynasty.

He hired Phil Jackson from the Continental Basketball Association as an assistant to Doug Collins and fired Collins in favor of Jackson following a run to the Eastern Conference finals in 1989.

Player acquisitions included Toni Kucoc, Horace Grant, Steve Kerry, John Paxon and Dennis Rodman.