Carmelo Anthony Says Jerry Krause's Vision for Michael Jordan's Bulls Backfired

After ESPN aired the first two parts of its documentary miniseries on the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls, The Last Dance, on Sunday, much of the public conversation turned to the contentious relationship between general manager Jerry Krause and star players Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen and head coach Phil Jackson. 

While he credited Krause for building that team, Portland Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony spoke about how hubris was ultimately his demise during an appearance on The Encore on the Jumpman's Instagram page:

"What surprised me? The way, if you take everything that Jerry Krause did, that everybody will be talking about from now until the end of time, I think the way that he was able to play chess and put those pieces together. ... But he also had a vision, he knew what he wanted, he knew the type of players he wanted. And I think he went out there, he did that, but it backfired in a way where that gave him so much praise where he was the face. He started becoming the face of the Chicago Bulls, and he wanted that attention, he wanted all of that. It came back and it backfired."

The Last Dance highlighted how Krause told Jackson ahead of the season that the 1997-98 campaign would be his last year on the job, explored trades for Pippen and wanted to begin a rebuild instead of chasing a sixth title. Anthony said he understood how players like Jordan and Pippen would have taken issue with Krause: 

"I think they already were hip to what he was trying to do. And I think when you're dealing with a bunch of alphas like that on one team, and the ultimate alpha being MJ, you got to just stay away. You got to let him handle the basketball part. And they just won five championships, so don't come in here and interfere with a goal that we all are trying to reach, we all are trying to accomplish. So stay over there, do your job, let us handle the basketball part of it, and then at the end, we'll come together and see what's the possibilities on what we can handle."

Anthony has some familiarity with that sort of situation from his time in New York.

Jackson, who was serving as the Knicks' president, famously—and publicly—tried to force Anthony off the team. Anthony, who had a full no-trade clause, resisted. The standoff persisted for months before the Knicks fired Jackson. 

Jackson also soured the organization's relationship with 2015 No. 4 overall pick Kristaps Porzingis, publicly criticizing him and openly discussing the possibility of trading him. 

The prevailing theme of Jackson's executive tenure with the Knicks was that he was out of touch with the modern player and didn't offer much effort in his new gig. The buttons he pushed that worked during his time as the coach of the Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers didn't work from the executive suite in the Big Apple.

From Anthony's perspective, perhaps Jackson made his time with the Knicks more about himself than the players and the team. He did, after all, try to install his favored—and arguably outdated—triangle offense. 

That Anthony might see parallels in Krause isn't surprising. And given that the 1997-98 Bulls won an NBA title, Krause's desire to blow up the roster and move on from Jackson was clearly the wrong instinct. 

Krause may have wanted to build another championship team outside the shadow of legends like Jordan and Jackson to prove he was the driving force behind the dynasty all along. As he famously once said, "Players and coaches don't win championships. Organizations do."

That mindset ultimately backfired, as Anthony noted. The Bulls haven't won a title since 1997-98.