Up until now, it was all talk.
Jerry Reinsdorf talked about Red Holzman and character.
Jerry Krause talked about philosophies.
Everybody talked about a new beginning, but nobody knew where to start.
Then, it happened. This was the week that was, a time that will go down in Bulls` history as one of the most significant in the franchise. Krause and new coach Stan Albeck did as much rambling and gambling in 48 hours as a couple of guys named Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte in the movie of the same name.
Thus began Step 1 in Operation Facelift. The Bulls initiated a return to the ballclub`s golden days, when Jerry Sloan and Norm Van Lier terrorized the Stadium hardcourt with their blood-and-guts style of play.
Last Monday, the Bulls brought in Albeck from New Jersey to oversee this sporting renaissance. Tuesday, they traded Steve Johnson and Ennis Whatley, exchanged first- and second-round choices in the NBA`s college draft, acquired Gene Banks from San Antonio and drafted five collegians with a shot at making the club.
Never in the history of this franchise has so much happened in so little time.
”If I`m right, Tuesday`s a day that will live in history,” Krause said. ”If I`m wrong, it will be a day that lives in infamy.”
It began back in February when Reinsdorf, the enterprising real estate entrepreneur and White Sox chairman of the board, decided he wanted to bring his South Side success to the West Side. He had pumped in money and went first-class in baseball, bringing in players like Carlton Fisk and Greg Luzinski. In three years, he savored a runaway division championship.
He used the same formula for success to the extent that he named Krause vice president of operations. Many around the NBA snickered at the selection of the Sox baseball scout as general manager. They remembered Krause as the laughable, roly-poly Falstaff character whose clothes were always full of wrinkles and food stains during his short-lived reign as Bulls` player personnel director in 1976.
Yet, with the selection of Albeck, one of the top coaches in the league, and all the wheeling and dealing on draft day, Krause began to silence some of the laughter. Rival general managers began to realize, if nothing else, Jerry Krause was going to outwork his contemporaries. While most GMs were sound asleep dreaming of the draft-choice-to-be, Krause was on the phones until 3 a.m.
At the top of his worksheet and along the sides, Krause had three words scribbled over and over: Make Things Happen. It could serve as his personal motto as he strives to make the Bulls a happening kind of a team.
So it has come to pass: Reinsdorf begat Krause who begat Albeck and all together, they brought Charles Oakley to Chicago.
The Bulls` No. 1 acquisition is symbolic of this new regime and its thinking. Oakley is 6 feet 9 1/2 inches and 243 pounds of pure muscle. He is reported to have less than 9 percent body fat on an intimidating frame that tapers down to a 32-inch waist.
Most important is his attitude. Charles Oakley will dive or hurl his body out of bounds in pursuit of a loose ball and will collect rebounds and floor burns with equal ferocity. He is a Jerry Sloan of a different era, of a different position, but of the same heart.
”We want to resurrect the days of Sloan and Van Lier,” Krause said.
”This is a big, physical city, the City of Broad Shoulders, the city that works. We`ve got some big, strong physical workers now who are going to represent the city well.
”You`ve got to be willing to pay the price with your body in this league. The Bulls in the last few years haven`t been physical. Charles Oakley, Sidney Green, David Greenwood–now we`ve got three power forwards to go to war.”
If Krause has his way, his Bulls will be not only bigger and meaner but faster as well. Albeck was brought in to devise an attack that opens up the court for Michael Jordan, who may be the game`s best one-on-one player.
The NBA Rookie of the Year last season never enjoyed the freedom of an open court because he was back taking a pounding as he led the team in rebounds. Krause envisions Jordan out on the wing, in the style of Earvin
”Magic” Johnson or Isiah Thomas, waiting for Oakley to outlet the ball. Then, Jordan can wreak havoc.
Opponents last season had difficulty containing Jordan in a half-court situation with two and sometimes three defenders. What will they do against Jordan in a wide-open court?
”I talked to Michael about a week before the draft,” Krause said. ”I asked him, `Michael, what does this team need more than anything else?` He told me: `Jerry, we really need a horse. We need that great rebounder.`
”And, I`ll tell you what. Lots of teams got away with banging and shoving and taking shots at Jordan. It ain`t gonna happen this year. Know why? Because we got at least three bodyguards in this draft. Charles Oakley is big and mean. Mike Smrek (7-1, 255) is a guy you want on your side in a fight. And Calvin Duncan is only 6-3, but pound for pound, he might be the toughest of the three.”
There will be more to the Bulls than simply bigger biceps. The ballclub will soon be hiring its first strength coach and moving to a new practice facility with the latest in weight training equipment.
”Management and ownership are telling the fans of Chicago they are not going to sit on their hands and see this franchise do anything but make an upward swing,” Albeck said. ”You have to be enthused with the way things are going. I can`t ever remember any other team making changes this drastically.
”There will be at least five or six players different from last season. Jerry`s got two free-agent point guards and a power forward from the Continental League coming to camp just for a look. All the ingredients are here for a winner.”
There was a little incident last Tuesday that indicates how Krause operates, and it bodes well for the upcoming Oakley negotiations. Krause made a promise to Ben Coleman and his agent, Bill Pollak, that he would attempt to move him. He kept his word when he traded Coleman to Portland along with second-round pick Ken Johnson for Smrek.
”I want to publicly thank him,” said Pollak, who also represents Oakley. ”He did something not a lot of GMs would have done. He kept his word and gave a young man a new look on life.”
Drafted by the Bulls in the second round last year, Coleman excelled at camp according to Pollak, but wasn`t offered a contract because Chicago was saddled with too many other players with guaranteed contracts. Coleman played in Italy last season and could have suffered a similar fate this year with the power forward-laden Bulls.
”I worked for two, three weeks to keep my word,” Krause said. ”At the time, I didn`t know Pollak would be Oakley`s agent. I didn`t do it to set up negotiations with Oakley. I did it because Bill Pollak is a classy guy and Ben Coleman was in a tough situation here.”
Nonetheless, Krause already has a head start over other general managers in signing his first-round choice.
