Columnist Dean Juipe: Krause errs in ravaging aging Bulls

EVERY DYNASTY in the history of professional sports had its antagonists who loathed the team's many successes.

Whether it was the New York Yankees in the 1920s and then again in the 1950s, or the Dallas Cowboys in the 1970s, or the Boston Celtics in the 1960s, or the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s, or the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, each was loved by its own fans while being despised by others.

As those teams piled championships (or at least championship opportunities) upon championships, the fans who were tiring of the repetition craved the dissolution of the team.

They consoled themselves by checking the calendar, knowing every athlete's days are numbered. They realized time would inevitably take its toll.

Others, perhaps, prayed for divine intervention, as if a series of injuries or train wrecks would short-circuit a team seemingly on a perpetual winning streak.

Not once, however, did a fan fed up with the Yankees, the Cowboys, the Celtics, the Lakers or the Bulls envision a scenario in which the team's management would intentionally gut the franchise and leave it all but moribund. Anyone caught contemplating such a thought would be guilty of wishful thinking and dismissed as a dreamer.

Until today. Until Jerry Krause flicked the lead domino and sent the Bulls into a potentially irreversible tailspin.

It may take Krause on his deathbed to admit it, but this was sabotage. His team -- a six-time world champion -- was aging and had free-agency temptations, yet it could have been held together with a little ingenuity, passion and adhesive tape.

Say goodbye to the Bulls and their championship reign, unless, of course, Michael Jordan does a 180 and agrees to continue playing in spite of the fact Krause slapped him in the face Thursday when he introduced Tim Floyd as the Bulls' coach-in-waiting. While Jordan may have adjusted to a George Karl as Phil Jackson's replacement next season, he adamantly opposed the hiring of a college coach with no NBA experience.

If Jordan sticks to his guns, he quits. That, in turn, prompts free agent Scottie Pippen to bolt for somewhere like Phoenix. And that, in turn, provokes Dennis Rodman into taking his act to the West Coast.

Krause knew the implications of hiring Floyd yet was undeterred. He may see himself as daring or bold for having the nerve to hire an unproven coach to take over a team that may have only Toni Kukoc returning from its just-concluded heyday.

Others see him as crazy, a pompous and quick-triggered oaf who self-righteously feels he can rebuild the Bulls through free-agent fixes like Jayson Williams of the New Jersey Nets.

Sure, the Bulls were going to hit the wall someday and, at best, probably only had another top-notch season in them. And, likewise, the team was going to have to be reconstructed sooner or later and to do it with Jordan, Pippen and Rodman gone leaves Chicago with plenty of room under the salary cap.

But Krause violated the sanctity of an intact dynasty by antagonizing the star players and disregarding their desires.

His ignoble place in history is now secure.

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