WITHOUT MICHAEL JORDAN, REINSDORF'S RING OF HONOR DOESN’T EXIST
As a way of one-upping “The Last Dance,” Jerry and Michael Reinsdorf started a circle of Chicago esteem — and Jordan and Scottie Pippen didn’t appear, with the G.O.A.T. saying he was “bummed” on video
When a man with a short memory begins a Ring of Honor, how about trying a second option? Sell the team, maybe. Try a re-examination of “The Last Dance.” Wonder again how Michael Jordan quit the Chicago Bulls because management allowed Phil Jackson to leave, preferring to start its own Reinsdorfian dynasty because, after all, players and coaches didn’t win the six championships.
Since those reptilian days, 26 years have passed. The entire world, thanks to ESPN and Netflix, understands there can’t be a Ring of Honor in the Bulls’ shop as long as Jordan and Scottie Pippen refuse to arrive as diamonds. Jordan has done much in his life since leaving, with a net worth of more than $3 billion, placing him among the 400 richest people in the U.S. He knows what’s right in the world.
Never, ever was he more correct than his assessment of the team with Jerrys Reinsdorf and Krause in charge. He knew the Bulls were doomed, as he told me one summer when he was returning with the Washington Wizards, and in those nasty campaigns since, they’ve never been near the NBA Finals that he annually turned into a human treat. They’ve missed the playoffs 14 times, six of the last seven years. They’ve lost in the first round eight times. They’ve lost in the Eastern Conference semifinals three times and lost once in the conference finals.
In the years since Jackson went to Los Angeles, where he won five more titles, the Bulls have hired the following coaches: Tim Floyd, Bill Berry, Bill Cartwright, Pete Myers, Scott Skiles, Jim Boylan with an “a,” Vinny Del Negro, Tom Thibodeau, Fred Hoiberg, Jim Boylen with an “e” and Billy Donovan, who could be gone next. They are losers again in 2024 and pondering trading Zach LaVine and Lonzo Ball, if not Nikola Vucevic and, for all we know, DeMar DeRozan. They’ve completely fallen off the league map. When their jersey does show up, in places such as Europe, you still see Jordan’s name and no one else’s. He left in the summer of 1998, off to sell billions of sneakers and support championship teams and athletes, such as the Michigan Wolverines.
So, when Reinsdorf and son Michael launched a Ring of Honor — shouldn’t this have been done a long time ago? — it was the 87-year-old owner’s not-so-sly way of one-upping “The Last Dance.” Doesn’t he realize that documentary only reaffirmed what some of us were writing in full view at the time? Christ, they could have run my columns for eight years and then some, except ESPN tried to acknowledge — another shaky moment for the network — that I didn’t exist. Before you announce such a circle of esteem, the father and son should have asked Jordan if he would appear for a Chicago event on a January Thursday, then a ceremony at a Friday night game against the Golden State Warriors.
Of course, Jordan said no. He played nice in sending a video message for the festivities, but for a piece of protocol that meant so much to the Reinsdorfs, he wasn’t getting on a plane and bolting Florida. This was his way of saying, Jerry, back in 1997-98, you and Krause f—ed up. Here’s what Jordan said:
“Good evening. I want to thank Jerry Reinsdorf and Michael Reinsdorf for starting the Ring of Honor. I want to congratulate all the other recipients. I am so bummed that I can't be there tonight, but I don't want that to stop the fun that you guys are going to have. And believe me, I am very grateful and very honored. To the fans, you guys have supported me ever since I stepped foot in Chicago. And even today, I see a lot of Chicago fans all over. So I think we made an impression and changed what Chicago represents in terms of champions.
“Every time you look up in the rafters, I want you to always remember, where we were and where we are. And we are always going to be champions. So, thank you, to the fans. Once again, I want to thank Jerry Reinsdorf and Michael Reinsdorf for doing this and congratulate the other recipients. Man, I'm bummed I can't be there but I will always be a Chicago Bulls and I want them to continually do well. I'd like to see other banners in the rafters, and I hope the city can always be proud of the Chicago Bulls. Thank you very much. Have a great evening.”
Twice, he said he was “bummed.” He also reminded that the six-pack “changed what Chicago represents in terms of champions,” considering the city has zero hope in that regard now — and might never win again when the red-and-black court is bracketed in the United Center. As for Pippen, who has had unpleasant times and was dismissed as a Bulls “ambassador,” he also was nowhere. Last I saw him, he was enjoying a farmers’ market in Pacific Palisades, near Los Angeles. The last thing on his mind was creating any closure with Jordan, after ripping him as a “horrible player,” not that it would happen anyway. And Dennis Rodman? Long past his political sessions with Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, the Bulls were hoping he might show up Friday night in tatters.
It left Reinsdorf to respond like an embarrassed buffoon. He told my once-upon-a-time newspaper, the Sun-Times: “I actually don’t know how much effort went into it. Obviously, it would be better if everybody were here, but we knew going in that not everybody could be here. I believe Michael recorded something.”
Oooh. Michael recorded something. Wow.
Ring of Honor.
“I would be excited for everyone to come, but we announced it six weeks ago,” said Michael Reinsdorf, the team’s president and CEO. “People have schedule issues, and so this is just our way of saying thank you to the players and the staff, so that’s what we’re looking forward to.”
Then why announce it six weeks ago? Why not give it a year? At least Jackson made it, with a smile and his 11 rings. Toni Kukoc, Ron Harper and Luc Longley showed up. Krause passed away in 2017. “Every one of these guys that is here played a significant role in this franchise, and it’s good to see people you haven’t seen in a long time,” Jerry Reinsdorf said. “I just wish Jerry Krause was alive and he could be here.”
In a way, you wanted “The Last Dance” director to re-emerge for a special epilogue. But why? This story was over long ago.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.