Adrian Wojnarowski visiting my School of the New York Times summer high school program in 2018. Adrian Wojnarowski was honored Friday night with the Curt Gowdy Award for journalistic excellence by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. That's an award I received in 2017, which I mention -- aside from being proud to share that distinction with my friend Woj -- only because that same year the Hall finally got around to honoring the great Chicago Bulls' architect Jerry Krause.
Krause had died months earlier of an insidious bone disease. The very next day, this absolute gem of a column, Hall of Fame worthy all on its own, dropped on the Yahoo pages at that time graced by Wojnarowski before his celebrated move to ESPN.
Krause had died months earlier of an insidious bone disease. The very next day, this absolute gem of a column, Hall of Fame worthy all on its own, dropped on the Yahoo pages at that time graced by Wojnarowski before his celebrated move to ESPN.
Word of Krause's failing health had circulated and Woj had been trying to schedule a visit to his home when Krause was physically up to it. When the day finally arrived, Woj found a story altogether different from the scoops born of a tireless work ethic that made him a phenomenon in the emerging new world of techno-journalism. He found a man clinging to the hope that he would live long enough to take his rightful place in the Hall, humbled by frailty, stripped of the bravado he typically used to shield his insecurities and the pain inflicted by those who callously denied him his due.
Michael Jordan was foremost among them and Phil Jackson, too, shamefully so. Krause took over as Bulls' general manager after Jordan was drafted but without his eye for talent, developed decades earlier as a roving scout, there would have been no Scottie Pippen, no so-called supporting cast to help elevate Jordan to those six titles in eight years. Without Krause, there would have been no Jackson, who was toiling in a basketball bush league, barely earning a living and contemplating law school, when Krause brought him on as an assistant to Doug Collins, and later made him head coach. In circling the Bulls' wagons to create the standard us-versus-them team dynamic, Jackson and Jordan cast Krause outside. Body shamed him for his portly appearance for good measure.
The media generally and predictably sided with the big men on campus. Woj knew better. He knew what Krause deserved. I've been writing advance obituaries for the New York Times these past few years but his column -- in effect a searing obit -- stands taller than any I've ever written or, frankly, read. It is not only Krause portrayed to his inner core but remains a work of writing that reminds us in the time of his own induction that Woj the bomb detonator was also Woj the astute commentator, the artful storyteller, the consummate sports journalist.
Michael Jordan was foremost among them and Phil Jackson, too, shamefully so. Krause took over as Bulls' general manager after Jordan was drafted but without his eye for talent, developed decades earlier as a roving scout, there would have been no Scottie Pippen, no so-called supporting cast to help elevate Jordan to those six titles in eight years. Without Krause, there would have been no Jackson, who was toiling in a basketball bush league, barely earning a living and contemplating law school, when Krause brought him on as an assistant to Doug Collins, and later made him head coach. In circling the Bulls' wagons to create the standard us-versus-them team dynamic, Jackson and Jordan cast Krause outside. Body shamed him for his portly appearance for good measure.
The media generally and predictably sided with the big men on campus. Woj knew better. He knew what Krause deserved. I've been writing advance obituaries for the New York Times these past few years but his column -- in effect a searing obit -- stands taller than any I've ever written or, frankly, read. It is not only Krause portrayed to his inner core but remains a work of writing that reminds us in the time of his own induction that Woj the bomb detonator was also Woj the astute commentator, the artful storyteller, the consummate sports journalist.
