Michael Jordan Viciously Made Fun Of Jerry Krause While Smoking Cigar After Bulls Won ’92 Title: ‘You Can’t Smoke It, It’ll Stunt Your Growth’

If we learned two things from ESPN’s “The Last Dance” docuseries, it’s that Chicago Bulls icon and NBA legend Michael Jordan loved smoking cigars and hated general manager Jerry Krause. 

Jordan always seemed to be smoking a cigar in his downtime and making fun of Krause.

Both of Jordan’s “hobbies” were on display in 1992 after the Bulls beat the Portland Trail Blazers in the ’92 NBA Finals.

Jordan smoked a cigar in the postgame locker room and Krause asked his superstar if he could have one. Jordan approached Krause and said, “You can’t smoke it. It’ll stunt your growth.” This hilarious interaction was shown in Episode 5 of “The Last Dance.”

Krause was short in stature and got teased by Jordan and Scottie Pippen, who weren’t fond of their general manager for several reasons.

Jordan’s relationship with Krause began to sour in 1985-86 when the shooting guard broke his foot. Krause and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf put a minutes restriction on Jordan after he recovered from his injury and wouldn’t let him go back into a game against the Indiana Pacers near the end of the season on the final possession since he had exceeded his time limit.

Meanwhile, Pippen had problems with Krause because the GM tried to trade him behind his back numerous times and never restructured his contract. During the 1997-98 season, Pippen yelled at Krause several times in front of the team on the bus.

Jordan and Pippen teamed up to embarrass Krause in the summer of 1992 by attacking Toni Kukoc in the Olympics. The Bulls superstars knew Krause loved Kukoc and wanted to make Chicago’s architect look bad by exposing Kukoc in front of the world.

Jordan did the same thing to Phoenix Suns forward Dan Majerle in the 1993 NBA Finals. Jordan knew his GM was a big fan of Majerle and made it a point to destroy the Suns star.

The main reason Jordan and Pippen disliked Krause, though, is that he prematurely ended the Bulls’ dynasty. 

Krause told reporters that the 1997-98 season would be Phil Jackson‘s last year in Chicago. The controversial exec informed Jackson in private that he would hire a new coach after the campaign even if the Bulls went 82-0 and won the championship.

Jordan and Pippen were outraged since they loved playing for Jackson. They knew they would likely be off the team after the season since their loyalty was to Jackson.

That’s how “The Last Dance” theme was created. During the Bulls’ first official meeting as a team for the 1997-98 season, Jackson handed every player a handbook with “The Last Dance” laminated on the front page.

Krause was a massive distraction for the Bulls in 1997-98 since he was planning for the future. However, Jordan, Pippen and Jackson stayed in the moment and led the Bulls to 62 wins and the championship over the Utah Jazz in the ’98 NBA Finals. 

In the summer of 1998, Jordan and Jackson retired and Krause traded Pippen to the Houston Rockets.

When he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009, Jordan said he had no idea why Krause was invited. The six-time Finals MVP never got over how the two-time Executive of the Year acted during the ’90s.