How the actual hell did Jerry Reinsdorf make it to the Hall of Fame?
By Josh Hill
Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf has made it into the Basketball Hall of Fame on the coattails of Michael Jordan.
The Basketball Hall of Fame class was announced on Monday morning, and it includes one of the weakest classes we’ve seen. Outside of Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson and Sheryl Swoopes, it’s a dumpster fire class.
Perhaps the most aggressive selection to the Basketball Hall of Fame is Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
Let’s run down the list of accomplishments that Reinsdorf has to his name:
- Inheriting Michael Jordan
- He hired Jerry Krause
- Winning six titles basically by default
Reinsdorf is getting into the Hall of Fame pretty much for hiring the right person and happening to own the team that Michael Jordan played for. Let’s not take the hiring of Krause lightly though, as it was truly an amazing hire by Reinsdorf. Without Krause, there’s a decent chance that the Bulls dynasty isn’t constructed the same way it was – which means it might not have hummed along the way it did.
If there’s a Jerry from the 90s Bulls dynasty that deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, it’s Krause over Reinsdorf all day.
Reinsdorf doesn’t even like basketball or the Bulls that much. The man has proven time and time again that he prefers owning the Chicago White Sox to owning the Bulls and prioritizes those two franchises as such.
There’s a pretty good chance that Reinsdorf agrees that he shouldn’t be in the basketball Hall of Fame, and that’s not because he’s being humble about it.
If this is the standard being set for a Hall of Fame NBA owner from the last 25 years, then how is Micky Arison not in the Hall of Fame? Where Reinsdorf inherited a team that had the best player on the planet on it, while Arison built up an expansion franchise to be a pretty notable presence for most of their existence. Reinsdorf is a self-made man and a tremendous businessman, but those aren’t qualifications that get you into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
To be fair, Jerry didn’t know what he was buying when he purchased the Bulls, but it’s almost like someone saying ‘Go buy this Google thing, it’s going to be huge.’ The man made an investment and it paid off big — not the first time this has happened in the business world. He owned the Bulls and got out of the way just enough to not screw up the greatest dynasty in the last 30 years of professional sports — but is that Hall of Fame worthy?
You can put Reinsdorf in the Hall of Fame, but he going in before Krause seems a little wrong. Then again, this is the Basketball Hall of Fame so the joke is really on whoever cares enough about it to get worked up over its tenants.