Jerry Reinsdorf

Bulls.com

The Chicago Bulls announced today that John Paxson, who has served in various roles for more than three decades, is moving into a new role as Senior Advisor of Basketball Operations.

JERRY REINSDORF: "John has an invaluable perspective on our organization and where we want to be, and he played an instrumental role in this change by bringing forward the idea of a restructure and reorganization. I have always held his knowledge and basketball insight in the highest regard, and he has earned my respect as well as that of his peers. His decision to take on a new role reflects what I've always known about John – that he is forever a willing teammate on and off of the court and always does what he believes is in the best interest of the Chicago Bulls."

JOHN PAXSON: "When I came here in 1985, I never imagined what the Chicago Bulls would mean to me more than 35 years later. While I'm in a new role and a new phase in my life, what won't ever change is my commitment to the Bulls and appreciation to Jerry and Michael for the incredible opportunities I've been afforded. I've had the rare opportunity to see this team as a player, broadcaster and executive, and at every turn I've been fortunate to experience what makes this organization so special - people who give their best every day and work together as a team, as well as our incredible fans who support us. I've always tried to do what was best for our organization and put our team in position to succeed, and ultimately compete. I know Arturas will do the same. He brings the kind of talent, experience and commitment to collaboration that will allow him to succeed in his new role. I truly believe this is a great opportunity for the Bulls organization and that there are bright days ahead."

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Chicago Bulls statement on John Paxson

Sam Smith

After 22 years with the Chicago Bulls, Gar Forman was relieved of his duties as General Manager and will not be involved in the Basketball Operations Department. The 2011 NBA Executive of the Year led the Bulls to the playoffs in seven of his 10 years as General Manager.

JERRY REINSDORF: "Gar Forman worked tirelessly for the Chicago Bulls organization, first as a scout and then as an executive. He made many significant contributions during his time here and helped to bring some of the brightest young basketball talent to our team, from Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson to Jimmy Butler and Coby White. He has been a trusted advisor and friend to me over the years, and on behalf of everyone I want to thank him for his commitment to the organization. Gar will always be a part of our Bulls family."

GAR FORMAN: "It has been an honor and a privilege to work for the Chicago Bulls for more than two decades. There is no better ownership group in professional sports than the Reinsdorfs, and I want to thank Jerry and Michael for their support during my tenure. The Bulls organization will always hold a special place in my heart."

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Chicago Bulls statement on Gar Forman

The following statement is from Jerry Reinsdorf, the Chicago Bulls Chairman and Alternate NBA Governor, on behalf of the Bulls:

"David Stern was the greatest Commissioner our sport has ever seen. He set the standard for commissioners. The growth of the NBA and its franchises are a direct result of his leadership. He was a brilliant leader and innovator whose vision for the NBA and the game of basketball made it the global sport that it is today. His imprint on the game is immeasurable and will last forever. On behalf of the Chicago Bulls, we extend our deepest sympathies to his wife, Dianne, and his sons, Andrew and Eric."

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Statement from Chicago Bulls on the Passing of David Stern

Jerry Reinsdorf was perhaps most reassured he'd made the right choice in Jerry Krause when Krause was most wrong. No one makes the correct decision all the time; it's the person who surrounds themself with the brightest minds, engages, debates, listens and then makes the best selection is who usually succeeds.

For the Bulls and Jerry Krause it meant one of the premier dynasties in NBA history, six Bulls championships and Friday the enshrinement of Krause in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2017.

A great scout understands physical talent and competitiveness; a great executive appreciates mental acuity, boldness and self confidence. A Hall of Famer is able to combine them.

"His strength really was scouting; not administrative, but from an administrative strength it was surrounding himself with qualified people and then encouraging them to speak their mind and being willing to admit he wasn't right all the time; that is a strength," said Bulls managing partner Jerry Reinsdorf, who hired Krause as his first general manager in 1985. "There was his assistant Karen Stack, the way he utilized Irwin Mandel and the salary cap, the right coaching staff, his knowledge of the rules, his work ethic.

"Every conversation he ever had was written down on a yellow pad and he could go back on it," said Reinsdorf. "There never was a question about who said what to whom. When you talk about Jerry Krause and what made him so good, it was in the scouting area: His imagination, his ability to identify talent, both playing and coaching. He found Doug Collins, he found Phil Jackson."

Though Reinsdorf, who Friday will appear on stage in Springfield as the Hall of Fame presenter for Krause's enshrinement, points to when Krause was about to be very wrong as one of the reasons why he was right so often.

It was the famous 1987 NBA draft that effectively filled in the pieces around Michael Jordan and seriously began the Bulls' road to historic glory. Krause was certain that North Carolina big man, Joe Wolf, was the right complement to the drafting of Scottie Pippen. Though Pippen had moved up quickly that season from unknown and Bulls find to the hottest draft prospect, Krause's maneuvers with trades involving Juwan Oldham and Olden Polynice enabled the Bulls to get the future Hall of Famer and alltime top 50 player.

But Krause also wanted Wolf, an OKP in his view, his shorthand for the right sort of character and competitiveness, Our Kind of People.

"He always was looking for skills, but character was very important to him," said Reinsdorf. "He always wanted to know what guys were doing when they weren't playing. He liked to watch them on the bench, interacting. He did a lot of due diligence in talking to people who knew them.

"That 1987 draft we were going to take Joe Wolf, his kind of player, tough guy, character, but Horace (Grant) started to slip," Reinsdorf recalled. "That whole year had been devoted to getting Pippen. All year Pippen is our guy and then he goes to the predraft camp in (Portsmouth) and then we knew we were in trouble and he had to maneuver to get Pippen. The second pick would be Joe Wolf.

"We're taking Wolf, but the coaches were getting excited," Reinsdorf recalled. "They're saying if Horace gets to us we've got to take him. Krause says no: Wolf. We're now two picks before and the coaches are lobbying for Horace. I say to Jerry, ‘Let's take a walk.' I tell him he has my full confidence and whatever he wants to do, it's his call. He comes back and says he's changed to Horace. He was enough executive to say, ‘People I respect want Grant and I'll trust their judgment.' To me, that's executive strength.

"One important element of a great executive is the strength to hire the best people and then listen to them," Reinsdorf added, "The confidence and courage to admit you don't know everything and that the people you hired know things as well. I always say I want people to do their job better than I can. It's the strongest people who can let others disagree with you, take strong positions and not get upset. Jerry was able to do that."

Reinsdorf admits he had no idea, not only whether Krause could do the job but even who he was. Even after he hired him, Reinsdorf said NBA commissioner David Stern asked why he'd done so. Him? But if Krause didn't look or sound the part—and he never would to many in the public and media—he seemed almost to read Reinsdorf's mind about what success meant in basketball.

Reinsdorf wasn't sure he could explain it, and he knew he couldn't deliver it himself. But he knew it when he saw it. When Reinsdorf was getting involved with the Bulls purchase a few years after putting together a group to acquire the Chicago White Sox, he did speak with former Knick Bill Bradley. That was it: Ball movement, passing, unselfish play, strong defense. OK, built around the league's best scorer. But it still was possible.

"I never thought in terms of a timetable for a championship," Reinsdorf admits. "I just wanted to be good enough to challenge for one. Out of the blue Jerry comes to me because he wants to be the general manager. I basically humored him by talking to him. I thought it was a joke. My first experience with Jerry was with the White Sox at our first organization meeting and this guy wouldn't shut up. I say to (general manager) Roland Hemond, ‘Who is this guy? He just keeps talking.' He tells me he's Jerry Krause. I said, ‘Can't you shut him up?' He says, ‘No, nobody can shut him up.' I said, ‘Why don't you just get rid of him.' He says he's too good. That was my only real experience with him.

"Then we buy the team," Reinsdorf said. "He comes to me and says he wants to be the general manager. I didn't know he'd even been in basketball. He tells me about his background. So I say, ‘OK, what are you going to do?' I knew what I wanted, to rebuild the New York Knicks of the 70s, defense, an offense with player movement and movement of the ball. I never said that. But that's what he laid out to me. He told me he had this guy Tex Winter he was going to bring in. He told me what he was going to do and how. Tex Winter, I guess I'd heard of him. But I'd never heard of the triangle offense, which he explains to me, and a defensive mindset.

"He didn't know who the head coach would be," said Reinsdorf. "His first idea was Stan Albeck, but when we interviewed him he said he wasn't the same Stan. But he didn't have a second choice and we took a chance. How he came up with Doug Collins I don't know. He was broadcasting and recruiting at Arizona State. But you could see progress every year with everything that was going on. I didn't have doubts because of that.

"We started moving players out and got to the playoffs that first year with Michael hurt. "The record wasn't good," Reinsdorf acknowledged, "but you could see we were getting better. What I saw was a plan. He knew Johnny Dawkins is not a point guard. Then Brad Sellers was going to be a seven foot shooting forward; there was logic to what he was doing. We didn't need Dawkins; we had a shooting guard."

That 1986 draft when Krause selected Sellers over Jordan favorite Dawkins only continued what became an ongoing clash. Guess whose side the fans and media took?

"The thing I look for is I like to know the thought process," said Reinsdorf. "His thought process was logical and then we got Doug and we immediately got even better. Hiring Doug was right and we won two rounds in the playoffs and Doug's successful and Jerry says we have to make a change. Now there's going to be real firestorm.

"But another of his great skills was not worrying about what anyone else thought," said Reinsdorf. "He was not afraid to make a move that was unpopular either with his own players or the media if it was best for the team and moving forward. He got here despite the abuse, the criticism, the doubts."

Perhaps in some respects because of it. Krause was also a man of character, competitiveness and intellectual expansion. He knew what he wanted, but he also wasn't afraid to go beyond and learn. The Bulls of the 1990s certainly defined the passion of Michael Jordan. But they also were much the product of Jerry Krause, a second threepeat of championships that included only two of the same players from the first three championships. No team ever has done that. And in such a short time.

"Jerry's not here to enjoy this himself," acknowledged Reinsdorf on heading to Springfield. "But he always said he wanted his grandchildren to have the pleasure of seeing him inducted into the Hall of Fame and they will. He always said how much it would mean for his grandchildren, that they'd know he'd been a factor in the game. He very much wanted to get into the Hall of Fame, but for his grandchildren to remember him as a Hall of Famer."

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Jerry Reinsdorf on “The Sleuth”, Jerry Krause

The year 1949 was a turning point in the life of 13-year-old Jerry Reinsdorf. In the Jewish religion, a boy has his Bar Mitzvah at age 13. It is considered the time honored traditional age of manhood, when by Jewish law being responsible for your actions passes from the parents to the child.

Young Jerry realized there also was an auxiliary element to the cultural event.

“A Bar Mitzvah,” Reinsdorf Friday night offered to an audience at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony, “is the time in his life when a Jewish boy realizes he has a better chance of owning a team than playing for one.”

It became true for Jerry Reinsdorf and worked out as better than anticipated for Reinsdorf in the Springfield Symphony Hall. He joined the likes of Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson, Yao Ming, Sheryl Swoops and Tom Izzo in being inducted in the Hall of Fame Class of 2016. It was an entertaining evening as O’Neal wrapped up the program with a speech that ranged from high comedy to touching family consideration. Iverson offered a unique glimpse into his life with a meandering and emotional journey through his many trials and tribulations and even Yao Ming had some fun joking about Iverson’s famous avoidance of practice.

Reinsdorf was somewhat in the background in the epochal class headed by O’Neal and perennial All-Stars like Iverson and Yao. But it perhaps also was appropriate and symbolic in the professional career and sports ownership of the unpretentious Reinsdorf. He often stayed in the background, out of the public view, allowing his players and managers to reap the acclaim of six NBA championships with the Bulls in the 1990s and a long history of producing award winning players and coaches and playoff teams.

But it also was his low key leadership and appealingly supportive management mixed with good humor and honor that enabled the Bulls over three decades to become one of the most iconic names in sports and a leader in the Chicago philanthropic community.

“Aside from the championships,” Reinsdorf said in his speech, “I am most proud of the Bulls’ many contributions to our community, which is a testament to the awareness of our players and our entire staff that there is an obligation to give back to the city which has supported us during lean years as well as the good years. We recognize that we are only caretakers of the franchise. The real owners are the fans.

“I am also proud that more than 10 former players are still associated with the team,” Reinsdorf said.

“Players alone don’t win championships,” Reinsdorf told the large audience. “It takes an entire organization. Someone has to acquire the players, someone has to coach them, someone has to generate revenue to pay them. But at the end of the day, the players are the ones who put their minds and bodies on the line to win. Not only did we have the greatest player of all time in Michael Jordan, who was drafted by Rod Thorn, but we also had all time greats in Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and players like John Paxson, Toni Kukoc, Bill Cartwright and Horace Grant. They were outstanding players in their own right, but they also understood that their greatest value was in complimenting Michael and other future Hall of Famers. Jerry Krause was brilliant in identifying and signing those players. The only two players of both threepeat teams were Michael and Scottie. Jerry also signed two of the greatest basketball minds, Tex Winter and Johnny Bach, as assistant coaches. I would not be standing here tonight if not for Jerry Krause. John Paxson and Gar Forman have been worthy successors to Jerry.

“Perhaps the most satisfying thing occurred when Michael Jordan became a team owner and said to me,” Reinsdorf continued with a laugh, “’I owe you a lot of apologies. It’s a lot harder to run a team than I thought.”

Reinsdorf devoted much of his efficient 12-minute talk to his personal history, from a Knicks fan in the 1940s going to games for 50 cents to leaving Brooklyn in 1953 for George Washington U. to pursue his goal of being an attorney. He married there and is closing in on 60 years married to Martyl. He moved to Chicago after graduation from Northwestern U. law school and then spent four years working for the IRS. Then it was starting Balcor, a real estate investment company, which was sold to American Express in 1982. He said in 1980 on a hunch he contacted Bill Veeck about purchasing the Chicago White Sox baseball team and headed a group to purchase the team in 1981. In the summer of 1984, he related about a dinner with fellow baseball owner George Steinbrenner, who was a Bulls part owner. They wanted to sell. Reinsdorf put together a group that purchased the Bulls in 1985. Some part owners, like Lester Crown and Lamar Hunt, remained in the new group.

He said Hunt, a veteran team owner and sports league president, had good advice: “Do whatever you think is best and don’t worry about what anybody else thinks.”

“A kid named Michael Jordan had been drafted by the Bulls but hadn’t played yet,” Reinsdorf said about when his group completed the initial purchase agreement in September, 1984. “At the time he was drafted, Bulls management said, ‘He’ll be a fine offensive player. You are not going to build a franchise around him.’ That’s what I thought, too, as did everyone else. By the way, Michael was born in Brooklyn.”

Reinsdorf said he consulted Bill Bradley, who endorsed his notion that defense and team play were essential to success. He told the story of the unexpected and surprise hiring of Krause and the evolution of coaches through Doug Collins to Phil Jackson that kept the Bulls on the right and upward path. Reinsdorf and Collins remain close and Collins was at the Hall of Fame Friday for the enshrinement along with former Bulls players like Kukoc, members of the basketball and front office staff numbering close to 100. Phil Jackson and Scottie Pippen were ceremonial presenters on stage for Reinsdorf.

Reinsdorf also laughed that when he fired Collins, “I was so unpopular that one night I drove up to a Motel 6 and they turned the lights out.”

Reinsdorf also credited Steve Schanwald for the marketing success and business partners and associates like Allan Muchin, Bob Judelson, Howard Pizer, Dennis Gilbert, Andy McKenna, Tony LaRussa and the late Sandy Takiff. Dozens of Reinsdorf’s Family members, friends and current and former Bulls and White Sox staff were in attendance, including Bud Selig, Jim Thome, Kenny Williams, Paxson, Forman, LaRussa, and Dennis FitzSimons.

“No one succeeds in life because of his or her own ability,” Reinsdorf emphasized. “You have to be helped by others. I have been blessed by many without whom I could not have succeeded. There is my wife, Martyl, who worked to put me through law school, put up with my insane work schedule and raised our kids. The rest are too numerous to mention in their entirety. I have been blessed with a bunch of great kids, grandchildren and daughters-in-law. It’s been a great life. I know I am probably in the fourth quarter, but I am hoping for triple overtime.”

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Jerry Reinsdorf enshrined in Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame

Jerry Reinsdorf says, as we all understand, it’s never like the first time. There was little with the ownership of the Bulls that could surpass that first Bulls championship in 1991, the uncertainty, the anticipation, even the relief after the Game 3 win in Los Angeles that the team would at least be able to get back to Chicago to play. We all know the team didn’t need to, sweeping the three games in Los Angeles to win the franchise’s first NBA championship.

But as Reinsdorf reminisced on the eve of his enshrinement as a member of the Class of 2016 of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Reinsdorf recalled some of his favorite moments, events and teams in the three decades of being the managing partner.

It’s an impressive trip down memory lane, fitting with the extraordinary group in which Reinsdorf will be enshrined Friday. It includes Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson, Yao Ming, Tom Izzo, Sheryl Swoops and the late Zelmo Beaty and coach John McLendon. They’ll be accompanied by an equally inspiring cadre of presenters to include Bill Russell, Lenny Wilkens, Isiah Thomas, John Thompson, Larry Brown, Julius Erving, Earl Monroe, Alonzo Mourning, David Stern, Wayne Embry, Sam Jones, Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen and Bill Walton.

“I’m most proud of what we do in the community and how the combination of performance on the court and off has made the Bulls a world wide brand,” said Reinsdorf. “I’m proud of the fact I was able to surround myself with great people who did great things and it resulted in the Bulls being a global brand and winning championships and a factor in the community. I’ve said many times any real skill I have is finding great people and I’m proud of that because those people have done great things.”

As for those special times, Reinsdorf said:

And so a new era begins again next season, perhaps without the excitement or expectations there were in 1995. Because there is no Jordan. But Reinsdorf said he is optimistic about the additions of Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo.

“I thought for sure he (Wade) would go back to Miami,” Reinsdorf admitted. “It’s a tremendous addition not only as a player but the culture. Right off the bat he wanted to know what he could do in the community. He has his own plans and so does Rajon. I think these guys will be a real plus. We also have a pretty young team with the older players who’ll be great mentors for the seven guys with three years or less of service.

“I had high hopes for the last group,” Reinsdorf admitted. “I thought they could contend for titles, maybe win, but certainly contend. It was certainly disappointing, all those injuries to Derrick (Rose). It certainly didn’t work out. It’s not easy to win. Doug Collins told me, ‘It’s not solitaire; other people are trying to beat you.”

Sitting near Reinsdorf Thursday afternoon as the Hall of Famers-to-be spoke with reporters, O’Neal was asked about Reinsdorf, with whom he’s become close in the many Hall of Fame preliminary meet-and-greet sessions.

“I knew he was an excellent businessman, that he was a great owner and leader,” said O’Neal, the featured celebrity in the 2016 enshrinement. “I knew he was a great puzzle (solver); he knew how to put pieces together. I knew he was the type of guy who was not a micromanager. In order to tolerate a guy like Rodman you have to be able to sit back and say, ‘Phil, you do what you do.’ You have to respect a guy like that, smart guy. We had some conversations, honest guy. What I like about business you have to be honest. I’m used to the old school. You want to do this, ‘OK, shake your hand it’s done.’ Nowadays, you’ve got to get attorneys involved, you have to get it notarized. I don’t like that kind of business. Reinsdorf doesn’t seem to be that type of guy.”

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Jerry Reinsdorf on his favorite Bulls moments

Phil Jackson understood he wasn’t everybody’s choice, or really anybody’s, in 1987 when he was hired by the Bulls as an assistant coach, and then in 1989 when managing partner Jerry Reinsdorf agreed he was the right person to succeed Doug Collins and lead the Bulls and Michael Jordan.

It was an ultimate crossroads for the franchise. Jordan was growing frustrated and angry about repeated playoff disappointments, uncertain about teammates and unaware of Jackson. But Phil said Jerry Reinsdorf showed confidence, resolve and support.

“It wasn’t the political or secure choice; it was a risk,” admitted Jackson in an interview this week about his first NBA head job. “But Jerry was about risk/reward. That was a big part of how he approached business and made a great name for himself as an owner. Players who have been in the process with him have appreciated his stance, how he handled the business aspects of this game. He allowed me to coach, allowed people who work for him to do their job. He was maybe not a (league) favorite all the time, kind of an outlier and maverick in that regard. He was one of the owners who had a big part in the development of where this league was going.”

For that and helping turn the Chicago Bulls into one of the elite franchises in pro sports, Reinsdorf Friday will be enshrined as a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Jackson will be a ceremonial stage presenter for Reinsdorf along with former Bulls star Scottie Pippen.

Only members of the Hall of Fame appear on stage with the enshrinee as presenters. They accompany those honored but do not speak.

The Friday enshrinement ceremony from Springfield, Mass. Symphony Hall is the highlight of the three days of events of Hall of Fame week in the home of basketball. It will be televised 6:30 p.m. (Central) on NBA-TV.

Reinsdorf joins one of the most consequential classes in Hall of Fame annals. Featured inductees for the Class of 2016 will include Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson, Yao Ming, referee Darell Garretson, WNBA player Sheryl Swoops, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, former NBA and ABA player all star Zelmo Beaty, NAIA coaching pioneer John McLendon, early 20th Century black star and baseball Hall of Famer Cumberland Posey and Reinsdorf.

It will be an impressive roster of presenters with Lenny Wilkens for Beaty, David Stern for Garretson, Larry Brown, Julius Erving and John Thompson for Iverson, Wayne Embry, Sam Jones and Isiah Thomas for McLendon, Julius Erving, Bill Russell and Alonzo Mourning for O’Neal, Earl Monroe for Posey, Nancy Lieberman for Swoops and Russell, Bill Walton and Dikembe Mutombo for Yao.

The Hall of Famers will be presented with a special sport coat at a Thursday event and press conference.

There will be a dinner Thursday night to introduce the enshrinees and present Hall of Fame awards.

The recipients of the special awards this year with be David Aldridge of TNT and NBA.com for the Gowdy media award for print and Jay Bilas of ESPN for electronic. The Mannie Jackson Human Spirit awards will go to Chris Paul of the Clippers, former NBA player and now ESPN analyst Jalen Rose and U. of Memphis coach Tubby Smith.

Jackson also will be present to salute his former center, O’Neal. Jackson said in many ways O’Neal changed the game in addition to his role with four championship teams, three with Jackson and the Los Angeles Lakers.

“He went ahead and made the jump to another team,” noted Jackson of O’Neal being one of the first big stars to change teams in free agency. “Now we’re seeing it in our league with Kevin Durant, but (then) it was kind of an outlier for players to leave. Shaq was willing to take a risk and leave his original home.

“With that,” Jackson said, “Shaq brought us the kind of transfer the power from the East to the West. There was a real transfer and suddenly the West had a group of teams, Sacramento, San Antonio, Houston, Utah, L.A., that really transferred this whole direction of where the power was in the league (which in the 80s and 90s was in the Eastern Conference). He changed the direction of how a big man (acted). He’s the first guy who you really saw the outward joy this guy played basketball with.  We always had these sulking centers, (Bill) Russell and Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. All of them seemed to have a chip on their shoulder, the Goliath attitude Chamberlain talked about, that no one roots for Goliath in a fight with David. Shaq was guy who played with joy and humor and enjoyed the levity he could bring to the game.

“The dunk, too,” added Jackson. “For Shaq it was a moment of joy, a gymnastic move, tearing down rims. He wasn’t the first one, but continued multiple times that (reflected) his size and speed and quickness.”

Jackson also said in his way as an owner Reinsdorf set standards and was crucial to the success of the team and its coaches, especially the way he entrusted and supported them.

“Coming in from baseball, I think he felt, ‘I’ll let the experts deal with this,’” said Jackson. “He had an idea what sports business was like and the group that was behind him had confidence in him. He had the means to do this and did some things that we regard as forward thinking. He was the first to admit, ‘I do know something about baseball, but basketball, I want to defer to the people who know this game.’ In that regard he was able to give solid reasoning and judgment that was non biased, which was fortunate for us and the team. He also made the contributions, like Dr. Jerry Buss and Bill Davidson (other owners in the Hall of Fame) who brought changes to the game.”

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Phil Jackson on Jerry Reinsdorf

chiljimenez

Written by Sam Smith of Bulls.com. Reprinted with permission from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

It began for Jerry Reinsdorf with a casual, if fortuitous, dinner with George Steinbrenner. George had been complaining, as usual, about a lot of things, his third place baseball team, his manager, his right fielder, his manager, the Chicago Bulls.

Reinsdorf, who by now was sort of one of the Junior Lords of Baseball as managing partner of the Chicago White Sox, perked up a bit. That was his city, his adopted basketball team, one he’d shared season tickets to watch for the last decade or so. The Bulls hadn’t been very good despite arguably the wealthiest ownership group in American team sports, barons of business like Steinbrenner, Arthur Wirtz, Lester Crown and Lamar Hunt. The owners had so many other interests that coordination was difficult, and Steinbrenner was not good with not only losing games, but losing money.

“George wanted out; he was complaining about losing money, constant cash calls,” Reinsdorf recalled. “I said, ‘Your partners don’t know what they are doing. I’d love to run the Bulls.’ That’s all I said.”

Reinsdorf, some two years into his baseball reverie, was concerned he could lose his fantasy foothold into sports. The Sox group was bleeding losses more off the field. There was a baseball strike, the ballpark was dilapidated and in disrepair. They'd were low on working capital. Perhaps earn some money by fixing a poorly run Bulls front office and balance sheet. But something got lost in the translation.

A week later, Crown, whose family owned General Dynamics and was another Forbes 400er, contacted Reinsdorf. He said George told him Jerry wanted to buy the Bulls. Lester wanted to stay in. So did Hunt, the sports impresario who founded the AFL among other sporting ventures, and Jon Kovler from Jim Beam. Sensing a synergy with the White Sox and an opportunity, Reinsdorf led a group that took over a Chicago Bulls franchise that since its founding in 1966 had never been past the conference finals, had qualified for the playoffs just once since 1977 and had losing seasons in seven of the previous nine years.

Reinsdorf’s purchase came with a talented shooting guard named Michael Jordan. But Jordan that season was not only the No. 3 pick in the NBA draft, but he was labeled by the team a fine offensive player but not necessarily one around whom to build a franchise. It also took a village, a cooperative and a kibbutz.

That effort produced one of the great sports franchises on the American landscape that not only produced six NBA champions, multiple Hall of Famers and unrivaled thrills, but practically removed the municipal epithet from Chicago as a second class, second city. It made a city and its fans puff out their chests with pride, and they never forgot.

“It's hard to overstate what Jerry Reinsdorf has brought to Chicago and basketball,” said President Barack Obama. “For hometown fans like me, privileged to experience six Bulls championships, the memories are indelible. Night after night, we reveled in Michael's unbreakable will; the long-armed, strangulating defense of Pippen and, later, Rodman; the sly, cerebral leadership of Coach Jackson. Jerry Reinsdorf made that possible. Taking over a struggling franchise in the early '80s, he put into place the pieces for one of the greatest runs in NBA history.

“Yet Jerry has always been content to stay far in the background, ceding the spotlight to the magnificent performers on the floor, the coaches and management,” President Obama continued. “He has done the same on the South Side, where his White Sox brought Chicago its first World Series championship in nearly a century. Few in sports can claim such a legacy. For his achievements, his character and commitment to excellence, Jerry Reinsdorf deserves to be enshrined with the other heroes of the game.”

That comes with Enshrinement Friday at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame when Jerry Reinsdorf joins the Class of 2016.

Reinsdorf will join an impressive Class of 2016 that includes NBA players Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson and Yao Ming, NBA and ABA player Zelmo Beaty, referee Darell Garretson, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, Tennessee State black pioneer coach John McLendon, WNBA player Sheryl Swoops and early 20th Century player Cumberland Posey.

"The Class of 2016 is big in stature, personality and impact," said Jerry Colangelo, Chairman of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Board. "These ten inductees have each contributed to the game in their own meaningful way and we are very pleased to honor them in Springfield."

For Reinsdorf, it’s the pinnacle of a brilliant career in business and sports for a man as unpretentious as his teams have been splendid and memorable. Not only have Reinsdorf’s Bulls organization and teams won six championships in fast breaking to a 1990s basketball dynasty, but they gave first chance jobs to neophyte coaches who became winners, like Phil Jackson, Doug Collins and Tom Thibodeau; became the first NBA team to crack the 70-win barrier; became models of excellence with runs of 14 straight playoffs when Reinsdorf’s group took control. The Bulls have produced league MVPs in Jordan and Derrick Rose, all-league defensive teams led by Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, Executive of the Year winners like Jerry Krause and Gar Forman, citizenships and sportsmanship winners like Luol Deng, Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah, Hall of Fame coaches like Jackson and Tex Winter and admirers like Michael Jordan.

Plus, the Bulls under Reinsdorf have been First Citizens of Chicago with millions of dollars of charitable support through Chicago Bulls Charities to organizations like theLurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, the James Jordan Boys &amp; Girls Club, Salvation and Ronald McDonald House. The Bulls also helped establish Chicago Bulls College Prep School. It’s first graduating class in June 2013 had all 165 seniors graduated and accepted to four-year colleges.

“The game and the business of basketball have changed so much during the 30-plus years Jerry has owned the Bulls, and he’s led that change and changed along with them,” said Jordan, who now owns the Charlotte Hornets. “He built a winning culture at the Bulls, and helped bring the league into the modern era.

“It’s not easy to build world championship teams, let alone in two sports,” noted Jordan, who also had a stint playing in the baseball minor leagues for the White Sox. “He’s made a huge impact on the city of Chicago and done so much for so many charities. He sets an example of how teams can be good corporate citizens. Jerry is a very smart businessman and I watched him closely when I played for him. I learned that as an owner, you have to be patient, which is not easy when you’re competitive, demand excellence from your staff and let them do their jobs and develop a winning culture throughout your organization. As a fellow owner, I still watch what he does and I respect his opinion. I know he’s there if I need advice.”

Jerry Reinsdorf’s story is as unlikely as it is encouraging, a Horatio Alger journey. A kid growing up in a Brooklyn apartment building scratching around and working odd jobs. Find the 50 cents to get into a Knicks game or $1.25 to attend a Brooklyn Dodgers game, ride the subway there and usually end up walking home because he didn't have a nickel left. A man who not only went on to a rewarding career in business and astonishing life in sports, but whose path illuminated a handbook for life.

“I think about where I came from; who could even have dreamt this?” asks Reinsdorf. “But success is a combination of a lot of things. It’s working hard, being honest, surrounding yourself with the right people, being lucky, getting help from people. It’s the thing I’ve always agreed with President Obama about: If you’re successful, you didn’t do it yourself. You had to have had help. My whole life I’ve had help and luck.

“Just coming to Chicago,” Reinsdorf notes. “I got mad at George Washington (University) because they reneged on a job offer. That wasn’t a rational decision to pick up and come to Chicago. Then when I got out of law school, the IRS would not let me go back to New York because the rules were you couldn’t work in your home state. So I stayed in Chicago. Then there was the American League turning down Edward DeBartolo Sr. (who had the first offer to buy the White Sox), then the dinner with Steinbrenner.

“People say you make your own luck; I don’t think that’s the case, but maybe you contribute to your luck by recognizing it and taking advantage of it,” Reinsdorf says. “I’ve always believed certain things: You treat everybody nicely because more than anything it’s the right thing to do. And then you also never know when someone will be in position to help you or hurt you. I know I’ve gotten help from a lot of people who said good things about me because I treated them well.

“Be nice to people who are down. Do the best you can at what you doing,” says Reinsdorf. “Don’t tell people you’re smart; let them find out on their own. Always keep your word.

“I’ve always had this realization my success did not come from my brilliance,” Reinsdorf adds. “What if you work hard and don’t get the breaks? I know people as smart as I am, probably smarter, who work just as hard, but they didn’t get the breaks. You can’t believe your own bull. And when you get your shot, take it.”

Putting it that way, Basketball Hall of Famer Jerry West would understand.

“Jerry Reinsdorf is one of the most intriguing owners of all,” West said. “Rarely do you see or hear much out of him. People who are understated and have success, I’ve always been very fond of people like that because it points to who they really are.

“Let’s forget just basketball,” says West, now a Golden State advisor and among the most respected executives in NBA history. “Look at his contribution to the sports enthusiast in Chicago. He’s had a vision and obviously he’s been at the right place at the right time, but he’s done so successfully. The Bulls had great success obviously with Michael, but I can’t say if I even saw him around with all the celebrations. It points out to me what kind of a person he really is, so pleasant, so easy to be around; there’s something about him you just like. He can laugh at himself, which I think is a great thing.

“Anyone who runs franchises and makes those big decisions has to be tough minded and know what they want,” West said. “He’s made controversial and tough decisions. But to me that’s a trait of a good owner, someone not afraid to make controversial decisions and move on. Everyone looks to the days when he had Jordan. He hired Jerry Krause, who did a great job bringing in talent and they needed a coach to organize and they bring in Phil Jackson. That wasn’t easy, but everyone did their job and it’s a tribute to Jerry Reinsdorf that he was able to get through a lot of the minefields that are out there when you have a good team. It’s much more difficult when you have good teams for the general public to understand. His steadiness of ownership, his direction, has allowed him to be viewed as a unique owner and for his teams to succeed.”

Reinsdorf’s story begins in his beloved Brooklyn, his family getting by as his father Max took jobs as a mechanic, driving a taxi and ice cream truck and repairing old machines. When a serious illness struck his dad, Jerry’s mother Marion went to work as a receptionist to support the family with three children. Jerry had jobs making hot dogs at Nedick’s fast food stands (before it was called fast food) and in the stock room at Esquire magazine. His goal was to be successful. At something. Meanwhile, he played baseball and basketball in the playgrounds, where neither playing for or owning a sports team was even a dream.

“If you’re from Brooklyn, everything outside of Brooklyn is Tokyo,” laughs Larry King, the Brooklyn native and longtime CNN host. “Jerry has never forgotten his roots. So he is loyal to a core and it shows in his ownership the way he treats everyone who works there in the office, the usher in the ballpark or best player on the team; everybody is the same to Jerry. His loyalty is unbounded and he is extremely fair. He’s become the senior owner in two sports. When has that ever has been done? And bringing championships to both.

“You can call Jerry in the middle of the night with a problem and he’d be there,” says King. “I find him a remarkable person, a genuine friend, a great sports owner for his city and deep in his heart he still loves the Brooklyn Dodgers. When Edward Bennett Williams owned the Orioles, he would tell me the smartest owner in the league is Jerry Reinsdorf, the best at negotiating, the fairest and most honest. You don’t get that all the time in sports ownership, a handshake is a deal.”

With an aversion to blood (no first choice of Jewish mothers to be a doctor) and an affinity for tax law, Reinsdorf went to George Washington U. Reinsdorf married, had an exemplary undergraduate career and earned a scholarship to pursue a law degree. He was about to start when the school informed him he would have to give up his job at the school to retain the scholarship. Double dipping. Forget it was hard work. He needed the job as well to live. It was unfair, Jerry protested, to change the rules a week before class started. Choosing ideals over expediency, Jerry decided to forgo the scholarship. It was wrong.

His wife Martyl's family in Chicago heard about the issue. His mother-in-law, by chance, contacted a dean at Northwestern and they were able to provide a scholarship.

“I always felt if something bad happens, it can be your best opportunity,” says Reinsdorf. “The times I was most depressed turned out to be the best things.”

Reinsdorf wanted to work for the IRS and try cases. But then there was a rule that field offices only handled cases. So he wasn’t able to return to Washington and stayed in Chicago. Still, it was day to day as family helped with groceries and one day he was down to a net worth of $3. Jerry liked to joke his goal growing up was to own a car because it was difficult for the family to afford one, And eventually one without having to make payments.

“I was always really impressed with several qualities of his, a very caring human being about the people who work for him,” said baseball Hall of Famer Tony LaRussa, who managed the White Sox for Reinsdorf. “He takes good care of people, pays attention personally and professionally. He was always ready to take an innovative look at how the team was performing, whether conditioning or preparation or something you might be trying that was unique. He was not afraid to say we were wrong, so let’s try something different. I always thought that impressive because being innovative with good sense you can get an edge.

“He really studied the games,” said LaRussa. “It’s one thing I always enjoyed about being around him and to this day he always wants to learn more about the game. He acquired a lot of basketball knowledge with the Bulls and he brings a lot of sports expertise to his ownership. He lets his people do the job, as good as anyone I’ve been around that way. He has opinions on what offense you run and what you are doing and always wants to learn. The thing he did early on with me with the White Sox was always ask a lot of questions. Not that second guessing and criticizing, but he wanted to learn all the nuances and ins and outs of the game. I eventually realized it was his thirst for knowledge rather than him wanting to criticize the work you are doing. I know he was the most unique owner in the detail information about how the game is played or how you would evaluate a player.”

Even after graduation while working for the IRS, Reinsdorf worked weekends doing the books at a plastic bag factory. But working in tax, he eventually got an idea about setting up personal corporations for doctors. Congressional efforts to disallow the procedure had been disallowed. Reinsdorf went to lobby in Washington. A medical journal wrote about it and suddenly physicians from throughout the country were calling Reinsdorf.

Then they began to say they had money to invest and what should they do with that?

With a friend, Allan Muchin, with whom he by now was in private law practice, he met a real estate syndicator, Bob Judelson. The friendship developed into a real estate partnership. They formed Balcor, which the group eventually sold to American Express for more than $100 million. While that was going on, Reinsdorf answered an ad in the Wall Street Journal to join a group trying to buy a baseball team. Efforts with three teams failed when it suddenly occurred to Reinsdorf—he said, after all, he was no genius—why not be the principal investor?

“There was no satellite, cable TV,” recalls Reinsdorf. “I thought, ‘Why be a minority investor with a team I can’t even watch?’ It dawned on me Bill Veeck was always buying and selling teams. I got a meeting with Veeck and he said he was selling, but he was talking to someone else.”

And, what do you know, Reinsdorf was a real estate syndicator, too. He put together deals to buy buildings. Why not a baseball team? The American League rejected DeBartolo for alleged associations, and the Reinsdorf group was next. They got in for about $20 million. On the field things were great with the 1983 White Sox racing to a division title. Reinsdorf and partner Eddie Einhorn were, "The Sunshine Boys." But there was the ball park to fix and baseball labor problems and then that dinner with Steinbrenner came along. Jerry was at the point where this amazing childhood not-even-fantasy was caught off base and leaning the wrong way. So maybe get a boost by running the Bulls? Steinbrenner apparently misheard that part in his rush to get out of the Bulls.

“I can speak mostly about baseball,” says former baseball commissioner Bud Selig. “I want to say this: He was one of those owners who understood baseball’s best interests transcended his and everyone else’s. And that is a rarity. Whether you would agree with Jerry or not, the fact of the matter is he always had the best interests of the sport at heart. His loyalty to baseball, and in basketball as well, was never in question. Never doubt his wisdom on a subject or where his true feelings are. He is guided by the best interests in the sport.”

Jerry won’t brag about any athletic feats. He jokes how Phil Jackson always used to tell him that the reason he was always asking why the players couldn’t make free throws was because that’s all the little Jewish kids could do. “If I could do it,” Reinsdorf says with a laugh, “why can’t a professional athlete?”

Like Jackson, though, Reinsdorf also was a Red Holzman disciple, a Knicks and Carl Braun fan who believed in defense and ball and player movement on offense. “I wasn’t very good, but I remembered the give and go in the school yard,” Reinsdorf says. “We’d play three baskets and if you lost, you go to the back of the line. I had two friends and we played that way and won a lot against better kids. Then Holzman opened my eyes to defense. When we got the Bulls, everyone said these players were too good, scoring was high and you can’t defend.

“I had met Bill Bradley; he was in the Senate,” recalls Reinsdorf. “I went to see him after I made the deal to buy the team. I said, ‘Everyone tells me defense is a thing of past, that you can’t defend these guys, you have to build great offensive games.’ He said that was not the case. He said these players today are better than we were, but the trick to winning was to take them out of their comfort zone, make a guy shoot from two feet farther out or keep a guy from getting lower in the post. That was how to win. That that convinced me I was right, but I didn’t know what to do.

“That’s when I get call from Jerry Krause,” Reinsdorf related. “He was a scout for the White Sox and a pain in the butt. My first exposure to him was the 1981 White Sox organizational meetings and he won’t shut up. I ask Roland (Hemond, general manager) who the guy is who won’t stop talking and he says he never shuts up. I say get rid of him and Roland says, 'He’s too good.'

“So we make the deal and Krause calls me and says he wants to be general manager,” Reinsdorf says. “I ask him what he knows about basketball and he goes into his history (scout for the Bullets, Lakers, Bulls general manager in the 1970s). He tells me you have to start with defense and he has this offensive genius, Tex Winter.”

And so began a rocky, if rewarding, climb up the steep mountain of NBA success.

“He brought Donnie (Drysdale) and Hawk (Harrelson) in as White Sox announcers,” recalls Hall of Famer Ann Meyers Drysdale, now WNBA Phoenix Mercury vice president and a Suns broadcaster. “I saw the turnaround of the Bulls. They had Michael there, but you have to put the pieces together and judge talent. It’s never easy with change, but Jerry came and made the changes necessary. I saw he had that love for the city and the people and the sport and is someone who gives back. He’s an owner who has been as important to the NBA as a Jerry Buss or Jerry Colangelo.”

There was inheriting Jordan, acquiring John Paxson for $50,000, Krause finding Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant in the 1987 draft, trading for Bill Cartwright and topping it off with the old hippie, Jackson, whom Krause tried to hire a few years previous when Stan Albeck was coach. Jackson showing up in an odd Caribbean beach outfit then was sent on his way only to begin his run of 11 titles replacing Doug Collins in 1989.

“Jerry Reindorf brought a sense of management to NBA basketball,” said Jackson, now president of the New York Knicks. “He was an owner who allowed the professionals to do the work without a great deal of meddling. He kept his space with the players and basketball staff, which lent a sense of professionalism and confidence to the organization. Jerry was definitely the one guy who could manage a group of investors and allow them to enjoy the fruits of theirinvestment and the joys of being part of a winning organization. Basketball had languished in Chicago after the ’75 Bulls began to retire. For about ten years the focus was on baseball and football in the city. He brought about a sense of ownership and pride in their Bulls teams to the city of Chicago.”

And then in 1991, after seven years of he and Jordan and so many others being thwarted, and decades for Chicago basketball fans, the Bulls broke through on the floor of the fabulous Forum. It was that first NBA championship that led to three straight, a break for Jordan, and then three more to establish the Bulls among the few very elite franchises in American team sports history.

“There was a long night of celebrating after the win in L.A.,” Reinsdorf recalls. “As it happens, the baseball owners’ meeting was the next day. I walked in all bleary eyed after maybe three hours’ sleep and they gave me a standing ovation.

“Some people have long term plans,” says Reinsdorf. “Put it this way: If I ever tried to have a long term plan, I wouldn’t have imagined where I'd have gotten.”

All the way to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

jerry-reinsdorfs-road-to-the-naismith-memorial-basketball-hall-of-fame

Jerry Reinsdorf's road to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

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